Marking Its 40th Anniversary In A New Venue, ABA Techshow Experiences Growing Pains

“April
is
the
cruellist
month,”
T.S.
Eliot
wrote
in
his
classic
poem,
“The
Waste
Land,”
and
the
same
might
have
been
said
for
the
attendees
navigating
a
waste
land
of
a
different
sort
last
week
–
the
vast
empty
waste
land
of
the
McCormick
Convention
Center
in
Chicago,
where
the
American
Bar
Association’s
Techshow
moved
this
year
from
its
former
venue,
the
Hyatt
Regency
Chicago.

Celebrating
its
40^th
anniversary
this
year,
Techshow
is
the
second-oldest
legal
technology
conference
still
running,
after
only
Legalweek,
which

started
in
1982.
Even
after
40
years,
and
even
at
a
time
when
we
now
have
a
glut
of
legal
technology
conferences,
Techshow
remains
one
of
the
best
of
the
lot
in
its
programming,
especially
for
lawyers
and
legal
professionals
in
smaller
firms.

In
fact,
if
I
were
to
grade
this
year’s
Techshow
solely
on
its
programming,
I
would
give
it
a
very
high
mark.
In
recent
years,
Techshow’s
programming
has
grown
stronger
than
ever,
and
several
people
remarked
to
me
that
they
thought
this
year’s
line-up
of
speakers
and
panels
exceeded
their
expectations.

That
is
notable
because
there
had
been
a
time
when
Techshow
had
come
to
be
perceived
–
even
by
some
within
the
ABA
–
as
stale.
It
was
perceived
as
simply
rounding
up
the
usual
suspects
every
year
to
fill
out
its
faculty.
(As
I
reported
in

a
blog
post
a
decade
ago,
after
crunching
the
numbers,
that
was
not
actually
true.)
It
had
also
been
perceived
as
in
need
of
a
“reimagining”
for
failing
to
have
kept
pace
with
the
vitality
and
content
of
newer
legal
tech
conferences,
to
the
point
where
a
task
force
was
briefly
convened
in
2018
for
that
very
purpose.

But
as
legal
technology
has
dramatically
has
evolved
in
recent
years,
accelerated
by
the
pandemic
and
generative
AI,
the
programming
at
Techshow
has
as
well,
achieving
a
strong
balance
between
the
practical
and
the
cutting-edge
with
programs
that
appeal
to
both
first-timers
and
veterans.

On
the
practical
side
were
programs
on
marketing,
ethics,
trial
presentation,
email
management,
trust
accounting,
Microsoft
Word
formatting,
and
cybersecurity.

On
the
cutting-edge
side
were
a
variety
of
programs
on
the
past,
present
and
future
of
generative
AI,
as
well
as
programs
on
the
regulation
of
law
practice,
virtual
and
remote
lawyering,
the
use
of
augmented
reality
tools
in
law
practice,
evolving
client
expectations,
and
the
future
of
law
practice
in
years
to
come.

All
of
this
programming
was
presented
this
year
by
a
roster
of
faculty
members
who
are
among
the
best
in
their
respective
areas
of
expertise.
They
included
practicing
lawyers,
law
practice
consultants,
bar
association
practice
management
advisors,
legal
tech
vendors,
law
school
faculty,
judges
and
judicial
administrators,
and
even
a
legal
tech
journalist
or
two.

Improvements
could
still
have
been
made
in
faculty
diversity.
Going
only
by
the
speakers
listed
on
the
Techshow
website,
of
the
82
total
speakers,
32
were
women,
or
about
39
percent.
(Some
listed
speakers
were
replaced
for
various
reasons,
not
least
among
them
the
nightmarish
travel
conditions
on
the
first
day
of
the
conference
that
virtually
shut
down
Chicago’s
O’Hare
airport.)

So,
in
its
40^th
year,
Techshow
offered
up
a
menu
of
3.5
days
of
programming
that
was
diverse,
educational,
practical
and
thought-provoking,
all
presented
by
a
top-notch
faculty
of
legal
tech’s
best
and
brightest.

The
Waste
Land

Unfortunately,
however,
the
celebration
of
Techshow’s
40th
anniversary
was
muted
by
gnawing
growing
pains,
brought
on
by
the
conference’s
move
to
the
McCormick
Convention
Center.

I
should
note
here
that
the
planning
of
Techshow
is
bifurcated.
A
planning
board
of
volunteers
is
responsible
for
the
programming
and
speakers,
led
this
year
by
cochairs
Steve
Embry,
author
of

TechLaw
Crossroads, 
and

Julie
Bays,
practice
management
advisor
at
the
Oklahoma
Bar
Association.
But
the
choice
of
location
is
that
of
the
ABA
and
the
event
management
group
it
contracts
with.
So
if,
like
me,
you
did
not
like
the
location,
don’t
blame
the
planning
board,
which
did
its
job
well.

That
said,
the
problems
this
year
started
with
the
McCormick’s
location. Whereas
Techshow’s
prior
location
at
the
Hyatt
Regency
Chicago
put
it
in
the
very
heart
of
Chicago’s
epicenter,
the
McCormick
complex
is
to
the
city’s
far
south,
just
beyond
the
aptly
named
Prairie
District.
This
was
not
a
location
amenable
to
exploring
the
city,
and
some
attendees
who
were
first-time
visitors
to
Chicago
told
me
they
were
disappointed
to
learn
how
far
they
were
from
the
city’s
more
vibrant
and
touristy
areas.

But
even
apart
from
its
location,
the
McCormick
Center
itself
seemed
a
horrible
fit
for
a
conference
that
had
long
maintained
a
sense
of
intimacy.
It
is
an
absolutely
massive
building
with
50-foot
high
ceilings,
2.6
million
square
feet
of
exhibit
space,
and
173
meeting
rooms
providing
600,000
square
feet
of
event
space.
Dropped
into
this
space
for
the
first
time,
this
40-year-old
conference
seemed
like
a
bewildered
child,
lost
in
a
land
of
giants,
unable
to
get
its
bearings.

They
say
you
sometimes
have
to
take
a
step
backward
to
move
forward,
and
with
steady
growth
over
the
years
and
record
attendance
of
some
2,000
people
this
year,
it
was
perhaps
time
for
Techshow
to
find
a
new
and
larger
home.
From
what
I
can
decipher,
it
seems
the
actual
reason
for
the
move
was
not
even
size,
but
scheduling,
as
the
Hyatt
was
unable
to
accommodate
the
dates
Techshow’s
planners
wanted.

But
this
year,
it
felt
as
if
the
soul
of
Techshow
–
which
is
always
one
of
my
favorite
legal
tech
conferences
to
attend
and
one
of
the
absolute
best
for
smaller
firm
lawyers
and
legal
professionals
–
was
lost
in
the
ginormity
of
the
venue.
With
Techshow
committed
to
this
location
for
another
two
years,
we
can
only
hope
that,
having
notched
its
first
year
in
this
new
home,
it
can
make
better
use
of
the
space
next
time
around.

It
is
important
to
emphasize
that
with
a
40-year-old
conference
comes
a
strong
sense
of
community
and
continuity.
There
were
people
attending
this
year
who
attended
the
first
year,
and
I
know
of
at
least
one
person
who
has
attended
all
40
years.
That
means
that
you
go
to
Techshow
not
just
for
the
programs,
but
for
the
people
–
to
reconnect
with
old
friends
and
make
new
friends.

Over
the
years,
even
has
Techshow
has
moved
its
location
several
times
from
one
Chicago
hotel
to
another,
it
always
maintained
a
strong
center
of
gravity
–
that
one
spot
in
the
conference
venue
where
attendees
naturally
congregated.

At
the
Hyatt,
its
last
location,
that
was
the
registration
area,
where
you
passed
through
to
get
your
badge,
attend
the
keynote,
go
to
sessions,
grab
a
box
lunch,
and
enter
the
exhibit
hall.
The
registration
area
was
always
teeming
with
people.
Stand
there
long
enough,
and
you’d
see
everyone
attending
the
show.

But
at
McCormick,
the
central
area
was
a
cavernous
space
that
seemed
almost
devoid
of
people.
As
you
entered
into
this
space,
the
view
was
of
a
waste
land
–
a
broad
empty
space
with
a
tiny
registration
booth
on
one
side
and
the
exhibit
hall
entrance
way
over
on
the
other
side,
and
only
a
handful
of
people
to
be
seen
in
the
largely
empty
terrain
in
between.

In
fact,
despite
this
year’s
record
attendance,
I
heard
several
first-time
attendees
express
surprise
at
how
sparse
was
the
attendance.
It
wasn’t
sparse,
at
least
not
by
the
numbers,
but
visually
it
certainly
seemed
to
be
so.
Honestly,
it
was
not
clear
where
all
the
people
were,
but
they
certainly
were
not
mingling
with
each
other.

To
make
matters
worse,
to
get
to
this
waste
land,
one
had
to
walk
what
seemed
a
very
long
way
from
the
hotel
to
the
conference.
God
forbid
you
should
forget
something
in
your
room,
because
to
go
back
to
the
hotel
and
back
to
the
conference
was
easily
a
half-hour
walk.
I
timed
it,
and
from
the
archway
that
marked
the
entrance
to
the
conference
area
back
through
the
McCormick
to
the
doors
that
led
into
the
hotel
took
me
six
minutes
and
30
seconds
–
and
I
walk
at
a
pretty
brisk
pace.
I
don’t
know
how
people
with
mobility
issues
were
able
to
manage
it.

Of
course,
from
adversity
comes
opportunity,
and
already
several
enterprising
vendors
are
hatching
plans
to
sponsor
golf
carts
or
electric
scooters
at
next
year’s
show,
although
the
need
to
navigate
several
escalators
along
the
way
would
allow
those
to
go
only
so
far.

Session
rooms
could
also
be
hard
to
find,
spread
out
over
several
floors
and
all
off
in
an
area
not
immediately
obvious
from
the
main
registration
area.
That
said,
once
you
figured
out
the
lay
of
the
land,
the
session
rooms
were
all
relatively
close
to
each
other
and
easy
enough
to
move
between.

From
the
people
I
spoke
to,
thoughts
on
the
exhibit
hall
were
mixed.
Vendors
and
attendees
all
seemed
to
like
the
space
as
roomier
and
brighter
and
generally
better
suited
to
exhibiting
than
the
former
space
at
the
Hyatt.
That
said,
several
exhibitors
complained
that
the
space
was
too
large
and
the
booths
too
spread
out.

But
the
biggest
complaint
I
heard
from
vendors
about
the
exhibit
hall
was
the
lack
of
traffic.
The
exhibit
hall
was
by
itself
way
across
that
vast
waste
land
of
the
registration
area,
and
on
the
complete
opposite
side
from
the
program
rooms.
There
was
nothing
to
draw
attendees
to
or
through
the
exhibit
space
except
to
see
the
exhibits
or
to
grab
the
daily
free
box
lunch,
and
many
a
vendor
griped
to
me
that
they
were
not
getting
traffic
comparable
to
what
they
had
seen
in
prior
years.

Now
It’s
Legalweek’s
Turn

Coincidentally,
the
move
of
this
second-oldest
legal
tech
conference
to
the
McCormick
Convention
Center
comes
just
after
it
was
announced
that
the
oldest
legal
tech
conference,
Legalweek,
will
next
year
move
from
its
longtime
home
in
the
New
York
Hilton
across
Manhattan
to
the
Javits
Convention
Center,
a
3.3
million
square
foot
behemoth
on
the
city’s
far
west
side.

Will
Legalweek
also
suffer
growing
pains?
No
doubt
it
will.
Maybe
all
these
growing
pains
are
good
things,
in
that
they
mark
a
stage
at
which,
even
after
40
years,
legal
tech
is
finally
reaching
maturity
and
getting
too
big
for
its
britches.

I
am
hopeful
that
Techshow’s
organizers
will
learn
from
this
year’s
shortcomings
and
make
better
use
of
the
McCormick
venue
next
year.

But
as
I
have
written
about
other
conferences
in
the
past,
organizers
need
to
remember
that
people
attend
a
conference
not
just
for
the
programming
–
they
can
get
a
lot
of
that
online.
They
attend
for
the
networking
and
the
community
and
the
overall
experience
of
being
with
like-minded
colleagues.
They
attend
for
the
serendipity
of
running
into
old
friends
and
making
new
ones.

In
the
waste
land
of
the
McCormick
Center,
serendipity
was
scarce.