Keeping my perspectives short and pithy. Expect a string of concise briefing writeups.

Conference impressions:

  • Uber in: City is packed with cars. So many shops shut down and being remodeled. City in rebirth.
  • Conference branding/banners – Reveal, Disco, ONIT , Relativity, Consilio, Everlaw, Exterro
    • Answers the question of who is spending external to the show?
  • “Feels like ALM has auctioned off parts of LegalWeek.” The Reveal sponsored award dinner with limited attendance had a decidedly odd note. Heard from folks with full conference passes that it was ‘sold out’. Everlaw bought the free wifi.
  • Liked the move to paper folding registration passes. Missed the fun racks of colored badge tags found at other conferences.
  • Glad that they added open networking and social space for ad-hoc meetings. That cut down my sprints between briefings.
  • Saw that some providers had their own social/event space in adjacent hotels. Heard from others that the lead generation from 2022 was so small that they cancelled their LegalWeek budget and just had a couple key folks do client meetings. Got more client time this way.

Impressions from the Exhibit floor:

  • Way more foot traffic than recent years. More buyers on the floor. Positive mood and animated conversations.
  • Most booths seemed to be busy demoing or talking with actual prospective buyers. The few dead booths were very noticeable.
  • Loved the diversity in the attendees. Felt like more than half the crowd were women and not ‘generic older white guys in suits’ (i.e. like me). Changing of the eDiscovery guard? Hope so.
  • When did LegalWeek become a Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM) event? Half the exhibitors seemed to be selling some A.I. driven flavor of CLM.
  • A.I. everywhere. Only saw a couple claiming GPT integration, but that will certainly be a 2024 theme.
  • A lot of new managed service providers with multiple eDiscovery platforms on their booths. It looks like some of the layoffs have spawned a new generation of tech-agnostic, nimble players who are stepping away from the $/GB pricing model.
  • Automation, no code programming and other augmented workflow offerings taking surprising placement.
  • Some of the largest players had smaller booths or booths way back on the 3rd floor. What does it say when you plaster the event with branding and cut back on your actual exhibit space? Maybe they just diverted all their key meetings to adjacent hotel suites.

Greg Buckles wants your feedback, questions or project inquiries at Greg@eDJGroupInc.com. Contact him directly for a free 15 minute ‘Good Karma’ call if he has availability. He solves problems and creates eDiscovery solutions for enterprise and law firm clients.

Greg’s blog perspectives are personal opinions and should not be interpreted as a professional judgment or advice. Greg is no longer a journalist and all perspectives are based on best public information. Blog content is neither approved nor reviewed by any providers prior to being published. Do you want to share your own perspective? Greg is looking for practical, professional informative perspectives free of marketing fluff, hidden agendas or personal/product bias. Outside blogs will clearly indicate the author, company and any relevant affiliations. 

 LegalWeek 2023 Photos:

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