Attending the inaugural Kaleidoscope convention in Austin final week, I couldn’t shake a wierd feeling: I’d been right here earlier than. That was unattainable, in fact, as this was 8am’s very first buyer convention. However the vitality, the setup, the vibe all felt uncannily acquainted. It was, as Yogi Berra may need stated, déjà vu another time.
The 2-day occasion was the first-ever buyer convention placed on by the corporate 8am. When you have no thought who or what 8am is, don’t really feel out of the loop. The identify is barely three weeks outdated – the new brand identity announced Aug. 19 by the corporate previously generally known as AffiniPay.
That firm is the father or mother of a gaggle of merchandise associated to funds and observe administration for legal professionals and accountants. They embody the funds platform LawPay, the observe administration platform MyCase, the non-public damage platform CasePeer, and the immigration legal professionals platform DocketWise.
Additional studying: At Its Inaugural Kaleidoscope Conference, 8am’s CPO Announces AI Tools, Platform Integration and More.
Time for An 8am Convention
Producing a lot of these buyer conferences is changing into more and more frequent for authorized tech corporations, a lot as it’s for his or her common tech counterparts, and so, for 8am, it was solely a matter of time (no pun meant) earlier than it staged one in every of its personal.
The second day keynote featured an inspiring and entertaining dialog between Olympic sprinter Gabby Thomas and 8am’s chief authorized officer Catherine Dawson.
Even so, to each undergo a serious rebrand and placed on a serious convention throughout the span of two weeks isn’t any small feat, and the corporate deserves credit score for efficiently pulling off each.
It’s value noting {that a} buyer convention is not only some form of company vainness mission. In my expertise, a buyer convention can provide many reputable advantages to each the purchasers and the corporate.
It was at all times 8am at Kaleidoscope.
For purchasers, they get alternatives to community and share suggestions with their friends who’re additionally utilizing the merchandise, and to get direct coaching from the corporate in find out how to take advantage of out of the merchandise.
For corporations, they get alternatives to work together with and higher know their clients and to get direct suggestions from them on what they like or don’t like about their merchandise, and what options they want to see added.
Small However Polished
All of that stated, any new convention has to begin someplace, and that someplace is usually on the smallish, extra modest facet.
Such was this convention, when judged purely by attendance. The attendance totaled 330, however that quantity included 75 8am staff (39 of whom have been presenters). Of the remaining 255 non-employee attendees, some have been from the 12 companion corporations that exhibited on the convention, and a few others have been media, consultants and varied others. So the variety of precise clients who attended was in all probability within the vary of 200-220.
I obtained to be a part of two panels. The primary, ‘The Way forward for Regulation: Rising Developments from Authorized Tech Consultants,’ together with my Legaltech Week colleagues Niki Black as moderator, Steve Embry, Joe Patrice and Stephanie Wilkins. Within the second, “Working A Enterprise within the Face of Unpredictability,” I interviewed 8am’s chief monetary officer Christian Fadel and chief authorized officer Catherine Dawson.
When you think about that ClioCon – the convention of one in every of 8am’s main opponents, Clio – last year had over 5,000 attendees, together with 2,600 in particular person and the remaining digital, Kaleidoscope’s numbers might sound small.
However, as I stated, each convention has to begin someplace. And, frankly, numbers alone don’t inform the entire story.
The actual fact of the matter is that Kaleidoscope got here throughout as extremely polished {and professional}, nearly devoid of tough edges. From the venue to the programming to the meals and socializing, it had the sheen and refinement of an occasion placed on by an skilled crew.
From Boots to Bashes
LawNext’s Ben Ambrogi chats with a pedicab driver as 8am’s SVP of software engineering Daisy Itty appears to be like on.
Among the many good touches that made this really feel so polished {and professional}:
- A various and nicely thought out array of programming. Fortunately, this was not all AI on a regular basis. Whereas that matter was actually lined, packages spanned a wide range of topics of curiosity to solo and small agency legal professionals (together with some for the corporate’s accounting clients).
- Free cowboy boots! Free Tecovas cowboy boots have been promised to the primary 50 registrants. It appeared as if greater than 50 finally have been capable of benefit from that supply. Both means, Tecovas was there on website in a “boot corral” to suit attendees with their new boots. And, sure, I now depend myself amongst those that are cowboy boot enabled.
- A second-day keynote that includes a dialog with 2024 Olympics gold medal sprinter Gabby Thomas, who was each entertaining and insightful.
- The return of the pedicabs. Final 12 months when ClioCon was in Austin, 8am (then nonetheless AffiniPay) made an inspired guerilla marketing move by offering branded pedicabs to whisk ClioCon attendees to its personal various social gathering. At Kaleidoscope, the pedicabs have been again to take attendees out for an evening in town.
- Assist for charity. An 8am Cares desk on the convention raised over $10,000 for the Ronald McDonald Home charity.
- Numerous networking occasions, together with a closing night time social gathering at an Austin membership with dwell music and line dancing.
These of us attending as media additionally appreciated the devoted media “inexperienced room” the place we may work on our tales, in addition to the devoted podcast room, full with skilled audio and video tools and the technicians to make all of it work.
The place Was ‘I’?
Nonetheless, that’s not to say all the pieces was good. If there was one standout glitch, it was the case of the lacking “i.”
Graphics all through the convention, together with the stage backdrop throughout most of the shows, boldly proclaimed, “Change into a visonary.” Sadly, some poor graphics particular person had lacked the imaginative and prescient to see the lacking letter.
However the firm turned adversity to alternative, exploiting the omission with humor and humility, and giving the opening keynote speaker Leslie Witt, the corporate’s chief product officer, her Oprah second.
“What I’d such as you to do,” Witt invited the keynote viewers, “is have a look beneath your seat, and for one fortunate particular person, you might discover one thing there.”
Positive sufficient, one particular person did, and what he discovered was the lacking “i” – or at the least a facsimile thereof – profitable him a present certificates of $600.
Chief Product Officer Leslie Witt obtained her Oprah second due to the lacking “i” in “visonary,” which you’ll see on the backdrop behind her.
A larger oversight, to my thoughts, was the shortage of wholesome meals. I get it, this was Texas, and Texans like their meat – particularly their barbecue. However we dwell at a time by which many individuals – I amongst them – attempt to eat wholesome.
In opposition to my higher judgment, I used to be compelled to pattern a donut.
Meals was ample in amount, with breakfast and lunch offered in addition to mid-morning and mid-afternoon snacks. However the meals had solely restricted choices for vegetarians, and the snacks favored donuts and cookies over healthful alternate options.
(I’ll admit, trapped on this well being meals desert with no simple means out, I used to be compelled to pattern stated donuts, which, for one thing that was poisoning my physique, turned out to be surprisingly tasty.)
CEO Unable to Attend
One different ingredient lacking from the convention was its chief govt officer Dru Armstrong. In a pre-recorded video on the convention’s opening, she welcomed attendees after which stated, “I want I may very well be there with you this week, however I’m unable to attend due to some private circumstances.”
I’ve had the chance to interview and converse with Dru on many events, and I can let you know she is the type of dynamic chief whose presence would have been an extra enhance to the convention. Her absence solid a slight pall over the in any other case buoyant ambiance. Primarily based on what I do know of Dru, these private circumstances will need to have risen to the extent of Texas wild horses to have saved her away.
Associated: On LawNext: AffiniPay CEO Dru Armstrong on the Intersection of Fintech, Legal Tech and AI.
Getting Again to Déjà Vu
All of that stated, the success of a convention finally has little to do with the attendance numbers or the meals decisions or the polish of the manufacturing. What makes or breaks a convention is the intangible vitality that pervades it – the vibe, if you’ll.
And right here, for me, is the place that sense of déjà vu kicked in. The rationale I felt at Kaleidoscope as if I’d been there earlier than was as a result of I had as soon as been someplace with a really comparable vibe, the very first ClioCon again in 2013.
Regardless that ClioCon is now one of many largest authorized tech conferences on the earth, it, too, began small, and the parallels between it and Kaleidoscope have been many.
The exhibitors’ space put each vendor on equal footing with a uniformly sized sales space.
That first 12 months of ClioCon had roughly the identical attendance as this primary 12 months of Kaleidoscope. It, like Kaleidoscope, match inside a reasonably modest house inside a reasonably small lodge. It, like Kaleidoscope, had only a handful of exhibitors, with small, uniform cubicles organized in an open hallway space.
However even with these modest beginnings, ClioCon at all times stood out – and the explanation it stood out was its vitality, its vibe. As I wrote after the second ClioCon:
“The solo and small-firm legal professionals at this convention … all appeared charged about their practices and their prospects. They appeared keen to soak up new concepts and introduced loads of their very own concepts. As a lot went on exterior the seminar rooms as in them.”
It was convention that was modest in dimension, however huge in affect. And that it why it has continued to develop 12 months after 12 months to the colossal convention it’s at this time.
In a lot the identical means, Kaleidoscope felt greater and extra vibrant than the attendance numbers would recommend.
On the Cusp
I’m certain 8am has no want for its convention to be in comparison with the convention of one in every of its main opponents. However the déjà vu I felt in Austin was as a result of the convention’s total ambiance – its vitality and vibe – was strongly paying homage to that very first ClioCon.
And that may be a good factor.
Josh Carter, senior product supervisor, and Lindsay Bushong, supervisor of options consulting, gave a preview of the corporate’s new 8am IQ generative AI options.
At that first ClioCon, there was a powerful sense that we have been on the cusp of one thing huge, firstly of a brand new era of legislation observe and know-how for solo and smaller corporations, pushed partly by the appearance of the cloud.
And at Kaleidoscope, there was the same sense of being on the cusp of one thing new, solely this time the “new” had extra to do with generative AI and its potential to remodel the enterprise and observe of legislation for solos and small corporations.
The legal professionals and legislation agency professionals I spoke to there have been express about it: Many stated they’d come to the convention particularly to be taught extra about AI and what it means for them. Some informed me they have been simply beginning to discover AI, however desperate to rise up to hurry.
Even past AI, there appeared to be a powerful sense of pleasure amongst attendees about know-how and its potential affect on their practices.
Kaleidoscope’s first outing proved that 8am can placed on knowledgeable, well-run convention with an vitality that belied its modest dimension. The corporate is already planning a second Kaleidoscope subsequent 12 months.
A lot to my remorse, will probably be in Las Vegas, which I don’t like as a convention location.
However, location apart, if it continues subsequent 12 months to construct on this 12 months’s momentum, this debut might come to be remembered as the muse of a permanent annual occasion on the authorized tech calendar.
As Yogi Berra may need stated had he been there final week, in relation to Kaleidoscope, the déjà vu is value doing another time.
