In my last two posts, I blogged about my experience at this year's ABA Techshow and some of the sessions I attended. This final Techshow 2010 post is a more overall view of this year's conference's pros and cons.
The cons
As often happens at Techshow, the wireless connection was a bit spotty. I always wonder whether that's because most of Techshow is held in the basement of the Chicago Hilton. Whatever the cause, it made live tweeting or blogging some of the sessions difficult. I recently (within the last several months) broke down and got myself a Blackberry, so I did some limited tweeting from the Blackberry, but it just isn't the same (and it certainly isn't as fast).
The wireless problem also made things difficult for some of the presenters who were planning to use live internet demonstrations, which meant that some of the sessions missed out on some great information.
Techshow always has clever names for its educational sessions. While they are catchy and clever, they aren't always descriptive. Although the program guide contains complete descriptions of each session along with the names of the presenters, most of the time I'm either just looking at the grid in the center of the program or the board by the "conference concierge" to decide where to go next. Neither of them include the presenter name (which can make or break a session), and those catchy but not descriptive names don't help people like me who want to see everything at a glance and go. I'd vote for descriptive names over catchy ones.
Following up on the previous 'con,' sometimes the program description (not to mention the title) didn't accurately reflect what the session actually covered. This can be frustrating, to say the least (particularly when you realize that you need to run out of the expo hall or your conversation has run longer than expected - or you've been trying your hand at flying cows at the Rocket Matter booth - and you're already late for the next session).
This year, it seemed that there was some sort of overbooking or meeting room problem with the hotel and some of the sessions were moved. Others were held in rooms that were far too small for the number of participants who wanted to attend. The session on Sharepoint was one such session - several of us were literally sitting in the hallway and had difficulty hearing and seeing the presentation.
I didn't attend as many of the educational sessions this year as I usually do, and some of the presentations I did attend (although some not in full) were not as rich as I usually find the Techshow presentations to be. But perhaps that's because, after so many years of attending Techshow, I'm already familiar with a lot of the information being imparted and I'm much more current on technology.
I know that there were a large number of first time attendees and tech newbies who attended and I heard many attendees raving about the program. I also know that it's impossible to please everyone all of the time, and that some of the sessions had to be geared toward less technical users;others are for more advanced users and may have been more technical than some participants would have liked - that's just the nature of the beast.
The pros
I know it seemed like there were a lot of 'cons,' but if you look at the list, they're really relatively minor, and mostly logistical, rather than content-based 'cons.' I love Techshow and am planning to return next year if at all possible. Also, my main purpose in attending Techshow this year was to connect with old friends and colleagues, meet new people, and meet some of my 'virtual' friends in the real world. I often pick up more from speaking with people outside of the educational sessions and forge more connections through the social time at Techshow than I do during the more formal and organized parts of the conference.
Some of these connections were forged on the exhibit hall floor from speaking with vendors at the show, and some just from hanging out in the hallways or at the 'conference concierge.' (Tip: the concierge desk is a good place to hang out, since eventually, almost all of the 'movers and shakers' stop by at some point -- and it's also where you can view the big board of tweets about the conference).
In addition to the actual events sponsored or organized by the Techshow folks themselves, there are related social events, such as "Beer for Bloggers," generously hosted by Kevin O'Keefe of LexBlog and the happy hour hosted this year by the Lexis/Nexis crowd (with awesome give-aways). The only drawback to these events is that Techshow packs in so much that if you're doing these events after the last session and trying to make Taste of Techshow dinners, you won't be able to attend for very long.
Taste of Techshow dinners are always another highlight of the conference. The Techshow crew arranges reservations at a number of restaurants, 'hosted' by some of the Techshow board and speakers and organized around a topic related to the hosts' areas of expertise or presentation topic. Everyone pays for their own dinner, but these dinners are always an opportunity to connect with others and to meet new people. Sometimes, there's even a discussion of the topic - but not always (which is sometimes a good thing). In years past, Taste of Techshow was done only one night, but this year it was expanded to both nights - a good thing, especially for those who have other plans one night or the other.
If you want to learn more about Techshow and get some other perspectives, check out these links:
Rocket Matter:Rocket Matter at ABA Techshow Part 1 and
Rocket Matter ABA Techshow Part 2 : Interviews, Flying Cows,& Fun w/Schwag
Nicole Black: Summary of ABA Techshow
Legal Typist (Andrea Cannavina): TechShow Update -The wrap up
Inside Legal's ABA Techshow 2010 recap
David Bilinksy's Techshow 2010 Thoughts on Thoughtful Legal Management
Jim Calloway's ABA Techshow 2010 Wrap Up
The Mac Lawyer (Ben Stevens) Reflections on ABA Techshow 2010 and especially
This special edition of the Kennedy-Mighell Report (podcast): Inside ABA Techshow 2010
And if Techshow and all of this discussion has made you consider moving your practice into 'the cloud' (i.e. instead of hosting software and data on your server, putting it on the internet for easy access), you might want to read the ABA's Technology eReport, which includes an article co-written by Clio founder Jack Newton - one of the stand-out vendors at Techshow.
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