At the end of ILTACON 2024, I reached out to many of the people I met with for their observations about the conference and covered some of them yesterday. Here’s part two of ILTACON 2024 crowdsourced observations!

FYI, I’m publishing their crowdsourced ILTACON 2024 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.

Great educational sessions, I was impressed by an insightful panel on imposter syndrome and fostering confidence in women in tech. Led by Maribel Rivera, Candi Smith, CEDS, Tiffany Pereira, and Melanie Prevost, this was an eye-opener that deeply resonated with many. Another highlight was the Future of eDiscovery: M365, Microsoft Copilot & Purview session – practical and relevant, it’s always great to hear from Rachel O’Shea on upcoming features and advancements. And, I was thrilled to attend the Operation Safe Spaces town hall meeting, a welcome opportunity to discuss creating safe spaces for all. Melissa Heidrick, Founder, mmData

The AI hype and craze continue to prevail at legal conferences, and ILTA was no different. That being said, you are starting to see some comfort/advantages around GenAI in certain areas like eBilling, case/legal research, and contract management which are receiving higher levels of adoption vs. say eDiscovery, where it seems to be a nice to have but still many questions/concerns around privacy, security, usability (learning curve), and cost. ILTA seems to be getting bigger in terms of attendance, vendors, geographic spread (i.e. how long you have to walk to get from one session to another). One of our customers commented that it took them over 45 minutes to walk the exhibit hall alone given the large number of vendor booths.

While ILTA did try to offer a sprinkling of corporate-focused sessions, it is still a highly law firm-focused event. They would do well to be more inclusive of corporate and government agency needs—perhaps something that will be easier during next year’s ILTA in the D.C. area. Law firms CIOs and their teams are becoming more sophisticated in their approach. Just like legal ops teams in corporations, they are now focusing more on operational efficiency in the law firm – i.e. how do we get new lawyers onboarded and productive as quickly as possible, how do we get the right security certifications to win large enterprise customers, etc. Amit Dungarani, Vice President, Growth Enablement, Casepoint

ILTACON 2024 was electrifying, full of energy and vitality. This vibe was made abundantly clear by an exciting Exhibit Hall party on Monday night, which set the tone for the following days. The ILTA staff made such an effort to create a safe, friendly and inviting environment for all. I was glad to see the record-setting attendance numbers which had educational sessions bursting at the seams. Christy Burke, President, Burke & Company LLC

Huge focus and attention on AI and GenAI like everything in this space right now.  People want to show the cool thing that demos well.  How much it is translating into actual adoption with clear use cases and ROI is a much different story and that part is not there yet for the most part. Popularity of the conference seems to be greater than ever with more and more focus on tech.  We need to be careful not to forget the human components and value. Brandon Hollinder Vice President of eDiscovery and Cyber Solutions, Epiq

Brandon stole my thunder regarding the clear use cases and ROI. I would add based on interactions from meetings, I see: 1) more firms looking for tech, gen ai, and consulting around these from a common partner to help them on their journey rather than a large significant platform or multiple providers of these respective areas, 2) desire for more opportunities to gain experience / gets hands dirty related to AI, and 3) a healthy mixture of sessions and dialogue around the business of law and not overly focused on the practice of law. Scott Berger Senior Vice President of eDiscovery & Cyber Solutions, Epiq

I sensed a dubiousness towards all the GenAI hype. Lots of enthusiastic talk about all the possibilities, but little actual, practical, verifiable examples provided. One CIO stated they had not seen the promised productivity gains from GenAI … yet. But even these realizations are exactly why ILTACON is so great – attendees go to compare, consider, confirm, and take lots of notes. Thankfully there was plenty of those kinds of discussions. Brett Burney, VP, eDiscovery Consulting, Nextpoint Law Group

ILTACon remains the premier event for peer learning, networking and level setting. The vendor to customer ratio always seems to be a good one, with great representation by consumers of legal technology software and services. Shannon Bales, Automated Litigation Support Manager, Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP

ILTACON 2024 was full of in-depth content, with an emphasis on emerging AI functionality. The opening keynote by Amanda Fry was delightful and thought provoking, and got me thinking about the power, reliability, and risk of probabilistic technology—themes that carried on for me through the week. All the panel discussions I attended were well-prepared and substantive, although Wednesday’s keynote on security was too grim, opening with stories of home invasion and shotgun murders that I really didn’t need to hear first thing in the morning! I made some great new connections among the sponsors and attendees, and I even enjoyed the layout and energy of the exhibit hall this year. David Stanton, Partner, Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP

ILTACON 2024 brought a level of energy that made it nearly impossible to not enjoy yourself. While GenAI continued to dominate the conversation, the divide in AI understanding seems to have widened, with the more tech-savvy attendees focusing their attention on how (not if) we should use it, while the less tech-savvy are on the verge of being left behind. Bonus: the maze-like Gaylord Opryland was the perfect setting for running into familiar faces around every corner. Stephanie Wilkins, Editor-in-Chief, Legaltech News

There were 50 new companies on the exhibit floor, all AI related, and 49 of them won’t be around next year. While this may seem extreme, digital literacy is a growing concern for people in the industry and we need to be mindful to take an even keeled approach to learning – AI isn’t the only new technology to discuss or learn about. Besides our clients lamenting how EASY it is to get lost in the Gaylord, the top issue we heard from them during ILTACON was that while AI is the dominant talking point today, it shouldn’t dominate every panel or speaking session. Matthew Rasmussen, Founder & CEO, ModeOne Technologies

As a first-time attendee at ILTACON, this event did not disappoint.  Having recently utilised new GenAI tools on investigations, I valued chatting with like-minded people who are open and engaged with exploring ideas and creative applications.  The buzz created by face-to-face human interactions is not going anywhere. Chantelle Jalland, Managing Director, Digital Investigations and Discovery, J.S. Held

There were so many people who provided crowdsourced ILTACON 2024 observations that I couldn’t fit it all into one post! I’ll post the final set of comments I received on Friday! Thanks to all who crowdsourced ILTACON 2024 observations for me – you saved me writing three posts this week! 😀

So, what do you think? Did you attend ILTACON 2024? 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.