LitSuppGuru at Legal Tech 2013

Once you land in the world of litigation support, you will have the opportunity to attend industry conferences. The “big one” of the year is LegalTech New York. It is more prominent because it is the conference where all of the service providers announce their new features, or next version or a new application/service. Service providers will time their development efforts to hopefully make announcements at LegalTech NY.

The LegalTech NY conference is always at the end of January and it is 3 days long. Most of the attendees that are staying multiple days will arrive the night before. Some attendees only attend one day. There are presentations/sessions and panel discussions throughout the day, with breaks built in to attend the exhibitor hall where all of the service providers set up booths and stand ready to show anyone who drops by more about their offerings. The exhibitor hall is very large and 3 floors.

The sessions are the meat of the conference and there is a cost associated with them. The exhibitor hall is free.

On the first morning of the conference, everyone is scrambling to get to the registration kiosks to get their badge/lanyard, their complimentary bag, a copy of the conference program/schedule/floor plans, and various marketing materials. The badge has your name, your company and a bar code that can be scanned when you enter a specific session. They use the bar code scanning to count the attendees per session.

I arrived in New York City around 5:30pm EST today. The conference starts tomorrow morning. I checked in to the New York Hilton where the conference takes place and then I met some friends for dinner. One of the reasons I really enjoy this conference in particular is that everyone from all over the world attends. I am able to chat in person with colleagues and friends that work in other cities. I may send e-mails or have phone calls with them during the year, but seeing them in person is always a treat.

My first hug this year went to John Randall. John used to work in DC. We met when I hired him as a contractor for my team. He then moved to Chicago and now, he informed me this evening, he just moved to San Antonio. I look forward to catching up with him at some point in the next few days.

I will be attending the conference Tuesday and Wednesday. Unfortunately, I can't stay the last day. I will be sharing my experiences via Twitter and via other blog posts. If you use Twitter you can search for the hashtag #LTNY to follow some of the happenings.