It’s a new day at 8am. That’s true generally, but in this case, we’re talking about tech provider we used to call AffiniPay. Fresh off its name change, the company hosted its inaugural user conference last week in Austin, Texas. While everything is usually bigger in Texas — the wide-open skies, the slabs of slow-cooked brisket, the scale of the failed education system — 8am’s Kaleidoscope conference clocked in on the cozier side. But that’s the nature of first-time shows. There will always be a slice of the prospective audience who sits it out, keeping their powder dry until they hear back that it’s really worth it.
It was worth it.
One would be hard-pressed to point to anything that betrayed a rookie conference. A convenient venue, excellent food, superb panels, and an exhibitor layout that maximized visibility without feeling like running a gauntlet. In a subtle stroke of genius, the programming broke from the customary cookie-cutter schedule and embraced breakout sessions of varying lengths. Some subjects just don’t merit an hour, but that doesn’t make them less important. Kaleidoscope had a “content-first” approach to panel selection and built a schedule to accommodate that. From ethical approaches to texting clients to using AI to automate small firm legal marketing, the panels covered a wide range of practical topics.
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Even the one mistake that anyone could point out — a recurring typo on some of the signage — morphed into 8am’s opportunity to hand out more swag. They couldn’t even make a mistake without turning it around.
Olympian Gabby Thomas headlined the second day of the show. Celebrity speakers tend to lean into tortured metaphors to connect their careers back to the legal industry. Instead, Thomas saw an opportunity to talk about her own profession and… ran with it? Which, paradoxically, made it far more relevant to the job of lawyering than any square-peg-round-hole analogies. Describing the life of an elite track star, she stressed that the average spectator watching at home doesn’t understand that everyone in those high-profile races are all nearly identical in ability. Success on that stage, Thomas explained, comes down to small adjustments for fractional gains. And a heavy dose of perspective that you can’t control the competition, but you can control your own process.
That’s… pretty good advice for running a legal practice. And especially important to lawyers willing to keep an open-minded approach to legal technology. Securing that fractional improvement — either in the substantive practice of law or in taking some of the administrative tasks off your plate — is largely a function of tech adoption.
Figuring out which tech is the challenge. Thomas provided some insights there too, explaining that she breaks down races into micro-moments, visualizing everything from the walk up to where exactly she wants to be positioned on the blocks to where she wants to be at the finish line. Legal tech is moving at a breakneck pace, and if Biglaw firms with dedicated tech professionals struggle to stay on top of it, how can solo practitioners fit it into the already overloaded schedule?
One solid strategy — which I outlined on one of the panels I sat on at the show — is to stop trying to find the one-size AI solution and begin researching products that target specific use cases. To borrow from the visualization discussion: map out the day. Take some time to consciously consider the steps in all those workflows. Now, where do you see opportunities to automate that, in a way that you find professionally comfortable? Thomas also talked about the next-level analytics she gets about every running movement, but stressed that while she considers it all, she won’t accept changes that she’s not comfortable with. The tasks you’re ready to turn over to technology might not be where everyone else is… and that’s fine. But figure it out.
Silicon Valley may run on groupthink — and these days, that groupthink is mostly very weird — but legal technology doesn’t have to. There’s plenty of room to disagree, especially given how quickly the landscape is evolving. I joined several other legal tech writers in a live version of our weekly webcast and/or podcast on the main stage and we had several actual arguments about the future of the billable hour and whether or not “agentic AI” is an empty buzzword (it is).
And, of course, there was plenty of talk about the 8am product too (which Stephen Embry covered in more depth here). And partner demos. And all the stuff a user would expect of a conference. A user show is a delicate balance between sales, in-person customer service, actionable general knowledge, and entertainment. 8am — and, more to the point, the various companies who now all live under the 8am banner — have been in this business a long time. But with Kaleidoscope, the company signaled that it’s ready to move into a new vector of client engagement. Beyond just providing a quality suite of products, the company wants to move into becoming a staple appointment on their clients’ calendar.
I mean, if the conference was good enough for John Steinbeck, it should be good enough to bring out even more users next year.
Joe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter or Bluesky if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.