LegalWeek in one of the preeminent legal tech shows. For years it primarily was directed to the ediscovery community; while there is still a heavy emphasis on ediscovery, the Show has branched out signigificaly in recent years. Put on by the legal media Goglith, ALM, it occupies 4 full days of programming, mammoth exhibit halls and, of course, numerous vendor parties.
As it began to wind down on cold Thursday afternoon, I took a break and sat down in the Plaza Hotel lobby bar to reflect. The Plaza of course is a grand dame of New York hotels featured in movies as diverse as North by Northwest and Home Alone 2. It’s a great place to sit, reflect, people watch, have a glass of wine and write.
So what are my thoughts about this years Show?
1. The number of exhibitors was markedly down. That’s no surprise since space is expensive and the perceived ROI is not all that great anymore. Bob Ambrogi recently raised this issue and wondered about the future of big legal tech (and other conferences). My take is that reduced interest in exhibit space is a trend we will continue to see. And there will likely be fewer live presentations as shows go for name over live: bigger name speakers will be more likely to present if they can do it via livestream and the difference to the audience is not that great. (I mean, in many presentations we watch the presenter on a screen anyway. He or she just happens to be in the same room somewhere). Does this mean the end of big conferences? No. Big conferences are really just an excuse to network and there was a hell of a lot of networking going on this year at LegalWeek as always. Exhibit