I recently returned from the annual Conference of the International Legal Technology Association or, as it is usually referred to, ILTA. Over 4000 registrants from 32 countries. Over 200 exhibitors. Almost 350 speakers. To say this is a really big show would be an understatement. It’s certainly one of the biggest if not the biggest legal tech conference. I have written about some particular observations from this year here and here.
So what did I learn about legal tech and the state of the “ecosystem”? Here are my top ten things:
1. Yes, there were the typical multiple product announcements from vendors. Most of these took one of two forms. The vendors labeled a marginal improvement to an existing product as some sort of revolutionary development. Or, they announced something that was not yet available but would be someday (as in tomorrow never comes). Sometimes vendors would do both: promise something they heralded as really significant when it was a tweak and that was going to only come along down the road.
2. ILTA attendees who are not vendors are a pretty savvy bunch. I’m starting to detect a bit of cynicism among some of them about Gen AI, what it will do and what fundamentals change it will bring about in the future. Everyone says it’s a great tool that can do a lot, but a lot of folks are now thinking that improvements and new use cases may not be come as rapid as is are being claimed. Given my first observation above, it’s not surprising.
3. While I spent most of my time with vendors and didn’t attend many sessions, there appeared to be a lot of Gen AI and AI related sessions (Duh. What did we all talk about at legal tech conferences pre Gen AI?) It’s, of course, not terribly surprising that much of the content was centered on Gen AI. But I think ILTA made a good effort at balancing the Gen AI and non-Gen AI content. And as I have previously written, ILTA offered up some content that raised some good questions about Gen AI and its future. That content (in particularly the Hannah Fry Keynote) may have made a few vendors cringe although I suspect they didn’t really notice in their promotional frenzy.
I have to give shout out to ILTA’s Dawn Hudgins and Joy Heath Rush.
4. I have to give shout out to ILTA’s Dawn Hudgins and Joy Heath Rush. Both worked hard to make us media folks feel welcome and to supply us with the tools we needed to do our jobs. The quality of reporting coming out of the Conference reflects that.
5. A group of us media people banded together to do vendor meetings. Instead of one on one meetings with vendors, several of us would meeting with a vendor at the same time. This strategy helped us get better information (Surprise, surprise: no one of us can always think of everything that needs to be asked). It also saved the vendors time and energy (what’s the point of having to give the same spiel five and maybe even ten times?)
6. Did somebody say parties? There were ILTA parties, vendor parties, and lots of networking opportunities. It’s the last point that was most important to me. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy the parties, but the chance to rub elbows with so many smart and energetic people in one place is what keeps me going.
7. Despite the networking opportunities, there were some people I wanted to see but just didn’t get the chance. For that, I am sorry. I relearned that if you want to meet up with somebody at a big show like this, you better plan in advance. With over 4000 attendees, leaving it to change isn’t always going to work.
8. As I previously have written, one trend I noticed was the marriage of resources between the legal research vendors (such as Lexis Nexis, Thompson Reuters and vLex)and the document management services vendors (iManage, NetDocuments, for example). I think this is significant. It allows customers to run Gen AI tools on public information and data in a vendor’s system and also on their own internal data. This ability makes the tools much more user-specific and tailored to the customer’s needs.
9. The Opryland Gaylord. It’s a nice hotel and convention center, but boy, it’s hard to get around. Figuring out how to get from where you are to where you want to go in the maze can be challenging. I’ve been to lots of conferences in Las Vegas that have the same challenge. The difference is in Vegas, there is always one constant: to get where you want to go, you always have to go through a casino. Not true with the Opryland Gaylord which is composed of several connected pods that all look more or less the same.
10. It seems like the energy at this show was the highest I have seen since before the pandemic. And it wasn’t just the “it’s so good to be back” energy. People were enjoying a great show with good content and networking opportunities for what it was, not for what we had missed. In fact, I don’t even recall hearing any references at all to Covid comments. (Let’s hope I don’t hear of many post show Covid infections). The energy was palpable and genuine.
So that, as they say, this my top 10 wrap. I had a great time. ILTA, lets do it again next year.