connection 2 Oct 2010

Alternative_Legal_Conference

The Alternative Legal IT Conference 2010

This was the second such conference to be held, following the event’s launch in Surrey last year, and attendance was up significantly, probably double that of last year’s conference at around 100 delegates.

Held over two days at The Belfry this year, there was a good mix of panel-led debates and roundtable discussions towards such topics as aligning IT projects to business strategy; preparing for the opportunities and challenges of ABS’s in 2011, and also IT directors sharing their firms’ own experiences of recent software implementation projects.

The conference is primarily aimed at mid-tier law firms and whilst this was realised in the main, there were a few noticeable mismatches. For example, the IT manager of a 100 staff law firm listening, open-mouthed, to a roundtable host speaker relaying their recent processes for selecting and implementing new PMS & CMS systems for their one thousand staff! There was also just the odd occasion where a roundtable discussion appeared to be a slight sales pitch for an IT vendor but on the whole, this was commendably avoided.

One interesting observation this year was that law firms’ IT Directors’ views on iPad’s seemed to reflect how they felt about Blackberrys a few years ago – they either love ‘em or hate ‘em!

Overall this second conference proved to be another valuable one, not least because it remained an intimate event with very relevant and topical discussions. However, I suspect its continuing value in the future will depend on whether Lexis Nexis Butterworths can avoid the temptation to simply grow the event year on year, (and therefore the sponsors, stands and sales people), in which case it is more likely to resemble just another IT exhibition than a valued conference.

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