After 36 people gave their ILTACON 2026 observations over three days, it’s my turn now. Here are my five ILTACON 2026 takeaways.
The International Legal Technology Association’s (ILTA) annual conference ILTACON 2026 was conducted last week at the Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center in Nashville, TN. I’ve covered it every which way, including a preview word cloud of the conference agenda, highlighting sessions each day of the conference, and the observations from attendees mentioned above. Here are my five ILTACON 2026 takeaways.
AI has created a legal tech “b-word”.
The only question is which “b-word”: bubble or boom? In one of his articles regarding the conference, Bob Ambrogi questioned whether we’ve reached “peak legal tech”. Paul Damato of Project Counsel Media said that “ILTACON 2026 became Legalweek” – thanks to AI. It has certainly become a “must-attend” for more legal professionals than ever (already was for me).
5,782 onsite attendees, the largest ILTACON ever, roughly 1,200 more than last year. The exhibit hall seemed busier than ever. Educational sessions – excellent as always (thanks Cristin Traylor, Umair Muhajir, Tiana Van Dyk and Alisa McLellan for a terrific discussion on AI validation that I moderated) – were mostly full.
It wasn’t that long ago (2022) when a few hundred over 3,000 was the record attendance that year. And that was after the 2021 “ghost town” ILTACON in Las Vegas when it was too late to cancel the conference after COVID-19 cases rose again due to the Delta variant and educational sessions designed to hold 300 attendees had as few as seven actual attendees. We’ve come a long way, baby!
ILTACON is growing so much that conference organizers are saying that the conference is outgrowing its current venues. Still, the conference is committed to them for the next several years, during which time we’ll have a better sense of this is a true legal tech boom or bubble. If it’s a bubble, it’s not showing signs of bursting anytime soon. BTW, it’s at the Gaylord in Nashville again next year, so maybe we’ll still remember what we learned this year about navigating around when we’re there next August? Nah! 😉
The “have-nots” are struggling to be noticed over the “haves”.
Dawn Hudgins, CXO at ILTA, informed press members that there were 241 booths in the exhibit hall this year, meaning that many exhibitors, including those in the Startup Hub. But a few of them dominated. As Haydn Jones reported, Harvey (which had the long exhibit booth wall that Tom O’Connor commented on in his observation) had 24 10×10 spaces, Fulcrum had 24, Legora had 22, and Clio had 18. Legora had huge buses skinned in their colors and logo taking people to their parties, including one where Sheryl Crow (yes, really!) performed.
With such a huge presence by a select few exhibitors, others were struggling to be noticed. ILTA says that they’re going to try rein in the size of the spaces next year to keep the bigger players from taking over so much of the space, but even for a non-profit like ILTA, it’s hard to say no when companies are offering huge amounts to exhibit. Of course, I’ve seen many companies spend big at conferences like ILTACON before, then drastically cut back when the revenue doesn’t follow the investment. The issue could eventually take care of itself.
Is “tokengeddon” looming for AI pricing?
One discussion I had with several press colleagues was the potential shift from seat-based to consumption-based pricing. Kristin Calve discussed it in an article pre-ILTACON here, and Joe Patrice referenced it in his eDT observation (which is where the “tokengeddon” term came from). Who isn’t talking about it? Legal tech vendors selling AI. At least not unless asked, and they didn’t really have a lot of insight to share (perhaps because they’re waiting to find out just like we are). Let’s all hope that light at the end of the tunnel isn’t actually a train. Nothing turns a boom into a bubble quicker than high prices.
The keynotes were inspiring, somber and thought-provoking.
I wasn’t sure what to expect from Jim Abbott, the former major league pitcher who was born without a right hand and still not only went on to pitch in the major leagues for ten years but even threw a no-hitter in Yankee Stadium. He turned out to be great – funny at times, while also discussing how he overcame his handicap to succeed and how people helped him along the way, like Mr. Clarkson (his second grade teacher) taught himself to tie shoes without a full second hand first so that he could then teach Jim how to do it. So inspiring.
On Wednesday, they had a recollection of 9/11 in advance of the upcoming 25th anniversary from those in the legal community who were there when it happened and impacted by it. As you might expect, it was somber and thought-provoking and presented as respectfully as possible with a scroll of the names of all the lives lost at the end. Tough to watch, but important to remember.
“Context” was the word of the conference.
Move over “iterative” – you are so “last year”! The meaningful, non-noise word I heard most at the conference (side note: AI is said so often, you can’t count it) was “context”. And I heard the word in just about every (wait for it!) context possible. For example, in our AI validation session, we talked about how you have to apply “context” when evaluating results from generative AI. Let’s all be thankful that nobody decided to play the “context” drinking game at any of the parties – at least I hope not! 🤣
So, what do you think? Did you attend ILTACON 2026? 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.
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