The International Legal Technology Association, or ILTA as it is commonly referred to, is no stranger to holding giant technology conferences. Each August, it puts on an annual four-day show that draws over 3400 attendees and some 150 exhibitors and sponsors. This summer’s Show will be in Nashville from August 11-15. The Show offers a wide range of content for every legal tech issue as well as a widely diverse group of sponsors and exhibitors.
A Focus on GenAI and Cybersecurity
As a result, I was a little surprised when I heard ILTA planned a separate conference that would focus on two issues and two issues only: GenAI and cybersecurity. The conference, labeled “Evolve” was held April 29-May 1 in Charlotte North Carolina.
As might appear obvious, the content was centered around these two issues, and the exhibitors and participating exhibitors and sponsors all offered products and services related to these subjects.
The result was an intimate and focused conference with some 330 attendees and some 27 sponsors.
I recently talked with Dawn Hudgins, ILTA’s Senior Vice President Service Delivery about the Conference and why ILTA was interested in doing it. Hudgins told me ILTA believed coming “out of COVID, we realized that there could be topics in our future that demand front-stage attention. And so finding a place to talk about those two things was important.” Hudgins and ILTA recognized that given the rapid evolution (“evolve”, get it?) with these two subjects, it was important to offer timely and focused attention.
I was not sure how this kind of smaller conference would go over and almost didn’t attend. But I’m glad I did. The pace was slower and seemed far less frantic than at larger conferences. Networking discussion seemed more substantive and less