ABA TECHSHOW, held in Chicago every Spring, is the premier technology conference for lawyers. There are tons of informative sessions (typically six tracks are going on at the same time) so you have lots of great seminars to choose from. The conference has a great exhibit hall where you can see and try the latest legal technology. And there are tons of opportunities to socialize with old friends or meet new people who share an interest in technology. Next year, it takes place March 29-31, 2012 at the Chicago Hilton on Michigan Avenue.
I've participated in the conference for several years. Back in 2008, I spoke about disaster preparation and recovery, a topic near and dear to New Orleans attorneys like me who dealt with Hurricane Katrina. For the last two years I've talked about iPhones, and I'll do so again in 2012.
Every year that I have attended, the focus on smartphones and tablets has increased, and 2012 looks to be the best year yet. For example, on the first day of the conference, there is an all-day "Mobile and Smartphone" track. I'm speaking in the first session which is titled "Shartphone Wars." I'll be talking about the iPhone, Pennsylvania attorney/consultant Jennifer Ellis will talk about Android, and Toronto attorney and risk management specialist Dan Pinnington will talk about BlackBerry. Readers of this website are likely to be iPhone users, and it will be interesting for us to compare and contrast the other devices that are popular for attorneys.
The three other sessions in this track the first day of the conference also look great. Josh Barrett of Tablet Legal and Nerino Petro of Compujurist will compare and contrast the iPad and Android tablets in a session called "Tablet Wars." Then Dennis Kennedy and Sharon Nelson will talk about the ethics of mobile computing in the cloud. Finally, Victor Medina and Ben Schorr will talk about keeping your documents synchronized across multiple devices. And as good as those last two sessions sound, I will be tempted to also sit in on iOS-related sessions going on at the same time in the other tracks, such as the track "iWin: iPads for Litigators" by Tom Mighell and Paul Unger.
And that's just the first day. Friday, March 30th is full of other interesting sessions, such as an all-day track devoted to cloud computing. And then on Saturday morning, I'm teaming up with Josh Barrett and Brett Burney for the third year of 60 iOS Apps for Lawyers in 60 Minutes, a session that is always a lot of fun and very informative — even for me because I always learn about great new apps from my co-presenters.
One of my favorite parts of TECHSHOW are the Taste of TECHSHOW dinners. I'm sure I'll once again host one for iPhone and iPad users. It's a good excuse to meet up with some like-minded folks. Sure, we'll talk about iOS devices, but mostly we'll just trade stories and have some great discussions over good food and drink.
The keynote speaker for the conference will be attorney / economist / actor Ben Stein — sure to be a very interesting, and amusing, presentation.
If you have never attended TECHSHOW before, you really should check it out. It is by far my favorite CLE every year, and it will give you all of your CLE hours for the year. I've met a ton of iPhone J.D. readers at prior TECHSHOWs and I look forward to meeting more of you in a few months.
