ILTACON 2023 is over, but observations about the conference continue! At the end of the conference, I reached out to many of the people I met with for their observations about the conference. So, here are their crowdsourced ILTACON 2023 observations!

FYI, I’m publishing their crowdsourced ILTACON 2023 observations in the order they provided them to me and splitting them over three posts. Note: some of the responses are in two paragraphs, so look below if a paragraph doesn’t have a name attached to it.

I have two thoughts about this year’s ILTACON conference. The sessions had a lot more excitement, maybe even more than I’ve seen before. There were a lot of great questions, especially during the session on Short Messages, one of the two sessions I coordinated this year on behalf of ILTA.

The camaraderie amongst the attendees, regardless of the company name on their badge, is consistently great. There’s such a mix of industry experience, and it’s always great seeing people that I’ve known for years and getting to know the “younger generation” as well. It is hard to find this type of community in many other industries and it’s especially evident at a conference like ILTACON. Deeanna Fleener, VP, Solution Management, Deloitte Transactions and Business Analytics LLP

It would seem based on pure headcount alone that the Metaverse is on life support. Our panel on Metaverse last year that had packed, standing-room only 400-person attendance, diminished about 10x in audience size this year. Nevertheless, our super hero panel delivered the goods and will be rewarded when Thanos administers the snap, and immersive worlds come back as wildly popular 3D spatial computing use cases! Boy, was it a sweaty ILTACON 2023 this year. Jerry Bui, Managing Director, FTI Consulting

As always, I enjoyed catching up with people and taking the pulse of what’s happening. But where sometimes I just pop in a few sessions to see what’s happening, this ILTACON I found myself actively seeking out session content. I was really impressed by the spread of topics, how every panel I saw had law firm or corporate reps with real-world experience, and that every discussion was educationally-focused rather than sales-centric. I think sometimes I tend to view the content as a value-add, but this ILTACON really struck me as a worthwhile meeting of the minds. Zach Warren, Technology & Innovation Insights Lead, Thomson Reuters Institute

ILTACON 2023 was heavily AI focused, but unlike the sense of panic that often accompanies the “use of AI” in the Legal Industry, the messaging that came across was much more calm: we as industry experts are at the frontlines of this movement, and the Gen-AI document review technology is not yet legal market ready. Many of the e-Discovery companies who developed the industry-leading machine learning tools are taking their time with releasing Gen-AI solutions, and that is okay. It is actually a bit of a relief to those of us who are still fighting to use TAR on document reviews. Danielle Davidson, Head Strategic Advisor, Advanced E-Discovery and A.I. Strategy Group, Ropes & Gray LLP

No one seems to have any interest in using Generative AI.

Haha, now that I have your attention: Generative AI is obviously the buzz, on panels, in exhibits, and in the hallways and barways between. Serious lawyers, power users, and technologists seem to be really inquisitive about how to leverage the technology responsibly. Doomsayers, pundits, and critics seem heavily outnumbered by these peeps and they are outgunned by real applications that deliver promising results backed by careful and thoughtful development. Chuck Kellner, Strategic Discovery Advisor, Everlaw

As Disney said, “If you can visualize it, if you can dream it, there’s some way to do it.”  ILTA really showcased the possibilities of Legal Technology generally and A.I. specifically.  It was a journey through future world and we particularly enjoyed the discussions around the art of the possible during the mini CLOC meeting within the ILTA conference. Marla Crawford, General Counsel, Cimplifi

There was an undeniable vibrancy and energy to this year’s ILTACON. That could be attributable to several factors, not least of which is our continuing joy at simply being able to once again congregate after the lock down of the pandemic.

But I also think the vibrancy of the conference reflected the vibrancy of the legal tech industry more broadly at this moment in time – a vibrancy fueled by the excitement around generative AI and the new spirit of innovation it has engendered throughout the industry. Bob Ambrogi, lawyer, media and technology professional. Read Bob’s full write-up of ILTACON here!

ILTACON 2023 was a whirlwind of activity, with notable emphasis on the remarkable advancements in generative artificial intelligence (AI) and its increasing adoption within law firms. Conversations buzzed around how generative AI-driven systems are reshaping legal research, contract analysis, eDiscovery, and predictive analytics, enhancing overall efficiency and decision-making processes. Surprisingly, amid this fervent discourse, I am increasingly concerned by the glaring gap, and seeming lack of awareness and discussion about the looming disruptive potential of quantum computers. These revolutionary computing machines, despite their capacity to transform encryption, data security, computer forensics and computational problem-solving, remained conspicuously absent from the dialogue, signaling an urgent need for greater exploration of their implications within the legal field. Joe Bartolo, Solutions Consultant, vLex

The sessions I attended and discussions in which I participated highlighted that we are increasingly looking at legal as a holistic discipline and trying to understand how to drive the profession forward from a range of perspectives, including technology, leadership, and operations because all of the different constituencies within the field need to collaborate to fuel broad progress. Ari Kaplan, Principal, Ari Kaplan Advisors

The industries represented and number of new attendees was especially interesting. Speaking with these attendees, it seems data, and particularly emerging data, is top of mind for a wide variety of organizations who have historically been slower to adopt technology. Tiana Van Dyk, Managing Director, Canada, EPIQ

Vibrant. Productive. Enlightening. Hot and humid. Mike Quartararo, President of ACEDS & Professional Development

One of many interesting takeaways from ILTACON was that several e-discovery professionals agreed ‘litigation support’ may now be an outdated term for the work legal technologists do. With technology changing the nature of work, we see a desire in the profession to start using titles that more accurately describe what these professions do. Some suggestions include ‘legal technologist,’ ‘litigation technologist,’ and ‘discovery technologist.’ David Horrigan, Discovery Counsel and Legal Education Director, Relativity

There were so many people who provided crowdsourced ILTACON 2023 observations that I couldn’t fit it all into one post! I’ll post more comments I received tomorrow and more on Friday! Thanks to all who crowdsourced ILTACON 2023 observations for me – you saved me writing three posts this week! 😀

So, what do you think? Did you attend ILTACON 2023? If so, feel free to comment with your own observations below! And 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 my employer, my partners or my clients. eDiscovery Today is made available solely for educational purposes to provide general information about general eDiscovery principles and not to provide specific legal advice applicable to any particular circumstance. eDiscovery Today should not be used as a substitute for competent legal advice from a lawyer you have retained and who has agreed to represent you.