Techshow Attendees Assemble: A preview of this year's show

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Speaker C: If you look at this year's ABA Tech show advertising material, you can be forgiven for thinking that you are reading a comic book. Between the cartoon style illustrations and the comic book style captions and headings on the brochure on website, it's clear what motif the Tech show planners were going for. Perhaps that's appropriate, given how quickly generative and artificial intelligence tools have established a foothold in the legal industry. Like a superhero, or perhaps more accurately, a superhero sidekick, AI has helped save the day for a lot of lawyers. Of course, comics also bring up another image for AI, one that isn't so warm and fuzzy. So is generative AI more like Robin Cato or Crypto the Superdog? Or is it more like Skynet, Brainiac or Ultron? Or maybe somewhere in between? We'll cover that and many other things on this month's Tech show preview episode of the Legal Rebels podcast. Tech show will take place in Chicago from March 25th to the 28th at, um, McCormick Place. My name is Victor Lee and I'm assistant managing editor for the ABA Journal. My guests today are Tech Show 2026 co chairs Brett Birney and Patrick Wright. Brett is the founder of Bernie Consultants, which provides e discovery consulting and litigation support and teaches lawyers how to use MAX in their everyday practice. Patrick is the managing partner of the Wright Firm, a family law practice in the Dallas Fort Worth area. Brett and Patrick are here today to talk about what you can expect from Tech show this year. Welcome to the show, guys.

Speaker D: Oh, thanks for having us.

Speaker E: Yeah, thank you. Uh, we need to hire Victor to write our introductions. Man, that was great with the superhero stuff, but we'll get to that. Back in just a moment here.

Speaker C: Well, hopefully more superhero than super villain, right?

Speaker E: I like it.

Speaker C: So, obviously I just gave a very quick elevator version of your bio, so can you Each tell us a little bit more about yourself. Let's start with Brett. Can you tell me about yourself and your background?

Speaker E: Yeah. So my, quote, day job is electronic discovery. I work with a lot of lawyers at law firms, corporate legal departments, and helping them sort of navigate, uh, a crazy world today of, you know, collecting data, uh, processing it, reviewing it, producing it to the other side, a lot of civil litigation. But that bleeds over into all kinds of things like collecting text messages for even criminal matters, that kind of a thing. So I work with a company also called NextPoint, that's based there in Chicago, and just been involved and excited about technology pretty much all of my career, and naturally fell into the ABA Tech show early on. I think I'm. The first year I went was maybe 2002, 2003, which is always held in Chicago, of course, and just, uh, a little bit of a geek fest. I mean, truly, there are places there for everybody if you're new to technology or not comfortable with it. And then there's a lot of us that get together almost every year now and just really enjoy geeking out and talking about all of the ways that technology today can help, uh, lawyers, continues to help lawyers and how it changes, you know, so many things from email to cloud to AI Today. It's just really amazing. Exciting times.

Speaker C: Gotcha. And, um, how about you, Patrick?

Speaker D: Well, um, Victor, I'm a 31 year, like, regular practicing lawyer. I mean, Rhett's laughing at me, but I have a tie on. If our board was on here, they'd probably be making fun of me right now for wearing a tie. But I'm, like, in the trenches. Practicing lawyer. I have a small firm in North Texas, and the bulk of my practice is family law. But years ago I got involved in, um, the law practice division with the ABA and then also subsequently with the Law Practice committee with the State Bar of Texas. And so in my role with the State Bar and also work with the aba, the majority of it has been with sort of small firms, practice management, and then technology. And then it sort of morphed into the technology space from, uh, you know, systems and software, now head on into AI. And so now not just with the aba, but with the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, my local county. Um, I, like Brett, go all over everywhere trying to help lawyers, educate them on, uh, technology. And ABA Tech show is just a humongous part of that that brings really a ton of value to, you know, lawyers, practitioners, educators, students even, um, as far as what's going on in the marketplace. And so that's kind of how I got involved with it. But, yeah, like what Brett said, just. It's more. It's just a lot of fun being in the space right now.

Speaker C: So, uh, I do want to say the right firm. That's a great name for a law firm. It's a good name. Your name isn't Patrick Wrong, right?

Speaker D: Yeah, it really is. Well, I've been accused of being wrong before by co counsel, but interesting, Victor, that I did have the state bar originally tell me I couldn't use that name because they thought at that time it was a trade name. And so I got a rejection letter that I could not use my own name. We quickly cleared that up because my website is the right lawyers. No, no, no. Play on words, of course. But yeah, but yeah, it's a good, good observation.

Speaker C: Yeah, I've heard Texas can be quite. Yeah, they can be quite strict with those. With those rules about advertising.

Speaker D: I'm going to be on my best behavior.

Speaker C: So, yeah. So this question will be for each of you then. What. What number. How many shows have this been for you? Uh, for you guys? And let's start with Patrick first. Like, what number show is this for you?

Speaker D: I want to say this is five or six for me.

Speaker C: Okay.

Speaker E: And Brett, I think my first one had to be either 2002 or 2003. So I'm about, what, 22, 23 right now for ABA Tech Show. Yeah. Yeah. And just by the way, to add on that, this is the 41st annual ABA Tech Show. Obviously, you know, Covid throws a little bit of wrenches into it, but last year we celebrated the 40th anniversary of ABA Tech show, and this year is 41.

Speaker C: Yeah, I think this is my 13th.

Speaker E: Oh, nice.

Speaker C: Tech show. Yeah. All in a row. Yeah. And I remember that. That Covid one. That was weird. Uh, I mean, you do what you can, right? But like.

Speaker E: Of course, yeah.

Speaker C: And also I remember, I think the 2020 show was right before everything shut down. So there was like a weird. Right. It was just like a weird atmosphere at that point. Like, everyone was kind of like, hey, uh, this is going to be the last show for a while.

Speaker D: I was saying, Victor, I should probably add that into my count. I'd block that from my mind.

Speaker E: Yeah, yeah.

Speaker C: Uh, so I guess, you know, for both of you then. I mean, you know, and even five years is. Or six years, I guess is a lot of things have change. How has the show changed in the time that you've been going to tech Show? I Guess. Let's start with Brett. How has the show changed from when you first started going to where it is now?

Speaker E: Uh, bigger number one. I mean, so this is actually the second year that we are in the McCormick Center Convention center in Chicago. So, you know, we talk about that 2020, uh, ABA tech show that was held at the Hyatt Regency on the river in Chicago. Right, Yep. And before that we were at the Hilton on Michigan Avenue. Right. Uh, the historic Hilton, which originally was like the Stevens, I think it was John Paul Stevens Hotel. Right. It was like their family that was there for a long time. And even before that it was the Sheraton on the river, almost right across from the higher Regency. I mean, it's always been in Chicago. It's always been hosted in Chicago. And so just that alone, Victor, I mean, the fact that the size has grown to what it is today is just amazing. And the fact that we're in the McCormick center, which is huge, and it was a little cavernous last year. You remember that. Although that's. It's going to be a little bit different. Uh, you know, just quickly go to the comic theme. I know you might come back to this, but this year it's actually the same time as what we generally call the Chicago Comic Con.

Speaker C: Yeah, I saw that.

Speaker D: Yeah, yeah.

Speaker E: The Chicago Comic and Entertainment Expo. C2E2. So in addition to, you know, the 2,500, uh, attendees or so for ABA Tech show, there's going to be another 100,000 attendees that will be in cosplay for the Chicago Comic Con anyway. So that alone, just the size of it and just to see how people have continued to flock to it, you know, as like sometimes even just looking for answers or a lot of times what we get, the feedback from so many attendees is always the educational sessions is what they're looking for. The networking with other similar law firms. Right. That they wanted to say, hey, how are you handling this? What are you doing? And then third is the Expo Hall. So many attendees just really appreciate coming to one location and being able to jump around to different booths and talk to different vendors and ask them like, how do we do this? How can we solve for that? So even that I've seen the difference in the Expo hall, you know, and some of the things that used to be a lot of cloud providers. Right. And it used to be a lot of ediscovery providers and all of those are still there. But just seeing the change. And today, of course, you know, it's pretty much, it's just Inundated with AI. Wherever you look on that, which is a good thing. Again, this is a place where we want people to come and to get some understanding from some of that. And so, you know, you ask about how it's changed. It's even those topics have also changed. You know, we still have things that are the same. We still have the basics as we call it. The, I think we call it the, uh, the. The core skills is like how to use Microsoft Word and we've got fantastic speakers on that and Outlook and things that are just the core makeup of what would the tools that we use every day. But then we have sessions also that focus still on cyber security. But then we're pushing it a little bit more. How to do. We have workshops on AI, how to create AI prompts, for example, or use notebooks. AI notebooks, for example. So, you know, always every year there's just changing to try to better accommod topics and the questions that people have.

Speaker C: Yeah, I saw the C2E2 thing. I was wondering if you guys did that intentionally or not.

Speaker E: Um, well, now you know the comic book theme.

Speaker C: Right? Okay, now it's starting to make sense

Speaker E: of there because we figured, Victor, we should just, you know, I mean, if you can't beat it, we're not going to beat them. Like, you're going to walk through McCormick Sitter. They're going to be there. You might as well join in the fun. And so we even have named the tracks. If you're looking at some of the tracks, for example, that, uh, we, we had like, like I said, the tech core, the litigation superpowers. Our cybersecurity track is guardians of the data.

Speaker C: Yeah, I saw that.

Speaker E: So, so we are, you know, we're trying to like, let's go for it. Like, well, we're going to do what we can. Taming the machines. That's what we're calling our AI Workshop track. So we're. We're there part and parcel. So hey, if you come to tech show, wear a cape, you know, dress up as Daredevil, whatever you want to do, we're here to welcome you.

Speaker C: Gotcha. How about you, Patrick? How is. How has the show changed from just from the time that you first started?

Speaker D: You know, Brett's naming all these places. So maybe I've actually been there to more tech, remember? Because all these places I've been to. So. So I'm like, maybe I've been to more. But you know, I would say this. So I've. I kind of have a Little different perspective. You know, I come from Texas and so we have big conferences in Texas and so um, I just this last year chaired our, one of our um, family law conferences, which literally is the largest family law conference in the world. I think I checked from an attendance standpoint. So I'm sort of in the same year, you know, 12 month time frame being involved in these two big conferences. And so I'm sort of like comparison. I would sort of reiterate and hit on what Brett had hit on, which is it's gotten a lot bigger by nature of the conference getting bigger necessitated sort of a location change because we sort of needed more space. And we uh, you know, I think everybody was with the understanding and I think attendees should understand that that's been sort of a process of working process that we're working out kinks and trying to make it better. That's uh, everybody's goal. But bigger space, I mean we, the vendor floor is just absolutely amazing now as compared, if you remember some of the hotels we were in down the basement. And so it's just, it's a really, it's a trade show. And so as compared to some of the other conferences that I go to, certainly in Texas, we don't have, you know, 100 plus vendors. And you don't have that opportunity if you're um, even a first time attendee or someone who's been to this conference. Every year there's been so much change in the marketplace. If you really think about it, where else do you have the opportunity, Opportunity to walk a floor and to walk up to boost and actually talk to the people, look at the software, demo it like all in one place and pretty much all the big players are there. Everybody, if you're a small firm or a solo firm or even a large firm, there's just a lot of stuff there. So I think size, obviously location. We have two keynotes this year that's new, that we've tried to expand. We may, I don't want to like go all into that. I will if you want me to, but that's something that's different. And then the other thing about it too this year is that we've really tried to look and see what's going on out in the world. Um, Victor, you know, Brett will certainly emphasize this because what he does for a living, but it's changing so fast and so. Because it's really hard if you're doing these conferences when you're trying to plan out. Because we started this a year ago and started Trying to forecast and look out and to see what we thought would be relevant and appealing to, you know, people and lawyers in this space. And so we've done our best job with our help of our amazing board. And they are amazing. I mean, this is, like, a really great board. And the aba, we've tried to come up with, uh, content that we think is going to be relevant and to project out. So I think content's amazing. We tried to make the tracks a little bit more appealing this year, you know, from a content standpoint. We've got two keynotes, we've got more vendors, new location. I mean, it's just a revamped, sort of reworked, you know, still the same amazing show, but it's growing up, and so it's getting older and so. And that being said, we are trying to grow with it and grow with the times and. And stay up to date as best we all can with the emerging technology.

Speaker E: Yeah.

Speaker C: Uh, although I have to say, I still have a soft spot for the old Hilton. I did like that venue a lot. There's a lot of charm to it. Plus, you know, plus it's like, you know, I knew where everything was, so I could, like, if I needed to kind of duck out for a little bit to kind, you know, write something, I could. I could find, like, a nice, quiet spot. So. But no, I. I get where you're coming from. I mean, it was. I think the Hilton probably was a little bit too small. And then obviously, then with the Hyatt and I mean, you know, like, with, um, you know, it's a good space and whatnot. But. But, yeah, I mean, with McCormick Space, obviously, it's just such a huge venue. I mean, you know, it does. It does cut something to feel, though. Like, um, I felt last year, though, maybe it was a little too big, and maybe that was. Maybe. But. But also, I think part of it was that, like, there was nothing else going on in the other, um, convention area, so that maybe that added to it. Yeah, so maybe that kind of added to it a little bit. So it'll be interesting to kind of see what it's like this year with. With the hustle and bustle. So. So that's. If you see someone dressing the terminator, there's a 50% chance that they're. That they're coming to tech show. So, um. All right, so let's, uh, take a quick break for a word from our sponsor, and then we'll be right back. And we're back. So let's talk about this Year's show, you talked a little bit about sort of some new things that we can expect. But first, let's, uh, get some details. How many attendees are you expecting to be at the show as of now?

Speaker E: You know, it's a good question. And in fact, you know, the, the law practice division of the ABA is, who tracks a lot of this right now. I mean, we see it going back and forth. We find in the last month or so that there's a lot more that come on. But, uh, we're probably expecting, uh, between 2100 and 2500 somewhere around there. And then you have vendors that come in as well. There's a lot of people from the Chicago area that come in, you know, either maybe, maybe just to go to the expo hall, for example, or sometimes they come in just for one day of sessions. We're tracking very well from the last few years in what we've seen and have high expectations.

Speaker D: I would say this, Victor, just so you know, because we are a tech conference that we are actually track, using AI to track. So while Brett and I both are sworn to double secret secrecy on numbers, I can't just say at the moment we're ahead of where we were. And I can say that the way our system's set up, we're tracking it literally by the hour. And so it's. Which we have never before. And so, um, I would say the ABA is done amazing, um, with that. But, um, but I'll say that's a new technology internally that we've been using that's really going to provide a lot, a lot of data for us going forward. But so, but you know, you never know on conferences. You know, we, we have, we're, you know, you have a lot of market conditions right now, a lot of stuff going on in the world. So you just, you just, it's kind of hard to say but like what the final number would be. But I think that Brett's in, in the ballpark. But like I said, it's, it's kind of weird now when you're doing these conferences about what your attendance is a little different.

Speaker C: Yeah, no, I get that. I mean, because I ask this question every year and it's, it's very similar to, to, um, the answers that I used to get. Because. Yeah. I mean, I think last year even there was like, if I recall, maybe it was last May, was last year, maybe the year before, there was like a big snowstorm, I think.

Speaker D: Yeah.

Speaker C: Or something.

Speaker D: Yeah. We had weather last year.

Speaker C: Yeah. So people, people couldn't fly in on the day that they were supposed to. And so sometimes they come in the next day, sometimes they don't come in. Yeah, I remember. I remember that. Um, so, yeah, obviously, I know you got to take the did the attendee number with a grain of salt, but, yeah, I just figured I'd ask for this, ballpark it.

Speaker D: You know, it's a good question. We deal with it daily.

Speaker C: Yeah, gotcha. So I talked. I talked about AI in the intro, obviously, and maybe went a little overboard with the comic thing, but. So, uh, I'll ask. I'll ask this to you, Brett. How can lawyers best utilize AI? And how would you recommend that? Lawyers want to know more about us to spend their time with the show?

Speaker E: Yeah, that's a good question. And similar to what Patrick was talking about, you know, we literally start planning this show right after. Immediately after the last show. So we've been talking about this for a year. And so, in one sense, we had a lot of discussion as to what is going to be important a year from now, because, as you well know, it's so fast. It's so overwhelming with how quickly things are changing. And so it was important for us at least to try to do our best to kind of expect what is going to be important. And then the second thing I'll say in that is, we also had discussions internally along those lines of, you know, let's maybe not have a specific AI track. Like, we had many discussions to be like, in a year's time, we think AI is probably going to be baked into just about everything we're talking about, whether it's Microsoft Word or cybersecurity or practice management or document management. And so we felt it was important to not have an AI track, which I feel like a lot of conferences do, and for good reason. But we are just like, if you look at some of the sessions, even if it's like a core technology track or if it's something on cybersecurity, guess what? There's AI that's built into that. Or litigation. Another one of our big tracks is litigation or electronic discovery is what, uh, uh, we call it litigation superpowers. But there's AI all over the place in that. Right. And so we just kind of wanted to make sure that it was baked into all of those individual sessions. Now, that said, we do actually have a track that we wanted to provide on AI more from a workshop standpoint. So we have a track that we call AI workshops, where we wanted people to go into the room and learn how to create the right prompts. How to use Google Notebooks, for example, how to use Microsoft Copilot. You know, Ben Shores is a, uh, longtime legal technology consultant. I've served with him many years on the tech show board, formerly at Microsoft itself. He is a fantastic speaker on talking about Copilot. That was some of our most well attended sessions last year. So, you know, from things, from that aspect, it's so important for us to make sure that people leave and come to the tech show and leave with some very practical technologies that they can use or tips that they can use or workflows that they can use. That resonated with us as the planning board so much. And so, you know, that can be applicable whether you're just starting out with Copilot or whether you've been using Copilot for a while, while you're going to walk away with something that you can utilize on that Monday when you get back to your office.

Speaker C: Gotcha. I mean, just obviously having attended so many of the shows and whatnot, obviously, sometimes then you guys end up not bringing things back or you decide to maybe change things or maybe.

Speaker D: Or they scare you.

Speaker C: Oh yeah. Or that too. Um, so I get. So I guess, Patrick, I'll ask you this. How do you guys decide what to, uh, maybe not do or not or to discontinue or maybe to change or to like bring it back maybe in a different form.

Speaker D: We've done this different ways over the years. All right. I mean, I've seen it done every way to. Everyone comes up with their talk. It's. And Brett knows what I'm talking about right now. And, and, and you know, like a giant sticky wall with, with all these topics laid out. Right. And then, you know, two. I think this year probably, I'm not saying this because Brett and I are on here, but I think from the process I've seen, I think it, um, was probably one of the easiest process because we had such great ideas. I really, Brett will know, because I said this, that I really think that like, you know, you go to the cutting room floor and you could probably have another three conferences for the amount of material that we came up with. But what we were trying to do is hit topics that we thought that our audience would like. And Brett's 100% right. We contemplated having an AI track. We, we decided we wanted to do a workshop, but we also wanted to not forget that, that AI is a part of a regular practice. But there's so many other softwares out there and products out there. That the regular practitioner is using, um, for example, discussion about Word and things like that, that really people only use a portion of it. And so we wanted the conference attendee to not just be overwhelmed with just AI, but to really look at some other things in their practices that they could take away with. You know, such things like cybersecurity, training your staff, and then, you know, you know, planning for the worst, you know, e discovery, which Brett's a master on. And then, and then also like, we've got like a great one on like tracking people and products, location based technologies, sort of, uh, for the litigation track for evidence, which is kind of cool. And so. And another one on deepfakes. And so some of these things are AI related, but they're really sort of, you know, things that we saw in the marketplace because we wanted someone to walk away. Because if you're a litigator, you've got these issues in litigation. If you're a regular practitioner and you're running a business, we've got a ton of marketing stuff, which, if you're a regular lawyer and you go to a lot of lawyer conferences, then what you know is that if you're on any of those planning boards, you know that sometimes the marketing stuff gets pushed out the door because, well, we sometimes can't get CLE credit for it. But, you know, there's so much marketing stuff built in here that I think it's really gonna help the regular practitioner walk away from this with tools they can implement to not only make their practice better, but to make more money. And so there's just a lot of stuff in here that's really not. That's at a basic level, it's really gonna help you with your practice.

Speaker C: Well, the money will probably definitely catch their attention. So I guess, yeah, like, uh, one of you talked about keynotes and whatnot. So I guess this question. I'll send this one to Brett just by. To alternate. How did you guys decide on, uh, the keynote this year? Why did you decide 1, 2. Because, I mean, I, I know there have been some tech shows in the past that have had multiple keynotes. I think there was a. Or like plenary sessions or whatnot. So why did you decide to have two keynotes this year and how did you decide on those two speakers?

Speaker E: Probably because there were so many suggestions. I mean, again, we started thinking about this even a year ago and I mean, there were many, many, many, many names that were just kept shuffling through our calls or the meeting meetings where we had, and we wanted someone like Jordan Furlong, he is our keynote for Thursday morning. That knew the, the legal industry that has been writing about it for a long time. I mean, Jordan's been coming to ABA tech shows for a long time. He's written books on this. Very well known from like a futurist aspect there, but even what I would call like a realist, uh, futurist, if you will. In other words, he grounds a lot of what he talks about in like, practical applications of what, of what it can do. And so we felt like that was a way to start off with helping people understand. I mean, I think his session is preparing the legal profession for a post AI world. So you can see he's even already looking maybe a little bit beyond. Like, the idea is like, we're already in an AI world, but then we wanted to leave folks at the end on Friday evening with even maybe more of a bigger picture. Right? You've been to two days of educational tracks. And so Nilay Patel is the editor in chief of TheVerge.com, which is a huge technology reporting outfit, you know, that's been writing for a long time. A lot of us get a lot of news. In fact, I've just been reading them about some of the Apple announcements that happened this week, for example. And actually he's a trained lawyer. Like he actually practiced for a little bit. He always says he's not a good lawyer. Um, and I think his wife is actually a lawyer in New York as well. But you know, he turned into more of the journalist aspect of there. But he obviously, because of that, he's got an excellent way of looking at the technology world today. You know, we wanted to bring in some other perspectives. Like he talks a lot about software engineers today, which, you know, where we're lawyers, like, do we care about that? We should. And Nilay is somebody that can actually kind of help us understand why that could be important. Like, where are some of these jobs or even some of the other applications of AI, you know, that we may not even think of just because we're in our sort of our legal bubble, but that he can provide some of that perspective on there as well. And then I'll turn it over to Patrick. We actually have something I'm even just as excited about on, um, Saturday morning that we're just getting to solidify right now. And Patrick's going to take that on. So we wanted to give people a good reason to stay over for Saturday morning as well. And I'm very excited about this Saturday morning.

Speaker D: We can confirm that we are going to have the current president, Michelle, uh, Binky of the American Bar, we are going to have the past, immediate past president Bill Bay, and we are going to have the future president, Barbara Howard of the American Bar for a conversation on the rule of law, how we're all navigating these historic times, how technology is implementing practices, AI is affecting law firms and everything else that we can talk about in a conversational standpoint of how lawyers are supposed to navigate what's going on in the world. Right now on Saturday morning at 9. It's going to be a really amazing conversation and I don't know, I'm sure it's happened, but I don't know in recent past if we've ever had the current, the future and the past presidents of the American Bar association on stage to talk about these things. And I think it also highlights sort of their commitment to the show, the understanding of the importance of what's going on in the world in the show and their understanding of our attendees and the value and the audience that's there. And so we're just grateful that they have agreed, all three of them to come and share their wisdom and talk about, about, you know, what the ABA has been going through these past years and where we're at right now and where we're going. Uh, I think it's going to be a, uh, really interesting. I think we, we might even make it a solid hour. I think it's going to be a really interesting hour.

Speaker E: They're excited too. We had a call with them and they are very excited to be there because I don't think two of them haven't even been to a tech show before. Bill Bay has, you know, has been to some and is a very big supporter of ABA Tech Show. We are very thankful for that. So we're just very excited. We're excited that they're excited to be there too.

Speaker C: Yeah, I thought that was pretty cool when I saw that. And I'm not saying that just because the ABS has my paychecks, but I did think that was pretty cool and I look forward to that. So let's take another quick break for a word from our sponsor. We'll be right back. And we're back. One thing I've always liked about TechShow is that it provides something for everyone. Uh, neophytes can learn about basic workplace technology software while more experienced conference goers can learn about more advanced cutting edge tech to make their practices more efficient. So, so let's break it down for each scenario so let's say I'm a total neophyte. I've never been to tech show before. I can barely use Microsoft Word and email. I consider that to be like, you know, the high point of my technological expertise. Let's go to you first, Patrick. How would you suggest that I plan my schedule so I get the most out of the show?

Speaker A: Wow.

Speaker D: You know, I would say that's a fabulous question. I really love that, because I seem to get caught in this bind every year because it's like your Stretch Armstrong and your pulled between. What do I want to attend first? I mean, even I. When I was looking at the content and the. And the speeches that we have, I was like, I want to go to that, and I want to go to that, and I want to go to that. And so. But I would just say this. Look at the conference programming schedule if you haven't been there before. And you have to understand that we actually, if you look on one of the program guides, it shows Thursday, so Thursday, Friday, and then like a half day Saturday. But we actually have our Startup Alley on Wednesday night. All right. And so if you're a new person. I remember the first time I came and I saw people and they said, oh, I'm going to this event. And I'm like, what are you going to? And they're like, startup Alley. And I was like, what? Startup Alley? And I'm like. And they're like, come on. And so I went along and I was like, so. So understand that there is an event going on on Wednesday night, and then there's a reception after that event. And so these are startups that have pitched their wares and will go up on stage and. And you know, it's like a. It's kind of a shark tank sort of, uh, you know, where they're going to do their pitch for, last I checked, three minutes. Right, Brett. And so, um. And so they're going to do their pitches for three minutes, and then, so you'll get to see if you're sort of a newbie, this emerging new technology in the legal space that you're going to get to see before most people on the planet get to see. Right? So that's one that's on Wednesday night, the next day. The important thing to know is, is to look at that schedule. And this is where it gets complicated, because you want to look and see what. What topics you want to go to, but you also want to spend time in the vendor hall. Right? And so my. The thing I always do is I'M like, oh yeah, you know, either I get in the vendor hall and I miss the speech I want to go see or I'm in some speech and I miss the vendor hall. So you got to balance your time out to make sure that you allocate enough time to go to those. And then the other thing I would say too is in the evenings, um, so we do a Taste of Tech Show. So stop by if you're new, stop by at the concierge booth is what I'm referring to it as. It's going to be in the center. We're going to have some sign up sheets. Go there the very first time you show up, uh, go there and then if you can actually pick a dinner. And so if you've never been to the show before and you want to meet people, find a topic, go to a dinner. It's an. I mean, Chicago has amazing restaurants, as we all know. And so, you know, go to a restaurant, you know, you'll be able to meet people. Uh, every Taste of Tech show dinner that I've gone to, I've had a great time. It's a really good place to start out and meet people as well. But I think that on the planning of it, the good thing to do is to try to pre plan before you go and then find out what you're interested in and then just go to that speech or look at the topic or also what I've also done is in the past is I'll go look at our vendor list because, and I don't know, I don't remember where it is, but there is a list in the programming guide of all the vendors and their products and I will literally go through there and highlight all the booths that I want to go to and I will go visit every single one of them to see what products they have and to demo things. Because I'm a law firm owner, so I want to see what's new. Even the products that I use every day I go buy those booths and I'm like, hey, what do you. What's new? What do y' all have? And um, and so I think it's just a good way to look at it.

Speaker C: And then so. And over to you, Brett. So let's say I'm somewhere in the middle. I use some tech in my practice, maybe, maybe a practice management program or some cloud software, maybe some, maybe some m. Generative AI. But I'm not like a super user or anything like that. So how would you suggest it? And I plan my schedule so I get the most out of the show.

Speaker E: Yeah, I don't know that it's that much different. Looking at the schedule, like I said, we've organized in the day, the two days into five tracks for if that makes sense. So I've already mentioned a few of them. Like, you know, for the litigation track, we have one called the Tech core. So that's really focused just on the core technology you use, like Microsoft Word and Outlook PDF, for example, we have guardians of the data, which is the cybersecurity. We have conquering change, which again, uh, Patrick alluded to this a little bit. We felt it was important this year to actually provide, I guess, almost maybe like some soft skills, some people skills, you know, some. Well, being kind of an angle on there just because we do believe it's so important. Like, we even have one called Digital Detox. Right. And some of that. So if you think about it in that sense, maybe looking at the tracks, sometimes I find at least that while just like Patrick, I always want to go to, like three different things every hour. But, you know, if you. If it's hard to decide, you can always kind of fall back onto one of those tracks. So if you know that it's important, the Tech core is always important. We anticipate those classes to probably be full because everybody's using Microsoft Word, everybody's using PDF files. Right? Right. And so if you know that there's something you can at least fall back on, that's a good. That that's a good thing to at least say, okay, well, if I can't decide, this is what I'm gonna go to, just because this is what I need. Patrick alluded to the fact, if you go to techshow.com there is a PDF brochure at the very top. You can click brochure, and that's like a PDF file that sometimes it's a little bit easier to kind of look at all of the sessions there. And that's what Patrick, I think, was alluding to, like being able to circle the sessions. And then again, I would just reemphasize, just like Patrick said, a lot of people, you know, come to Tech show knowing that they specifically want to go and talk to these vendors. Right. Because they've heard about them, um, or they want to see it in action, or they want to ask very specific questions, but they don't want to, you know, do a phone call, like with their office. Like they're there at Tech show away from the office because they know that they've got Time. And if you go to techshow.com, there's an expo hall floor plan and it will show you exactly what booth number that these companies will be at. And so you can plan your trajectory right exactly where you wanna walk and plan exactly when you wanna go and talk to those folks. And we've scheduled expo hall breaks in between, you know, throughout the day, obviously, and they're usually about an hour long. We even have lunch and learn sessions. So that's a great time. That'll all be an expo hall so that you'll have plenty of time to make sure you go around and talk to those folks. And even if you don't have enough time to talk with them because you wanna see several folks, a lot of times you can exchange, uh, a, or you know, LinkedIn profile and at least have somebody you can talk to at a later time. You know, a lot of our exhibitors that come always appreciate the fact that over the next several weeks they have times that they can set up for demo calls and things. So I know it's not a whole lot different than what Patrick was saying, but again, we're giving this, this advice based on what we've heard all the years that people find is so helpful, is to have just a little bit of that planning component in there. Know, before you go. A little bit.

Speaker C: Gotcha. And then finally, I guess, uh, well, finally for this scenario and let me go to Patrick for this one. Let's, let's say I'm a regular. You know, I, I know, I know a lot of people there. Maybe I'm not like you guys, you know, knowing everybody, but I know a lot of people at the show. They know me. I have a lot of technology in my practice and maybe, maybe I even speak on some panels and whatnot. How would you then suggest that I plan my schedule to get, to get stuff out of the show? Because you would think, you know, people like that, they probably know everything. They don't need to be told told or uh, or they don't learn anything. But there are still things that they can get out of the show, right?

Speaker D: Oh my God.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker D: So, so the thing that you have to think is, is that even, you know, I saw someone the other day posted on X that in order to keep up with AI, you had to be unemployed. And so I thought, I thought even with us that are, that are in the space, that read way too much, get way too many newsletters, you know, even us, it's hard to keep up with it all. So I Think this. I always say, there's the show within the show within the show. Some of the show is going to the sessions, some of the show is going to the dinners. Some of the show is going to the floor to see all these amazing vendors and their new changes. And then some of it is just meeting those people that you already know and catching up. Um, and then, though, and then in those discussions, they're going to say, are you using this? Have you seen this? Have you gone over to this booth and check these people out? And so that happens, like now in almost every single show. And I learned stuff from the people, just the other attendees that have been regular attendees that have been going there, that, frankly, if you like talking about this stuff, it's kind of a little heaven, you know, like going to heaven for a couple of days because you're just like immersed in all this, this great stuff and you're hanging out with your friends. I just think that, you know, now I try to make it every year. Early in the early days as a practitioner, a really small firm, then, you know, I was. I had this plan of doing every other year because my deal was, oh, technology. Think about this, how crazy this is. Oh, technology's not changing that fast. The, uh, software is not going to be that different from year to year. Think about that. But now we look at it and I'm like, oh, it's changing so fast. I think that, that if you look at a lot of the stuff from now, there's so many changes in the last 12 months that I just think that it's. I mean, it's almost like you're rolling over a different part of the show every time. So it's pretty easy to say, even if you've been there a lot, there's new stuff there.

Speaker C: Gotcha. And then finally, obviously, tech show is fun, a lot of fun things to do. What are. And this question for both of you, what are some things that you're looking forward to? Um, as far as, like, you know, like either dinners or, you know, events or receptions. What are some things that you guys are looking for, too?

Speaker E: Yeah, again, the networking. Just exactly what Patrick was saying there. Even if I know that I'm going to see folks just exactly what he said. Hey, so last time we talked, you were doing this, or you were trying this tool out. How did that go? And what are you trying now? What are you looking at now? Things like that, to me are just gold. I mean, it's just, it's seeing good friends, but not even that. But I love to talk to folks that maybe have never attended Tech show or maybe they attended eight years ago or something and just to see the wide eyed looks on their face like, wow, I didn't even know this was here. Uh, did you know that this, this company was, you know, providing this platform? That's just going to make it easier or my favorite above all is, hey, I attended this Microsoft Word session with Baron Henley who, who is fantastic at teaching that. I had no idea that Word could do this. You can't believe this is going to change my life in the next week when I go back, right to me, that literally warms my heart just to hear folks that come and attend and um, and to get sort of that feedback. And then again, just the sessions again, like Patrick said, you know, I'm looking forward to like that Saturday after the ABA presidents are there, we actually have a judge that we've invited back to give his perspective on AI. And he came up with, I thought was one of the best sessions I'm looking forward to. It's called every brief you make. I'll be watching you a judge's reflection on recent AI developments. So it's just things like, just like you said, it's fun. I mean we have fun knowing that we're going to have practical takeaways, knowing that we are enabling folks with the right tools, the right knowledge. You know, it's overwhelming. It is like the technology right now, it's overwhelming, it's scary, but it's not avoidable. Like this is the world in which we practice today and having a place like this where you can kind of come together as a community, talk to others, hear what other people are doing, that just becomes the most valuable thing that you can take back to your practice.

Speaker C: Gotcha. How about you Patrick? What are you looking forward to?

Speaker D: You know, I think that in our discussions with, I want to say the president, uh, just because it sounds more official of the aba, I think, you know, I was talking to Michelle M. Binke about the recent Forbes article about the number of jobs that AI is going to take. And you know, there was some, you know, it's always between 50 and 60% most articles. And I think that her comment was really, really important. And she goes, you know, they're going to, you talk about those percentages, but it's going to affect 100% of the people in the industry. 100%. And so because of that, going to these conferences, talking about it, learning about it, seeing it, this training that we're all supposed to be Doing it becomes even doubly important to stay proficient from an ethics standpoint, um, and then also from a practitioner standpoint, uh, business owners. Owner. It's very important. So my. My takeaway is, is just by showing up, uh, you're taking a step forward in the direction that you need to do. So part of it showing up, and then the second thing is that showing up at the conference and then actually going to attend these shows. I want to hit on one thing that we haven't mentioned, one of the. Probably my favorite parts of the show, which is the 60 and 60. That's the, uh, that's the last on Saturday. And Victor, you're probably familiar with that, but. But the.

Speaker E: Yeah, he covers it. You've written on it several times, Victor. You always do a great job covering it.

Speaker D: I mean, it's just no pressure. And so no pressure for Brett and I. And so. But, um. But I'm just saying that that is actually. I mean, go to the show, Come see everything, right? I mean, if I. I mean, I would go spend the money just to go to the 60 and 60, but that's just me. But, but. But I'm just saying. Yeah. Because I like that so much. And it's just always just a ton of fun. So I don't want to forget. That's a really fun part of the show, too.

Speaker C: Gotcha. And the most important part for me now, are there going to be puppies there this year or no?

Speaker E: Puppies, yes.

Speaker C: Excellent.

Speaker E: T shirts. You can look for that. Come in your finest spandex and capes. Whatever you need, your masks, whatever you come to for Comic Con, come for the Comic Con, stay for the technology. It's going to be, I mean, again, again, you know, don't. Don't take this the wrong way. We have fun, right? Because this is part of what we have to do. We want to help everyone navigate it as best as possible. As you can tell, we're just passionate about this, but, um, yeah, it's going to be fun. And puppies will be there.

Speaker C: Excellent. Excellent. And so just to make sure everyone knows, tech show will, uh, take place from March 25 to March 28 at the McCormick Place in Chicago. Anyway, so to wrap up, if our listeners want to get in touch with you, uh, to talk about tech show or other things related to technology. What's the best way about to talk? Do that.

Speaker D: My email address, Patrick, the right lawyers dot com. It's T H E W R I g h t lawyers. That's L A W I E R S.com so email me and, uh, oh, yeah, we'll talk.

Speaker C: And then how about you, Brett?

Speaker E: Yeah, I. Well, I would just say first and foremost, go to techshow.com it's just one word, just like it says somebody thought a long time ago to get that URL in place. And it's been our, our parking place for a long time. Techshow.com you can find out how to get access to, to any of us there. But if you wanted to email me directly, you're welcome to email@berniextpoint.com berniextpoint.com Excellent.

Speaker C: All right, thanks again for joining us today. I appreciate it.

Speaker E: Thank you, Victor.

Speaker D: Thank you, Victor.

Speaker C: If you enjoyed this podcast and would like to hear more, please go to your favorite app and check out some other titles from Legal Talk Network. In the meantime, I'm Victor Lee, and I'll see you next time on the ABA Journal Legal Rebels podcast.

Speaker B: If you'd like more information about today's show, please visit legalrebels.com, legaltalknetwork.com. subscribe via iTunes and RSS. Find both the ABA Journal and Legal Talk Network on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. Or download the free apps from ABA Journal and Legal Talk Network in M, Google Play and itunes. The views expressed by the participants of this program are their own and do not represent the views, um, of, nor are they endorsed by Legal Talk Network, its officers, directors, employees, agents, representatives, shareholders and subsidiaries. None of the content should be considered legal advice. As always, consult a lawyer.