eDiscovery Daily Blog

• February 12, 2015

As we noted on Monday, for the second year in a row, weather caused significant travel delays and cancelled flights at last week’s LegalTech® New York 2015 (LTNY). As a result, on the last day of the show, I decided to tour the exhibit hall and ask some of the exhibitors their thoughts about this year’s show, how it compared to previous years and whether American Lawyer Media (ALM) should consider moving LTNY to a different (i.e., warmer) time of year. Here is some of their feedback.

Good Exhibit Hall Traffic, Despite the Travel Issues: By and large, most exhibitors I spoke to were happy with the traffic in the exhibit hall and felt it was comparable to previous years. Kelly Struck, Marketing Director at Huron Legal, noted that “we did have weather issues again early on, especially in Chicago where I came from. Despite that, traffic in the exhibit hall appeared to be steady and picked up on Wednesday as more people made it into New York for the show.” Shawn Gaines, Director of Marketing at kCura also observed that “the traffic around the booth was solid” and that their Relativity hands-on labs in Concourse A “got crowded, with particular interest in Relativity Analytics (standing room only!), Processing, and Binders”.

And, Debbie Caldwell, Communications Director at Exterro, was even more positive, stating that “Traffic was great for Exterro, despite the weather and travel issues. We had good traffic in the booth, back-to-back meetings throughout the show in our suites and great attendance at our Judges Survey Release press reception. We had a great show!”

Most Exhibitors Also Happy with ALM and the Hilton: By and large, exhibitors were happy with ALM’s handling of the show and the Hilton Hotel as the venue. Caldwell noted that “ALM always makes the process easy. Henry (Dicker, Executive Director of LegalTech) does a great job in orchestrating the event and taking care of the vendors. Exterro is happy with how the show is managed.”

Struck observed that “It seemed like there were a lot more advertisements this year, in the lobby and everywhere else as well”, but didn’t seem to mind, noting that “it’s a great opportunity to show the brand.” And, Alon Israely, Manager of Strategic Partnerships with BIA (and a thought leader interviewee again this year), stated that “the Hilton is a great venue” and expressed “a ton of confidence” in ALM “continuing to do a great job, even with the management changes resulting from the senior people retiring this year.”

Not everyone was completely happy, however. One area that was suggested where ALM could improve was the number of ALM contacts for exhibitors to coordinate with and communication issues internally within ALM, which one exhibitor noted cost them to lose the booth spot that they’ve had for years when updated contact information didn’t get to the correct contact in time.

For the Most Part, Exhibitors Prefer to Keep the Show at the Same Time of Year: While acknowledging the weather has caused travel issues, most exhibitors would prefer to keep the show at the same time of year. Struck noted that “I have heard a few other people suggest that. But, I think the majority of people coming to LegalTech expect it to be around the beginning of February and set their calendars accordingly.” She also observed that it’s “probably less expensive for ALM to host the show this time of year as well” and indicated that “if ALM were to ever consider moving the show, they would have to plan for it years in advance to give attendees and exhibitors time to adjust their schedules, product launches, etc.”

While acknowledging that he was “stranded in North Carolina en route” this year, Gaines indicated that “we do plan a lot of our activity around the show, so it’s good to have a consistent date that’s not next to other events like ILTA or our own user conference, Relativity Fest.” Caldwell was strongly against any move, stating that “having LegalTech New York take place at the beginning of the year is positive for Exterro and the industry. It allows us to share our vision early in the year with customers, prospects and the media on our corporate and product initiatives. Moving it to a different time could be disruptive and does not guarantee that we will eliminate weather or travel issues.”

So, what do you think? Should ALM consider moving LTNY to a different time of year? Please share any comments you might have or if you’d like to know more about a particular topic.

Disclaimer: The views represented herein are exclusively the views of the author, and do not necessarily represent the views held by CloudNine. eDiscoveryDaily is made available by CloudNine solely for educational purposes to provide general information about general eDiscovery principles and not to provide specific legal advice applicable to any particular circumstance. eDiscoveryDaily should not be used as a substitute for competent legal advice from a lawyer you have retained and who has agreed to represent you.