October is becoming the busiest month of the year for legal tech, with conferences tumbling over each other: kCura’s Relativity Fest (Chicago) and the E-Discovery Institute aka EDI annual conference (Fort Lauderdale) Oct. 13-14; the Masters Conference (D.C.) tomorrow; and Above The Law Academy of Private Practice (Philadelphia) next week.

February continues the frenzy, with Daniel Michael Katz’s inaugural, circling back to Chicago. And of course, Georgetown annual Advanced E-Discovery Institute the next week (10 & 11).

I just got back from Relativity Fest—it was my first attendence and I was blown away by the number and quality of panels and the enthusiasm and intensiveness of the attendees.

The three-day event kicked off with a keynote by kCura’s founder and CEO, Andrew Sieja, who spoke for 1 hour 43 minutes and 20 seconds to a packed audience, complete with dancers and music. The experience had a very passionate Silicon Valley vibe—and was very different from the usually stoic e-discovery conferences focused to lawyers.I almost expected Steve Jobs to rise to the mike. Check it out: https://youtu.be/gOC0Gs3GLnI.

I’ve been to many other “user events” that were focused on training the company’s products; but RF took a broader approach. Yes, there were many, many training tracks, labs and CLE credits—but the organizers also created a broad agenda. Among the tracks were admin and workflow; boot camp; law in practice; information governance/risk/compliance and security; and an academic partner program—to name just a few. Many of the sessions began at 7:30 a.m. That is dedication!

For example, I had the pleasure to attend “Brexit and Beyond: International Issues and Cross-Border E-Discovery” with Chris Dale (eDisclosure Information Project); Patrick Burke (Seyfarth Shaw); Edward McAndrew (Ballard Spahr); Meribeth Banaschik (Noerr-Dusseldorf)—moderated by David Horrigan, kCura’s ediscovery counsel and legal content director. I also attended the terrific “Marketing Boot Camp: Working with Analysts and the Media-E-Discovery and Beyond,” featuring Zach Abramowitz (Above The Law); Shawn Gaines (kCura); Sean Doherty (451 Research); Ian Lopez (ALM); and John Carpenter (Forbes).

I was delighted to be a speaker on two of the eclectic panels. The first, “The History and Future of the Law and E-Discovery” was moderated Horrigan, with panelists Judges Nora Barry Fischer (W.D. Pa.) and U.S. District Judge Xavier Rodriguez  (W.D. Texas) and EDRM co-founder George Socha, now managing director at BDO Consulting. The lively discussion discussed a wide range of topics, from access to justice; to over-zealous efforts to protect lawyers; to 9-11 and how it changed security and e-discovery.

“The E-Discovery Woman’s Guide to Thriving through Change” luncheon featured Meribeth Banaschik, U.S. attorney/U.K solicitor at Noerr (Duesseldorf);  Cinthia Granados Motley, partner Segwick Law; and Yvette Bula, senior director, discovery solutions, Commonwealth Legal, and moi. Thanks to Dorie Blesoff’s excellent moderation, the conversation was lively and candid, with the audience participation and inspiration.

Overall it was a great experience and I would encourage anyone interested in e-discovery to go next year.

It’s not too early to mark your 2017 calendar:
• RF (Oct. 22-23, Chicago)
• EDI (Oct. 11-14, Dove Mountain, Az.)

Monica Bay is a Fellow at CodeX.  Email: mbay@codex.stanford.edu. Twitter: @MonicaBay

Cover image: Clipart.com