ABA Techshow 2010 - Part II - The Conference

My last post was the beginning of my review of this year's ABA Techshow, held annually in Chicago. Here are some of my thoughts on some of the sessions I enjoyed most at this year's conference:

Niki Black and Matt Homann presented on Managing Your Online Presence: The Care and Feeding of the Online You. The session covered choosing (and using) a blog or Web site as your online "home base;" utilizing social media sites like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter to connect with clients and build your professional footprint; magnifying your online presence by distributing your existing content seamlessly to multiple places online and monitoring and managing your online reputation. Your existing clients will be more informed, and your prospective clients will be more impressed.

Black reminded the audience that social media is both personal and professional. You probably don't stick strictly to business issues when speaking with your clients in person or by telephone,  and it's the same with social media. Getting personal strengthens the connection. 

Although many people are using Facebook personally, some lawyers are afraid to use Facebook. Matt Homann suggested that even if you aren't on Facebook personally, your business should be.

Matt Homann advocated liberal linking on sites such as LinkedIn to expand your network and sees no downside to linking with many people,but I don't necessarily agree. I want my LinkedIn connections to be people I know something about - if someone asks about a connection, I want to be able to respond with meaningful information.

Homann also suggested that lawyers go to their clients' conferences and use social media tools such as Twitter to get the word out about what was happening at those conferences, therby making you *the* source of information for others in the same business or industry.

Despite all of the new tools and technologies, Homann believes that the telephone is still the most important social networking tool there is. He advocates picking up the phone to have meaningful conversations with clients, potential clients and connections.

Finally, Matt Homann wanted lawyers to remember that social media is no different than other networking or spending time with clients - it's just that the interactions take place online.

One of the best things about this session was that Black and Homann didn't always agree; too often these sessions present only one point of view, and it was refreshing to hear some spirited disagreement and debate.

(I missed Carolyn Elefant's session with Niki Black on social media and your online presence, but you can catch the tweets from Legal Typist's Andrea Cannavina here).

Ari Kaplan's Keynote - The New 'Big Bang' - The Convergence of Technology and Marketing

Ari Kaplan presented the Keynote address during lunch on day 1 of the conference. His energetic presentation about marketing was one of the highlights of the day. His tips included:

• Self promotion is not about promoting yourself; it's about finding ways to promote and find opportunities for others
• Empower others with resources
• Brand to strangers, but market to friends
• Your marketing doesn't have to be perfect; it just has to build momentum

How to manage your email

Inbox "Ninjas" Xavier Beauchamp-Tremblay and Barron Henley presented on ways to de-clutter your inbox. This is one of my favorite topics since we're all overloaded with email and I was hoping to pick up some new tips for my clients and myself.

• If you tend to hit the 'send' button too quickly, or if you often regret sending an email once it's too late, you can set a rule so that your email will stay in your outbox longer before it is sent.
• The Outlook plug in Simplyfile got a lot of play during this conference - I heard it mentioned in several different sessions. Simplyfile is an intelligent filing system for Outlook messages.
• Use texter software from Life Hacker - Text substitution can create canned responses or use abbreviations for longer text to save time and keystrokes
• Need to find contacts quickly in Outlook? Use the F11 key

60 Tips in 60 Minutes

I love the fast-paced "60 minutes" sessions, and I always pick up something useful, including:

• Use Maestro to mass convert PDF to text-searchable PDFs
• Create a cone of silence - Turn everything off sometimes - stop being interrupted (especially by technology) so you can focus
• Go to netlingo.com to find the acronyms for texting (this is especially helpful if you're trying to decipher your teens' text messages)
• Use a passphrase instead of a password for better security
• Check out Agreedate.com to coordinate meeting times - it even integrates with Outlook
• Use thumbnails in Acrobat to add/remove/reorder pages - just drag and drop
• Upgrade your Google search - limit your search by time, use the Wonder Wheel and the timeline
• Customize the Quick Access toolbar in Office 2007 for better functionality
• Try Kofax desktop scanning software. Scan to PDF, OCR, scan to Word and others for $49/seat
• Use the postal service website (www.usps.com) to find zip codes for a particular address; you can even look up the county for easy court filing.
• The forgotten attachment detector (in beta) from MS Office Labs will warn you before you send the email without the attachment
• Use PR Newswire for press releases to help get inbound links to your site
• TripIt will help you plan your trips and keep all of your travel information in one place. Investing in TripIt Pro will get you announcements of flight delays, gate changes - great travel itinerary tool!
• Get rules, state and federal laws on your smartphone so you don't need to carry the books to court from www.lawpda.com
• Use Google Advanced search link to do a domain filter search to find something on a specific site
• Use vdownloader or zamzar to convert online video to MPEG or AVI
• Create your own YouTube channel for your firm and start doing lawyer videos

Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Crackberries

Toby Brown and Dan Pinnington went through an exhaustive list of Blackberry tips, shortcuts and applications. They recommended Google maps mobile, rather than Blackberry maps, and showed the audience how to use their Blackberries as bright flashlights (by changing the video camera setting to 'always on' for the flash) - great for emergencies or in dark restaurants.

They also recommended downloading your emails in full before you get on your flight so that you can read them without your wireless connection on. Pinnington reminded Blackberry users that they can change the Blackberry connection status to flight mode to work on their Blackberries without the wireless.

Recommended applications for Twitter on the Blackberry were UberTwitter and OpenBeak (formerly Twitterberry). Vlingo was a recommended voice command application, and Bighand mobile or Speakwrite applications can turn your Blackberry into a dictation unit.

If you don't want to tote the Federal Rules to court, try the law pod application for the Blackberry; keep time on the road with DET InHand, BizTrackIt, My Timesheet or Time and Expense applications.  

Finally, while there's been a lot of buzz about how insecure the iPhone is, your Blackberry won't be secure unless you remember to enable passwords.

60 Sites in 60 Minutes

This is the traditional Techshow closing session, and it is always one of the most popular. You can get the complete list on the Techshow site here, but here are some I was able to jot down during the session - maybe these will whet your appetite:

• Presentationzen.com will help you do better presentations
• Office.microsoft.com is a fabulous site for Office training and templates
• Need to learn about software? Try Lynda.com
• Instapaper.com: send stuff you want to read there when you don't have time to read it all now
• Google local business: great free tool
• Makeuseof.com - Practical information about technology
• Addicted to apps? Try 148 apps site
• We need better filters for information: Try techmeme.com
• Free online photo-editing: picnik.com
• Lawyerist.com (a site to which I contribute) was recommended for lawyers of all ages and experience levels, not just young lawyers
• The legal business development blog contains lots of info about project management and alternative fees: adverselling.typepad.com
• Yet another great scheduling tool: Doodle.com
• For more information about legal project management, try Lexician - lexician.com/lexblog
• visuwords: online graphical dictionary
• Mikogo - share your screen in a teleconference - up to 10 participants for free (arrange the call separately)
• Blog: Above and Beyond KM (knowledge management)
• Typography for lawyers- make the right impression
• Legistalker - keep up with politicians

As you can see, as always, Techshow was packed with useful Technology information. My last (and final) Techshow post will include my overall review of the entire conference experience, with this year's pros and cons.

Comments

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