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Blogging LegalTech, Cont'd.

Where is the blogging from LegalTech New York? asks Kevin O'Keefe.

We have the supposedly leading legal tech people in the country (thousands of them) assembled in New York and not one of them acting acting like technologists attending tech conferences in other industries. Speaks volumes of where our industry is when it comes to adopting new technologies.

As for the paucity of blogging from LegalTech, O'Keefe is correct. In addition to David Snow's daily reports from the conference and Law Technology News editor Monica Bay's posts at The Common Scold, I found only a handful of posts from LawBiz Blog, Wired GC, The Estrin Report and Made4Biz IT Security News -- and only some of those were clearly from bloggers in attendance at the show.

But I disagree with O'Keefe's conclusion that this speaks poorly of the legal industry's adoption of new technologies. Although I am not at LegalTech this year, I can testify from many years of attending that the conference leaves little time for blogging. In fact, I often find that I have little time for attending many of the panels and presentations -- ostensibly the main reason for being there. Simply making one's way around the exhibit hall and speaking to the many vendors and the many people you encounter along the way easily consumes a full day. Then there are the side meetings and the networking and, yes, the cocktails and dinners.

I am not big on "liveblogging" conferences. When I am at a conference, that is not how I want to spend my time. And from what I've read from those who do blog live, it is often the case that they might do better to hold off and write a more reflective, post-conference piece, once they've had an opportunity to digest what they've seen. We have not heard from many of the legal bloggers who are in attendance at LegalTech. I suspect we will see their post-mortems once they have a chance to catch their breaths. Meanwhile, why waste time in front of a computer screen when there is so much more to take in?

Posted by Robert J. Ambrogi on January 31, 2007 at 12:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Comments

Blogging is not usually about "reflective, post-conference pieces". Blogging is real people having real conversations. I know that attorneys love to write, fact check and research a piece to death but that is not blogging. I think that well researched pieces are great for print publications or trade journals but not blogs. After the number of blogs live from Demo, CES, and MacWorld I was excited at the possibility of being able to read about the LegalTech conference only to be surprised that there was so little information. I think that the legal profession tends to be a little slow when it comes to technology adoption but I would have expected a "legal tech" conference to be a little more cutting edge.

Posted by: Christopher Johnston | Feb 1, 2007 8:06:08 AM

I have to go with O'Keefe on this one.

Posted by: Brett Trout | Feb 1, 2007 2:34:27 PM

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