The videos from this year's LexThink.1 presentations have been posted.
In case you don't know about LexThink.1, it's an event that is usually held in conjunction with the ABA TECHSHOW. LexThink.1 takes place the evening before TECHSHOW begins.
Here's the format: 10 speakers, each with only 6 minutes to speak on a particular topic related to the future of law practice (this year's theme was "Disruption"), and each presentation includes 20 slides (which are automatically advanced every 18 seconds by the event host, not by the presenters themselves).
Potential speakers submit proposals to LexThink, and those proposals are put up for a vote on the LexThink website. According to the rules, the top seven vote-getters are automatically selected to speak and the LexThink committee selects the final three.
This year, all of the presenters were men, and only nine presentations were given. The tenth scheduled presenter was Sarah Glassmeyer, whose topic was, "Disruption in Publishing. A Librarian’s Perspective. (Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Free Law)," but unfortunately Sarah was unable to present on the evening in question.
I always enjoy LexThink.1, in part because I can only imagine how difficult it must be to whittle a 'big idea' down to only 6 minutes, and to be disciplined enough to stay exactly on track with the scheduled slide changes - not to mention being able to convey the idea articulately during that time. There's certainly no time to get flustered or to lose your place!
As with anything else, whether the ideas and the content are brilliant or not, some people are simply better presenters (in this format) than others. I like watching to see who shines with this format, how they manage it, and whose content would be great if only it were presented in a different way.
But I also enjoy LexThink.1 because it's interesting to see the ideas that come from the presentations and the discussions they provoke afterwards, both online and at TECHSHOW itself.
You can see all of this year's LexThink.1 presentations here, but here's a list of the presenters and their presentation titles.
Eric Hunter: Big Data or Big Brother?
Dan Pinnington: Legal Services in a Global Village – Jurisdiction Changes Everything
Phillip Rosenthal: Flattening the Legal Tower of Babel: Fishing for a means to remove language barriers from the law
Chad Burton: The Future of Virtual Law
Will Hornsby: Gaming the System: Are lawyers ready to game-up?
Roe Frazer: Knowing Unknowns – The Key to Intelligent Lawyering
Jay Shepherd: Don’t Do What You’re Good At
Mark Britton: LegalZoom is Eating Legal’s Lunch
Matt Spiegel: The Death of the Office
Matt Homann: The Decline of the Machines – What the Unabomber Can Teach Us About Legal Learning
(In case you're interested, although I thought there were a number of great presentations this year, one of my favorits was Jay Shepherd's. Maybe it's because he starts off by pointing out how many unhappy lawyers there are, but then moves to showing lawyers that they need to take advantage of their 'outstandingness' - you can see Jay's presentation below, or watch it here.)
Let me know in the comments which presentations were your favorites.
Finally, if you're into the six minute 'thing,' here's a six minute video the TECHSHOW folks put together of the "60 sites in 60 minutes" presentation from this year:
(You can find the presentation on YouTube here), or take a look at a list of the sites here.
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