« Blawger on a Mission in Afghanistan | Main | Boom Time for In-House Budgets »

Blogging Legal Conferences -- NOT!

In January, Kevin O'Keefe at his lexBlog Blog bemoaned the lack of blogging from the LegalTech New York legal-technology conference. This week, he twice raised the same concern, first about the limited number of blog posts from ABA TechShow and then about the grand total of two blog posts from the Legal Marketing Association's annual conference. "I'm concerned about the lack of blogging from lawyers and legal technology professionals while attending technology conferences," O'Keefe writes. Why? He cites lost opportunities for collaboration and learning, marketing and promotion of the conference for future years.

In response to O'Keefe's January post of LegalTech, I wrote here that I disagreed with his conclusion that this paucity of blogging speaks poorly of the legal industry's adoption of new technologies. For one reason, I said, these conferences consume so much of an attendee's time that they leave little room for blogging. But as the evidence piles up, I am beginning to see that O'Keefe is right. The consistent drought of blogging from legal conferences is a reflection on our industry and our slowness to adopt new technologies fully. In other fields, it is common to find live reporting from important conferences not only through blog posts but through audio and video posts as well. I did not attend TechShow this year, but J. Craig Williams and I did post a podcast preview at Lawyer2Lawyer. For the next conference I attend, my goal is to capture some audio and video snippets to post -- perhaps interviews from the exhibit hall floor, perhaps excerpts from presentations.

O'Keefe is correct when he says: "We can talk a good talk about being tech savvy and hip. But our conduct lags behind other industries big time."

Posted by Robert J. Ambrogi on March 26, 2007 at 03:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Comments

Live blogging typically occurs at technology conferences, especially those geared at new media. Also, many of these bloggers cover the conference because it's their job to do so (e.g., Engadget). In other words, paid journalists who just happen to post their reports in a blog instead of in a more traditional publication.

Can you or Kevin point to a conference outside of the new media realm at which a significant amount of live blogging takes place -- by the attendees (not paid bloggers/journalists)?

Put differently, at the end of a long day of booth hopping and seminars, would you rather blog alone in your hotel room or go out with your peers for a few beers?

If you want live blogging from TechShow, the ABA should pay someone to do it -- or invite media properties like its own Law Practice or LTN and TechnoLawyer to do it. Then, you'd have live blogging. We would have gladly sent someone to live blog one of the tracks as well as some of the parties and dinners. Maybe next year.

Posted by: Neil J. Squillante | Apr 2, 2007 9:49:54 PM

Post a comment