No Better Place Than Florida For A Little E-Discovery

Well, the ACEDS 2011 (Association of Certified E-Discovery Specialists®) inaugural annual conference is over. Beyond our own Discovery Symposium (I'm admittedly biased), for my money it was one of the best, most practical e-discovery conferences I have ever attended. And the venue: wow! Hollywood, Fl., in March sure beats New York or Washington in winter (no offense. I'm just saying….) The schedule included a wide range of topics: social media and cloud computing, the inner workings of how a computer saves information, data mapping, and ethical considerations in e-discovery. Unlike other conferences I've attended, this one kept me awake for the most part with a fast-paced program and diverse speaker list. Sessions were tightly controlled and methodical. The panels were three or four individuals with slightly different topics or emphases and each speaker was given eight or nine minutes to talk. This was followed by both orchestrated (pre-planned) questions in addition to audience participation. The speakers themselves were a good mix of attorneys, litigation support and IT professionals each coming from and speaking to their unique perspective. The speakers acted like they wanted to be there (which you cannot always take for granted.) They were not solely focused on case law or an academic approach to e-discovery but each session was very practical, current and relevant. It's also worth mentioning that the moderators did an excellent job of not allowing any one speaker or audience member to dominate the time. One area for improvement for next year is to spend less time in the introductions of each of the speakers. Some sessions took 20 minutes or more to get going. We have the bios in the materials; no need for reading me their résumé. I also would have liked to have had a better sense of who was in the audience (attorneys, litigation support and IT professionals.) While I certainly learned many things, my biggest takeaway from the event was confirmation that our team here at Counsel On Call is doing the right things, looking at the right issues and is, in fact, ahead of the curve on many of these topics. The world of e-discovery changes daily, it seems, and we are constantly making efforts to ensure that we don't lose sight of the bigger picture while stuck in the weeds. Going to events such as ACEDS is very helpful to gain that perspective and hear from people working on many of the same issues as we are. I hope to be at the Second Annual ACEDS conference in March 2012. Check out ACEDS on-line and on Twitter or at the conference hastag. I also hope to continue the dialogue with some of my new Twitter friends now that we're each back at our desks (follow me here). Speaking of being back at home, leaving the conference was difficult. Ft. Lauderdale was 78 degrees compared to Nashville's brisk 40 degrees. Welcome back to reality.

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