It’s a brand new day at 8am. That’s true typically, however on this case, we’re speaking about tech supplier we used to call AffiniPay. Recent off its identify change, the corporate hosted its inaugural consumer convention final week in Austin, Texas. Whereas all the things is often larger in Texas — the wide-open skies, the slabs of slow-cooked brisket, the scale of the failed education system — 8am’s Kaleidoscope convention clocked in on the cozier aspect. However that’s the character of first-time reveals. There’ll all the time be a slice of the possible viewers who sits it out, preserving their powder dry till they hear again that it’s actually price it.
It was price it.
One can be hard-pressed to level to something that betrayed a rookie convention. A handy venue, wonderful meals, very good panels, and an exhibitor structure that maximized visibility with out feeling like working a gauntlet. In a refined stroke of genius, the programming broke from the customary cookie-cutter schedule and embraced breakout periods of various lengths. Some topics simply don’t advantage an hour, however that doesn’t make them much less necessary. Kaleidoscope had a “content-first” approach to panel selection and constructed a schedule to accommodate that. From ethical approaches to texting clients to utilizing AI to automate small agency authorized advertising, the panels lined a variety of sensible matters.
Even the one mistake that anybody may level out — a recurring typo on a number of the signage — morphed into 8am’s alternative at hand out extra swag. They couldn’t even make a mistake with out turning it round.
Olympian Gabby Thomas headlined the second day of the present. Superstar audio system are likely to lean into tortured metaphors to attach their careers again to the authorized trade. As a substitute, Thomas noticed a chance to speak about her personal career and… ran with it? Which, paradoxically, made it much more related to the job of lawyering than any square-peg-round-hole analogies. Describing the lifetime of an elite monitor star, she confused that the typical spectator watching at house doesn’t perceive that everybody in these high-profile races are all practically equivalent in capability. Success on that stage, Thomas defined, comes right down to small changes for fractional good points. And a heavy dose of perspective that you may’t management the competitors, however you possibly can management your personal course of.
That’s… fairly good recommendation for working a authorized observe. And particularly necessary to attorneys keen to maintain an open-minded method to authorized expertise. Securing that fractional enchancment — both within the substantive observe of regulation or in taking a number of the administrative duties off your plate — is basically a perform of tech adoption.
Determining which tech is the problem. Thomas offered some insights there too, explaining that she breaks down races into micro-moments, visualizing all the things from the stroll as much as the place precisely she needs to be positioned on the blocks to the place she needs to be on the end line. Authorized tech is shifting at a breakneck tempo, and if Biglaw corporations with devoted tech professionals battle to remain on high of it, how can solo practitioners match it into the already overloaded schedule?
One strong technique — which I outlined on one of many panels I sat on on the present — is to cease looking for the one-size AI answer and start researching merchandise that concentrate on particular use instances. To borrow from the visualization dialogue: map out the day. Take a while to consciously take into account the steps in all these workflows. Now, the place do you see alternatives to automate that, in a manner that you simply discover professionally snug? Thomas additionally talked concerning the next-level analytics she will get about each working motion, however confused that whereas she considers all of it, she gained’t settle for adjustments that she’s not snug with. The duties you’re prepared to show over to expertise won’t be the place everybody else is… and that’s nice. However determine it out.
Silicon Valley might run on groupthink — and nowadays, that groupthink is mostly very weird — however authorized expertise doesn’t must. There’s loads of room to disagree, particularly given how rapidly the panorama is evolving. I joined a number of different authorized tech writers in a reside model of our weekly webcast and/or podcast on the primary stage and we had a number of precise arguments about the way forward for the billable hour and whether or not or not “agentic AI” is an empty buzzword (it is).
And, in fact, there was loads of speak concerning the 8am product too (which Stephen Embry covered in more depth here). And companion demos. And all of the stuff a consumer would count on of a convention. A consumer present is a fragile stability between gross sales, in-person customer support, actionable normal information, and leisure. 8am — and, extra to the purpose, the assorted firms who now all reside underneath the 8am banner — have been on this enterprise a very long time. However with Kaleidoscope, the corporate signaled that it’s prepared to maneuver into a brand new vector of shopper engagement. Past simply offering a top quality suite of merchandise, the corporate needs to maneuver into turning into a staple appointment on their purchasers’ calendar.
I imply, if the convention was good enough for John Steinbeck, it must be adequate to deliver out much more customers subsequent yr.
Joe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Regulation and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Be at liberty to email any ideas, questions, or feedback. Comply with him on Twitter or Bluesky should you’re fascinated with regulation, politics, and a wholesome dose of faculty sports activities information. Joe additionally serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.
