Once upon a time in a law firm close to home, a few legal IT professionals got together to share their experiences with a legal technology vendor. Each year since then, they have congregated to network and learn and have invited others to join. Today, one liaison to the conference from ILTA’s Board of Directors (BOD), two conference co-chairs, 26 track chairs, over 300 speakers and countless volunteers, work together with ILTA staff to present the premier legal technology conference each year. The conference provides nearly 200 educational sessions and myriad networking opportunities for members and vendors from over 500 law firms and law departments around the world. Everyone goes home having made new friends, built new relationships and learned many new things that will support them in their roles at work. So, how did this success story happen? How does the project that is the annual conference come together?
The Long Road to Conference
Until about 10 years ago, ILTA had no paid staff, and the conference was managed entirely by volunteer members. Those volunteers did everything from planning the educational program to coordinating logistics with the host resorts, publicizing the event and working with vendor sponsors. As ILTA grew, a few full-time staff members were brought on, and as the conference grew, some of the event logistics were moved to staff. The conference co-chairs (conference VPs) are ILTA members who are charged with the responsibility for the educational aspects of the annual conference. The Conference co-chairs rotate on a two-year plan, with one new co-chair each year. Peer Group Vice Presidents (PGVPs) develop sessions for their peer group as part of their peer group programming each year. Additional track chairs and track coordinators are appointed each year to develop other tracks and sessions. The whole group works as a team to deliver a full schedule of high-value educational sessions for the conference. We continue to work on improving the documentation and planning process to make it easier for the volunteers to focus their attention on their critical responsibility of developing the educational program. We have also continued to build more structure around the logistical aspects of conference development while allowing the flexibility to make changes and improvements, a hallmark of ILTA.
It Takes a Schedule to Stay on Track
Planning an event of this size and complexity is a year-long process, and a detailed project schedule keeps us on track. At each annual conference, the incoming conference co-chair shadows the two co-chairs to begin the learning experience. Numerous milestones are passed in our twelve months of strategic planning and tactical deployment to deliver ILTA’s conference where nearly 200 educational sessions miraculously take place over four days, and it is over in a flash. And then . . . the planning starts all over again.
Find out next Monday how they pull it all together.
Filed under: 2009 Conference
