August 2009 Blog Archive

The 2009 ILTA Conference took place this week in Washington DC (actually at the Gaylord in nearby Maryland).  For those who have not yet experienced ILTA, it is an exceptional event due in large part to its peer-run DNA and focus on the “social” side of things (i.e. good parties, lots of reconnecting with friends and associates).  As we’ve seen everywhere else, the annual pilgrimage to ILTA took a hit from the recession…but the news was not all bad from the show.  Here are some off-the-cuff observations from this key event:

• Our back of the napkin math had overall attendance down at least 30-40%, perhaps more; this was not all bad news, however, as the quality of conversations was even better than last year as almost all attendees were there to really get things done
• Vendor representatives seemed to outnumber attendees, perhaps by a wide margin, which could be a first
• As always, the sessions were generally excellent.  We participated in an interesting panel with Patrick Oot (Verizon) and David Kessler (Drinker Biddle) which explored Early Case Assessment
•  Not too many earth-shattering announcements were made by vendors, as the battening-down-the-hatches approach of attendees seemed to be reflected amongst the vendors as well.  Partnerships – like that between LexisNexis and Recommind – and new flavors of familiar offerings (like the continued momentum seen with Axcelerate eDiscovery On Demand) seemed to be the most common themes
• Dealing with Information Risk, especially proactive information management, seemed to be a key underlying theme which will continue to pick up steam through 2009 and into 2010 and beyond.