My Wish List: ILTA ’09

Posted on August 12, 2009 by Melissa Sachs

I love to go to conferences. I like to meet new people, exchange ideas, and decorate my office with all sorts of conference swag. That’s why I’m on a mission to go to ILTA’09. For ILTA’09, I’d even do without the corporate swag.

In case you’re not familiar with the International Legal Technology Association (“ILTA”), I’d recommend checking out the conference website along with its blog. See why I’m on this mission? Just look at the list of speakers!

Unfortunately, there’s one obstacle between me and my (geeky) version of professional paradise: The $1,025 registration fee.

Don’t get me wrong. If I could afford to write a check, I’d pay it in a heartbeat. $1,025 is a lot of money but I’m confident that the four days of networking and learning opportunities would cover my costs in the long run. In other words, I understand that $1,025 is a small investment to further my career. I simply can’t afford to make that investment right now.

Therefore, I did what any other motivated girl would do. I reached out to my Twitter followers and asked them to help me brainstorm ideas on how I could go to ILTA on my shoestring budget. I’ve received some great ideas and I’d be happy to hear others.

Assuming I can make it to ILTA, I’ve prepared my itinerary for the full four days. If I can’t make it in person, at least I’ll know which tweets to follow. Plus, it helped me decide when I should sign up to volunteer.

Monday, August 24th

10:30 AM

What won me over? Other than the subject matter, I follow David Hobbie and Kevin O’Keefe on Twitter. To me, they’re both “thought leaders” and I know I’ll learn something from each of them.

1:00 pm

What won me over? Like I said above, hearing this panel excites me. Also, I teach a course on blogging for legal professionals. This session is similar to a CLE.

Second choice: Law Firm Extranets: Some Different Approaches

2:30 pm

What won me over? Organization and communication are essential to any successful project.

Second choice: Wikis: A Practical Case Study

4:00 pm

How can I choose? As a former legal recruiter, I’m leaning towards Lateral Lawyers Are Playing Musical Law Firms!

Tuesday, August 25th

10:00 am

What won me over? I hardly know anything about how law firms walk through the pitch and proposal process. Very practical way to find out more.

Close second: Interpersonal Communication

11:00 am

What won me over? Well, this is the focus of this blog.

Close second: Crossing the Generational Divide: The Competitive Advantage of Four Generations

1:30 pm

What won me over? I’ve already told you about my budget.

3:30 pm

What won me over? Something must have persuaded me…

Wednesday, August 26th

What won me over? I’d like to see how other people pitch the idea of strategic innovation during this downturn. This type of thinking motivated this. The responses from law firms – positive or negative – have been few and far between, to say the least.

11:00 am

What won me over? I missed Richard Susskind at the ABA Techshow and I felt really left out. Resources like this and this made it less painful, however.

1:30 pm

What won me over? Let’s just say that we have a few tricks up our sleeve at RecruiterEsq….

3:30 pm

Still undecided. Again, I think Executive Image Coaching may win due to the career focus.

Thursday, August 27th

9:00 am

What won me over? I’m a fan of the Keirsey Temperment Sorter. I’m a Champion of Ideas.

10:30 am

What won me over? Critical thinking of thinking? Sign me up.

2:00 pm

What won me over? This is like sales training for me.

3:30 pm

What won me over? Same as above: sales training.

I’ll keep you posted about the success of my mission.

What’s In It For Lawyers

Posted on August 11, 2009 by Melissa Sachs

Hey Legal Professionals! Want to learn about social media marketing? How about the secrets of lead generation, sales pipelines, and networking? Before you say no, let me rephrase the question. We all know that hand-me-down books of business are relics of the past. In this world of personal branding, don’t you want to build your book of business? Or in the words of that M.I.A. partner or marketing staff member who decided to crash your annual firm evaluation: Don’t you want to make rain?

Of course, you do! Right after you finish drafting those disclosure agreements or that Fourth Circuit brief….

Even if you did have the time – do you pay for a consultant or do you watch that free presentation on SlideShare? Do you branch out to “thought-leaders” like Jeremiah Owyang or Jeffrey Gitomer or stay conservative and stick with Larry Bodine, Kevin O’Keefe, and David Barrett. Who the heck is Chris Brogan anyway?

Enter “What’s In It For Lawyers,” a new column on RecruiterEsq. A hybrid of “best of” lists and your 1L case briefs, we’ll digest all those “must-see” lessons and publish the crème de la crème in a format all lawyers can understand: We’ll emphasize the main points in bold and include a brief analysis of how lawyers can apply the lessons to their practices. Legal professionals can add their own ideas in the comments as well. Similar to the Examples and Explanations series, our goal is to be a secondary resource and our analysis will be a starting point, not the final word. Again, the goal with this series is to motivate legal professionals to think about innovative ways that they can intertwine social media into their practices.

The name of the column derives from “What’s In It For Me” or WIIFM, a favorite saying among marketers and salespeople. Without getting too technical or psychological – mostly because I can’t find a reputable source to cite – the saying serves as a reminder that rational people act with self-interest. When a prospect hears a pitch or proposal, their immediate reaction is “What’s In It For Me?”

Lawyers are busy people. Maybe more lawyers or law firms would like to integrate social media into their practices …if they had time or …if they knew how.

We’re going to make it easy by showing ‘em how.

If you have any suggestions of presentations or articles to feature in this column, please send me an e-mail.