Hats off to ILTA 2011
The International Legal Technology Association (ILTA) conference continues to amaze and inspire me. Last week’s meeting in Nashville proved to be the best of the five ILTA conferences that I’ve attended.
ILTA is a peer networking organization for legal technology professionals. Members include IT managers and directors, database administrators, practice automation specialists, training professionals, network administrators, CIOs, CTOs, and a wide range of other legal technology experts. These individuals assemble annually to share their experiences, insights and innovations through roughly 200 top-quality educational sessions over four days each August.
ILTA coordinates member connections among both functional and regional groupings. Functional groups are called “peer groups,” offering networking and information sharing among individuals interested in Knowledge Management, Desktop and Application Services, Risk and Records Management, User Support Services, and eight other practical member alignments. Regional groupings organize around geographic centers – promoting professional networking across peer groups within most major cities in the United States, and expanding aggressively around the globe. The annual conference supports the peer and regional group connections, encouraging members to network and share both within and beyond these circles of interest.
Serving as the “Practice of Law” liaison with ILTA for Thomson Reuters, I had the privilege and pleasure to participate, on a relatively limited scale, in the preparation and programming for this conference. Working closely with one of the many outstanding ILTA volunteers, Julia Forbes (manager of Training and Application Services for Boston-based Brown Rudnick, LLP) and I defined and proposed ten session concepts. These proposals were reviewed by an ILTA committee, and three of our ten sessions were selected for this year’s annual conference.
I was struck by the thorough and purposeful process of shaping these sessions. ILTA is extremely selective as it evaluates session proposals. They scrutinize the form and substance of each session, considering the needs and benefits for their members, ultimately distinguishing the most appropriate topics, and then positioning them for relevant ILTA peer groups.
Throughout the process of preparation and presentation of these sessions, I was amazed by the commitment, focus and efficiency that Julia Forbes and the other ILTA volunteers demonstrated. Their determination and devotion produce the quality programming that is essential to this conference. I applaud their efforts, along with the stellar leadership that drives this remarkable organization and this outstanding conference.
