Day 3 of LegalTech: Seems like a different show
LegalTech is typically about the quick demo. You have five minutes to razzle, and maybe another minute to dazzle. Back in the suite you might add 30 percent to these times, but the concept is the same: limited time for maximum impact to a broad audience. To some degree, this held true this year as well, but Day 3 was different.
I was wrong yesterday when I hypothesized a larger-than-usual attendance for the final day. The weather seemed to drive people out earlier than expected instead of stranding the crowd at the show. As a result, the brave souls who remained took their time through the booths of the exhibit hall. Current and former clients wanted to go in-depth as to what’s new. They wanted to hear the vision story and not just the vision pitch. New prospects wanted a more complete discussion of value propositions and comparisons to other products and services in the hall. There was even collaboration between vendors and service providers to properly answer questions and present solutions (almost unheard of in most years).
This was the stuff of ILTA more than LegalTech. The longer format played beautifully with our holistic vision. We had a bit more time to put any single solution into a broader context, explaining a single tool in the context of the toolkit.
Lest we think LegalTech was entirely “wonderland” (upside-down)… the last 45 minutes brought the typical swag-scavengers. At least there’s comfort in some consistency.
Another great show.
Day 3 down. A little more time will be necessary to de-compress and evaluate LegalTech 2011, but higher attendance numbers with motivated/knowledgeable intent appear to bode well for the coming year.
Guest post by Jeff Friedman, director, Marketing – Westlaw CaseLogistix