ILTA 2008

The annual ILTA conference in Grapevine, Texas reaches its midpoint this morning, and what a splendid event it's been!  I've watered for years at all the springs where the rare inbred species Lex Geekus congregates, but this is my first convention of the International Legal Technology Association.  It certainly won't be my last. 

The Gaylord Hotel is a star of the show.  As a longtime Texan, I'm no stranger to big spaces, big bucks and big hair, but this place blows me away.  It's Disney Does Dallas, with domed atria so large they have their own weather.  Though the mercury hovers near 100 outside, you're tempted to run up for a sweater before hiking the trails, arroyo and rivers that make this place feel like the bottled city of Kandor (extra credit if you get that reference).  Another plus is that, positioned midway between those squabbling siblings, Dallas and Fort Worth, each downtown is just sufficiently removed from the Gaylord to keep most attendees on the resort property in the evenings. 

ILTA 2008 raises the bar for technical sophistication and practicality.  Notwithstanding the many receptions and social events, this is a hardcore get-together of personnel at the highest levels of IT and litigation support at many of the world's largest law firms and corporate legal departments.  Some of them hold the purse strings to sizable hardware and software budgets, and it's not hard to tell that the vendor community knows it. 

Vendors spend a lot to be here--reportedly, more than at either ABA TechShow or New York LegalTech--and some Platinum sponsors accustomed to occupying acres of trade floor space at other shows confided their frustration at not getting more for their money.  Apparently, ILTA enforces pretty stringent limitations on booth space and vendor presence, fostering in we wanderers a naive sense of a level playing field in the legal technology marketplace.  The 800-pound gorillas stake out only marginally more booth space and muster just a few more warm bodies than the start-ups--and, boy, does it chap their nether regions!  Here as elsewhere, money talks; but it doesn't drown out other voices.  Bravo to head honcho Peggy Wechsler and others who run ILTA's well-oiled machine for having the fortitude and temerity to say, "Sorry, we have our rules."

While deal making, chotchke grabbing and snacking roil the trade floor, other venues fairly hum with multiple tracks offering focused and rarified discussions of legal technology.  Elsewhere, ballrooms are partitioned into dozens of cells dedicated to product demos--some plushly appointed with sofas, chafing dishes and espresso makers and others monastic in their Spartan accoutrement.  The allocation of space may be egalitarian, but the savvy marketers plying their trade really know how to glue on the sequins to their clients' advantage.

Notable by their absence are the legions of lawyers seen at other conferences.  United by a common enemy, camaraderie among attendees is high and derision of attorneys as pompous, preening Luddites a common-if-unassailable theme.  But the many swipes come without rancor, the most withering prefaced with, "No disrespect to lawyers but...."

Despite the scale and sophistication of the event--with ten or more educational tracks proceeding simultaneously--this is clearly a grass roots organization.  ILTA largely builds its content from within its membership, so the topics are optimally geared to the day-to-day needs and concerns of the attendees.  Though sometimes ill at ease with public speaking, all presenters I observed were earnest and well-prepared.  Comments from audience members routinely pepper--and occassionally dominate--the presentations.  Still, I emerge convinced that, while there's not a lot here for practicing lawyers, ILTA is peerless: undoubtedly the world's finest educational event for legal technologists.

Comments

[Jonathan Maas]

A very accurate description, Craig, that accurately mirrors my experience of the annual ILTA conference (of which I have regrettably only attended two, and was not able to get to this one). The camaraderie and shared knowledge are key.

For rubbing shoulders with my international peers, ILTA is defintitely tops. However, for really getting to understand vendors, their products and their services, LegalTech NY is tops I think. And preferably "off Broadway", away from the exhibition floors for any serious talks.

[Mark V Reichenbach]

Nice read Craig. Nice read Jonathan.

I'm an old hand re: ILTA - going back to their LawNet days and my time on the litigation steering committee. Now I'm just one of those vendors! The shows seem to get bigger and better and this years speaker pool was quite stellar.

While I've noticed every vendor in the world issues their "Ground Breaking" press releases, are they really accurate?