I didn't take a lot of pictures at ABA TECHSHOW 2015 this year, but I thought that I would share a few of them that I did take with my iPhone as well as a few reflections on the show from the iPhone and iPad perspective.
Before the show began, I dashed down Michigan Ave. to check out one of the largest Apple Stores in the country and to try on the Apple Watch again, since I knew that I would be talking about it throughout TECHSHOW. Here is the model that I ordered, which hopefully I will have soon. (As I type this, the Apple website says that it is preparing my Apple Watch for shipment, with delivery expected at some point between tomorrow and May 8.) [UPDATE: Using the UPS trick described by Buster Hein on Cult of Mac, it looks like my Apple Watch is being shipped Thursday with UPS Next Day Air delivery for Friday afternoon.]
Overall, this was one of the best TECHSHOWs that I have ever attended. A lot of the credit for that goes to the great TECHSHOW board, and especially this year's TECHSHOW Chair, Brett Burney. I've presented with Brett in the past and he really knows his stuff, especially when it comes to the iPhone and iPad. Here's Brett at the start of the conference:
On Thursday, April 16, one of the eight tracks was the iPad track. That track had four sessions that were full of information for any attorney looking to integrate an iPad (and iPhone) into their practice.
The first session was Introducing Your iPad Into Your iPractice, by Ohio attorneys Joe Bahgat and Paul Unger. This was an introductory session that hit the highlights such as how to work with documents, take notes, and do legal research with an iPad, plus how to use an iPad in litigation.
The second session was called iLitigate on the iPad — Essential Litigation Workflows From Beginning to End, by D.C. Judge Herbert Dixon, New Jersey attorney Jonathan Lomurro and Dallas attorney Tom Mighell. The session covered more advanced techniques for using an iPad in litigation, and it was quite good. I've presented with Dixon and Mighell before and so I knew that they know their stuff, but this is the first time that I have heard Lomurro speak and he was excellent. I'd love to hear him speak again.
At the luncheon, I met up with some old friends and met new ones. This was the first time that I had met Florida attorney Katie Floyd in person, although after listening to her speak on hundreds of episodes of Mac Power Users, I felt like we were old friends.
The third session in the iPad track was Easy & Effective Presentations From Your iPad, a presentation that I gave with Canadian attorney Bjorn Christianson. We started by discussing general techniques on giving effective presentations with an iPad. Then for the last 20 minutes or so I gave some very specific power user tips for using the Keynote app on an iPad. I've never before given a presentation on giving a presentation, and I hope that we disproved the old adage that those who cannot do, teach — at the very least, we got some great feedback from the audience. Speaking of which, here is a picture of the audience that I took before we started (and before the room filed up), so if you were there early, here is what you looked like. (As always, you can click on these pictures to enlarge them.)
For a view from the other side, Detroit attorney Randy Juip was using a selfie stick to take pictures at approximately the rate of one every 10 seconds throughout TECHSHOW. In this picture that Randy took, Randy is at the bottom left, and I see that Jeff Taylor of The Droid Lawyer was in the back of the room as well (bottom right):
#ABATECHSHOW #SelfieStick afternoon action in #iPad Track with @iPhoneJD, @Bjornqc, and an @DroidLawyer cameo! pic.twitter.com/YNBfInS8jE
— Randall A. Juip (@rajuip) April 16, 2015
The folks at MyCase were nice enough to once again hire Stephanie Crowley to produce live murals based on what was being discussed during some of the presentations. She was there for the presentation that Bjorn and I gave, and here is her graphical interpretation of what we said:
The final session of the iPad track was a presentation that I gave solo called iUse Microsoft Office on My iPad. You should know that the TECHSHOW board picks the titles and subjects before speakers are even invited, so it was not my decision to try to cover all of Microsoft Office for iPad in only an hour. Instead, I gave the briefest of mentions of the Excel and PowerPoint apps and then I jumped into the nitty gritty details of the Word for iPad app, which I think any lawyer would agree is the most important part of Office for attorneys. I had also planned to discuss the Outlook for iPad app, but the Word discussion ended up taking the entire hour. (If you do want some of my thoughts on Outlook for iPad, check out this post.)
Throughout the day, I met up with countless attorneys who use iPads and iPhones, and really enjoyed hearing about some of the interesting ways that they use their devices. It gave me lots of ideas for future iPhone J.D. posts.
I also got a chance to catch up with Ian O'Flaherty, who makes two of the very best apps for litigators who use an iPad: TrialPad and TranscriptPad. Ian showed me some cool new features that will soon be included in TranscriptPad, as well as a brand new app that he is working on. I look forward to trying them out and talking about them on iPhone J.D. when they are released, so stay tuned for some great stuff. Here's a picture of me with Ian:
On Friday, I visited a ton of booths at the Expo Hall and saw lots of iPhone/iPad software and accessories that I'll be talking about in the future. I also attended a few sessions. It was interesting to hear Wisconsin attorney Robert Sisson and Florida attorney Rick Georges discuss wearable technology on Friday afternoon. Of course they mentioned the upcoming Apple Watch, but most of their focus was on showing off other smartwatches currently on the market such as those that use Android Wear and the Pebble. Clearly, this market is about to be disrupted in a major way once the Apple Watch starts shipping.
Friday night, Katie Floyd and I hosted a Taste of Techshow dinner. I was too busy talking with everyone at dinner to remember to take a picture, but Katie and I both took pictures when many of us traveled to the dinner — in style, thanks to a limousine that was parked outside of the Hilton and looking for customers:
Thanks to everyone who joined us at our dinner: Judge Joseph Adams and his wife from York, PA; Maureen Blando from Mobile Helix in Silicon Valley; Jacksonville, FL attorney Jim Mullaney; David Roth from the Houston office of Jones Walker; Chicago attorney Eli Stoughton; Gregory Tweed from the Louisiana Attorney Disciplinary Board; Ian O'Flaherty and Tara Cheever from Lit Software (makers of TrialPad and TranscriptPad, and current sponsors of iPhone J.D.); and Katie Floyd's mom. I know that I speak for everyone when I say that it was a really fun night, and it is a shame that we could only fit a dozen people at our table.
On Saturday morning, I gave the 60 Apps in 60 Minutes presentation that I mentioned earlier this week. My co-presenters were Ohio attorney Joe Bahgat, legal tech consultant Adriana Linares, and Dallas attorney Tom Mighell. Here is a picture that I took of the audience as the room started to fill up, and by the time we were underway, the room was standing room only.
It is always interesting to look at the Saturday morning attendance to get a sense of attorney interest in different mobile platforms. As you can see from this collection of selfie stick pictures from — of course — Randy Juip, there were tons of attorneys interested in the iPhone/iPad, a decent number of attorneys interested in Android, and an incredibly small number of attorneys interested in BlackBerry or Windows mobile devices:
Beyond standing-room only at #ABATECHSHOW 60 iOS Apps talk by @j0eybagodonuts @TomMighell @AdrianaL and @iPhoneJD pic.twitter.com/6VHFXJOzB7
— Randall A. Juip (@rajuip) April 18, 2015
#ABATECHSHOW #SelfieStick bomb of @thedroidlawyer @danieljsiegel and @rickgeorges at the 60 Android Apps talk! pic.twitter.com/Do0Nl9bs6x
— Randall A. Juip (@rajuip) April 18, 2015
#ABATECHSHOW #SelfieStick captures @DanPinnington and his core of Blackberry believers! pic.twitter.com/1DsoRaBkA7
— Randall A. Juip (@rajuip) April 18, 2015
So this happened: @bschorr achieving low orbit during #ABATECHSHOW 60 Windows App talk. pic.twitter.com/nhxmFzteJK
— Randall A. Juip (@rajuip) April 18, 2015
By the way, I see that my co-presenter Adriana Linares was preparing for the Apple Watch by rocking the Casio calculator watch — which she pulls off with much more style then when I wore a similar model as an awkward teenager in the 1980s.
Thanks to everyone who took the time to say hello to me last week; it was great talking to all of you. I hope to see even more of you at ABA TECHSHOW 2016, which takes place around St. Patrick's Day next year.
