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Newsletter SignupFor the third year running, we at Legal Talk Network have all packed up our bags and flown from around the country to Chicago for ABA TECHSHOW. In addition to recording our regular series of On The Road episodes from the conference, we dipped our toes into the world of video with TECHSHOW Today, touched base with many of our podcast hosts and regular guests, and got some time to bond internally. We made friends, met some fantastic new people, and brought back at least a few stories.
We each answered a few fun questions to recap our experience at the conference. Here’s a peak behind the curtain at the Legal Talk Network staff.
Who were you most excited to meet at TECHSHOW?
It’s not possible to narrow this down to one person, I saw so many of our friends and met lots of incredible new people in person that I’ve seen on social media or spoken to on the phone. It was also great to spend some time with the existing and new LTN hosts, partners, and sponsors.
What is your favorite anecdote from the conference?
There were so many! I had some very funny conversations with Rian, George, and Steven from Clio at dinner on Wednesday night. I also tried to convince Walt, Allison, and Monica from Answer1 that you are supposed to dip Margherita pizza into your Margarita.
What’s your favorite new thing you learned about legal technology?
Rather than a specific technology, I was excited to learn that the legal technology landscape is continuing to mature / add value to the legal field and law firms are recognizing there is potentially a fork in the road and will need to decide which road to take. I use the analogy of Blockbuster vs Netflix.
What hashtag sums up your experience at TECHSHOW 2018?
#FunWithLegalTechFriends
Who were you most excited to meet at TECHSHOW?
I was most excited to meet two groups of people at ABA TECHSHOW. The first was the panel from our first Twitter Rant episode ever. This episode came together from a legal Twitter rant that went on for multiple days. We invited the ranters and rantees to be part of this production. The topics discussed were the validity of legal licensing and A2J. I would like to do more episodes like this where guests share raw, gritty, and honest answers to direct questions. Among the guests… Patrick Palace, Billie Tarascio, Catherine Sanders Reach, Janet Welch, Johsua Lenon, Chas Rampenthal, Dan Lear, Mary Juetten, and Chad Burton. The second group I was excited to meet was Clio. It was their 10 year anniversary and we have a deep connection with them. Clio has been both a friend and long-time sponsor of the network. They remind me of our team in terms of culture and creating an environment where self-motivated people can drive big dreams into reality. It was great catching up with them and learning more about their future developments.
What is your favorite anecdote from the conference?
My favorite anecdote from ABA TECHSHOW was watching Dennis Kennedy squirm when I asked him if he only read Linkedin “for the articles” during our interview together.
What’s your favorite new thing you learned about legal technology?
Favorite thing learned at ABA TECHSHOW was new stuff about Linkedin. It continues to be a relevant and powerful way to connect with other professionals. I am going to deploy some new techniques during the course of this year and see where it takes me.
What hashtag sums up your experience at TECHSHOW 2018?
#InnovateLikeIt’s2019butPartyLikeIt’s1999
Who were you most excited to meet at TECHSHOW?
The bartenders at the Clio party slinging Old Fashioneds like they were water.
What is your favorite anecdote from the conference?
I recorded my first ever TECHSHOW Today episode with hosts Dennis Kennedy and Adriana Linares. Blockchain is actually a pretty difficult to understand in the legal industry so it was cool to explain the subject with David Fisher, who started the Global Blockchain Consortium.
What’s your favorite new thing you learned about legal technology?
I really enjoyed learning about the tools in the Startup Pavilion – companies like Lawyaw. I also had some great conversations about some of the data and analytics tools available for legal.
What hashtag sums up your experience at TECHSHOW 2018?
#ABATechShowisSpringBreakforLegalNerds
Who were you most excited to meet at TECHSHOW?
It always great to see all of the usual crew, but I was excited to get to meet one our newest hosts, Jason Tashea, IRL. He’s a nice guy and does a great job on our shows.
What is your favorite anecdote from the conference?
I had a blast walking around the tech show floor with Jared Correia recording impromptu interviews for his show, Legal Toolkit. It was fun, funny, and we had some meaningful interactions with some fans of the network!
What’s your favorite new thing you learned about legal technology?
Not so much legal technology, but at some point technology is going to fail you, and you need to learn how to adapt and figure out a way to get the job done.
What hashtag sums up your experience at TECHSHOW 2018?
#CanISleepYet
Who were you most excited to meet at TECHSHOW?
In addition to some of the intimate connections I made, Ernie the Attorney was my favorite new person I met. I’ve heard him as a guest on our network, so I knew how smart he was, but I didn’t realize how cool he was. I guess I shouldn’t expect less from a New Orleans native!
What is your favorite anecdote from the conference?
Trent and I went looking for food and ended up walking through the underground tunnels attached to the hotels in the area. After walking a weird amount of time and feeling very lost and a little weirded out, we ran into a totally awesome food court area. I got lost twice trying to find it again the next day.
What’s your favorite new thing you learned about legal technology?
I talked with some really cool vendors. Podium makes it easy to collect and manage reviews for local businesses, which is super interesting for me, since I’m in the field of Local SEO. I also learned about a legal drafting assistant called Lawyaw and a bunch of new shortcuts to use with TextExpander.
What hashtag sums up your experience at TECHSHOW 2018?
#SoBusyILookedImportant
Who were you most excited to meet at TECHSHOW?
Jim Calloway. Sam and I went pretty fangirl over him. We listen to our hosts on so many podcasts that they feel like friends after a while. It was nice to talk with Jim IRL.
What is your favorite anecdote from the conference?
Nicole Bradick and Adriana Linares had a fake drinking contest during the women’s TECHSHOW Today episode and then 3/4 through Nicole told the audience they were pretending that there was liquid in the #mugs the whole time.
What’s your favorite new thing you learned about legal technology?
I recorded a UBH with Greg Harmon of LawClerk, a company that hires out freelance lawyers. I’m not sure if that counts as tech, but it seemed like a cool future for solos and small firms.
What hashtag sums up your experience at TECHSHOW 2018?
#MeetingTheFacesBehindTheVoices
Who were you most excited to meet at TECHSHOW?
The person I was most excited to meet was Bob Ambrogi. Jim Calloway was a close second.
What is your favorite anecdote from the conference?
We all were using Portrait mode on our iPhones to take pictures, but none more so than Kelsey, who couldn’t stop talking about it. It was pretty funny.
What’s your favorite new thing you learned about legal technology?
I liked hearing about the support group that exists for women in the legal technology field. It was great to learn that such a community exists and is thriving.
What hashtag sums up your experience at TECHSHOW 2018?
#StillRecovering
In addition to partying and meeting podcasts hosts and vendors, we also recorded an entire series of On The Road episodes. If you missed the show, check out our episodes recorded on the Expo Hall floor:
Backup and Disaster Recovery: DIY or Buy?
Getting Women Into Legal Tech Leadership Roles
What’s a Digital Marketing Strategy and how do I get one?
The New Word of Mouth: Lawyer Ratings and Reviews
Lawyer Dodge: Understanding Self-Help Legal Technologies
Creating Your Own Legal Tech Startup
Excel for Lawyers: Practical Legal Applications
Lawyers and Leads: How to Effectively Develop Business
Affordable Technology for Small Firm Productivity
Cyber Insurance: Necessary, Expensive, and Confusing as Heck
The Law Practice Division at ABA TECHSHOW
On-Demand Staffing for Solo and Small Firms
Bringing the Access to Justice Twitter Rant Offline
And here are our TECHSHOW Today videos, recorded on site and (mostly) live!
Kelsey heads up Legal Talk Network's marketing team. She blogs, tweets, Facebooks, connects with people on LinkedIn, publishes tons of podcasts and listens to even more.