Ride the Lightning

ABA TECHSHOW ® – A Fond Farewell

March 21, 2016

The busiest three days of our year – every year – are the three days at ABA TECHSHOW. John and I are always grateful for the opportunity to speak there and to join so many illustrious colleagues and friends in trying to put on the best possible conference. Judging by the many ad hoc remarks from attendees, ABA TECHSHOW was once again a great success. Thanks to Chair Steve Best and his board (including John) for their hard work in putting TECHSHOW together.

As always, we learned a lot from our colleagues, as we are all experts in varying disciplines. So yes, the faculty members are also students.

One of the most amusing remarks I heard from an attendee was "Being on the faculty must be so glamorous." I did not disabuse her of that notion, but consider this. In three days, John and I each taught (with a co-presenter) three sessions. All but one was a ground-up build PowerPoint – and required written materials as well. The hours sunk into prepping those were many – and of course we study and annotate our PowerPoints before actually presenting. We had a Meet the Authors session. We worked two hours at the Concierge Booth. We were hosts for a total of three Legal Talk Network Special Reports from ABA TECHSHOW.

As speakers, we needed to be present for the Award Luncheon on Thursday, the Welcome Reception on Wednesday and the 30^th Anniversary Reception on Thursday. We attended the Past Chairs champagne reception (thank you to the LP Chair Tom Bolt for that gracious gesture). We hosted a Taste of TECHSHOW dinner on Friday and attended the Past Chairs dinner on Saturday to welcome Steve Best "into the pasture."

We did our best to cover the Expo Hall (#fail) and thank our exhibitors. We met with our co-presenters in person to go over last minute details. As a Board member, John had breakfasts with the Board Thursday and Friday at 7:15 to run through the upcoming day and any attendant issues that needed to be addressed. And we tried, in between all this, to attend the sessions of other speakers to learn and to offer feedback to the Board on first-time speakers.

Glamorous? Not exactly. Would we trade the havoc for anything? Nope. We have the time of our lives every year – but it sure is hard work too. Mark your calendars now for next year's TECHSHOW, March 15-18, 2017. By then, we hope to be re-energized and do it all over again!

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