5th Annual Janders Dean Legal Knowledge & Innovation Conference

Last week I was fortunate enough to attend the 5th Annual Janders Dean Legal Knowledge & Innovation Conference in Sydney.  I had been invited to participate in a panel discussion with an old friend, Katherine Ward, who I hadn't seen for many years as she resides now in Old Blighty, or, Flighty as my spell check insists.  Sydney is always a perfect host, warm after a long Melbourne winter, the conference venue was well positioned, perched on the Rooftop of Cockle Bay Wharf in Darling Park.

Day one began with a Keynote address on The Future of Law by Professor Richard Susskind.  This was a video link up, and a white shirted, occasionally pixelating Susskind addressed us from a basement in London, the walls as white as his shirt, in the very early hours of a London morning.  Having attended Boston AALL (American Association of Law Libraries) two months earlier and listened to Susskind deliver another Keynote [http://boston-calling.blogspot.com.au/2012/07/richard-susskind.html] I experienced a sense of déjà vu as I listened to the story of the Ice Hockey star, the challenges facing the legal industry, the decomposition of work streams, and sustaining v disruptive technologies.  The audience and presenters were different, they included Knowledge Directors and Managers, Technology and Innovation Specialists, Lawyers, Publishers, Legal Project Managers and Consultants, which isn't to say that a number of these people weren't also present in Boston, but the feel was more global and the audience targeted.  I enjoyed a more intimate experience and the chance to meet up with old friends and meet many new ones.  Richard's address was just as pertinent for either audience - play to where the puck is heading, and not where it's at - simple?

The first day also included a session on Lawyer Profiling by Justin North, Director of Janders Dean; a panel session by three lawyers archly titled You Think You Know Me? What Lawyers Really Want, Need and Value; and a thought provoking piece, Innovation in the Law - The Role of Technology by the editor of Legal Technology Insider, Charles Christian.  Day 2 really captured my imagination with some very different and creative approaches to mapping Knowledge processes, graphically, using arrows, tables, flow charts, squiggles and pictures.  I love visuals and there is nothing better in a presentation than examining a process articulated in a one slide diagram, it tells you a lot, to my mind, about the creator, the company it came from and the science of business process mapping.  Sam Dimond was the Keynote speaker on Day 2, Group Director of Knowledge at Norton Rose, he discussed the experience of merging law firms and formulating a truly global Knowledge Management solution.  US firm Seyfarth Shaw dove into their Legal Project Management Case Study which was fascinating, and Buzzword Biopsy by Stuart Barr of HighQ Solutions got us up to speed on IT trends to watch and adopt, as well as the ones to ignore.  I learnt the phrase Shadow IT - where people purchase software outside of their organisation, without approval creating an unsanctioned IT underworld, which sounded like the plot of a William Gibson novel.

After lunch nerves kicked in as Katharine Ward (Vodafone UK) and Justin Moses (Westpac) and I presented a panel discussion on The Views of Clients: The Hidden Power & Influence of Knowledge & Innovation.  No matter how much camomile tea I drink I still get stage fright, talk too fast for the first few minutes, forget to say half the insightful, thought provoking and very clever comments I had scribbled all over my note pad during the conference, and fail to pull off the seamless, witty and relaxed deliveries everyone else manages with aplomb.  Note to self: we are always our harshest critics.  The last paper of the conference was fun and inspiring, and, great to have a speaker in Knowledge Management but outside of law, Felicity McNish, from global architecture and design firm Woods Bagot.  This was a stimulating note to end on, and, what a great job to have.  Much kudos to Justin North and his team for putting on such an inspired agenda, and a really relaxed learning two days.

More on Boston - Marisa Bendeich writes

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AALL 2012: Learning, Growing and Connecting from an Australian perspective

I love conferences! Learning something new, meeting vendors, connecting with colleagues, finding new friends, dancing, eating…and did I mention the free pens? What’s not to love!?

So it was with great excitement that I was fortunate to attend my first international law librarians’ conference this year representing the Australian Law Librarians’ Association at the AALL Annual Meeting and Conference held in Boston, Massachusetts.

Below is a reflection on my experiences, both on the conference process and on the programme itself.

The conference process and organisation – some highlights.

What struck me first was the number of people who attend! I am used to the Australian Law Librarians’ Conference, where we get between 150 – 250 delegates. Put yourself in my shoes when faced with 1800 delegates! Overwhelming to say the least.

Congratulations to the organising committee for managing this many people, and for managing to schedule 5 – 6 concurrent sessions over three days! Phew! The online planning tool on my iPad was a lifesaver.

The large number of meetings for special interest groups during the Conference was something that would be great to see more of in Australia. I particularly enjoyed the Private Law Libraries Summit. This really demonstrated to me that while we may be oceans apart, we face the same challenges!

The trade exhibits hall was on a scale we don’t see back home in Australia! The major sponsors had what I could only describe as mini villages full of flat screen TVs, iPads and PCs. There was always a real buzz in the trade exhibition, and because of the various breaks in the programme plus the lunch times, it never felt too crowded despite the large number of delegates.

The conference programme – what I took away.

PLL Summit the path to 2020. As a reader of his blog “Stephen’s Lighthouse” I enjoyed seeing Stephen Abram speak to attendees about climbing the value ladder and using digital behaviours to improve and tune the user experience. Stephen advised us to be “device agnostic” – that format doesn’t matter anymore and to embrace licensing or accessing information, rather than purchasing it.

Richard Susskind’s keynote address. Wow, what a speaker. He spoke of three current drivers of change: doing more for less, liberalisation and technology. The main message I had from this was the photo of a great ice hockey player Wayne Gretzky. Richard referred to an interview where Mr Gretzky was asked why he is the best : “A good hockey player plays where the puck is. A great hockey player plays where the puck is going to be”, asking us all to not think about where we are now, but where we are heading. He left us with another great quote by Alan Key – “The best way to predict the future, is to invent it”.

·Karen McCullough’s presentation at the Association Luncheon – “Change is good, you go first”. Karen asked us to reflect on our personal brand and inspired us to “know where you add value”.

Cool Tools Café. This was a fantastic idea where presenters were showcasing “cool tools” they have experience with on their laptops, iPads, iPhones, and other devices. A number of small tables were set up around the room and delegates roamed around, sitting at different tables to learn about the “cool tool” that was of interest to them. This was a fantastic concept and I discovered a lot of new cool tools that I am eager to test out!

A wonderfully informative session on US patent law research. The speakers did such a wonderful job despite the fact that it was the very last session of the conference!

Libraries and marketing. This was a case study of a very successful relationship with the library and marketing teams at a law firm. My key takeaway from this was to question why librarians are so hesitant to do any “analysis” work associated with competitive intelligence or industry research. We analyse all of the time when selecting resources and we’re smart enough to draw conclusions. So why not be more willing to engage with marketing and learn? Their advice was to start small, think big and don’t over promise. Look at research + analysis + packaging. This is where we can add value!

Handouts can be downloaded here http://www.softconference.com/aall/handouts/handouts.html

The social side (aka the really fun part!)

Given the size of the delegation, it isn’t truly possible to have a conference dinner that everyone attends. It seemed that everyone dispersed to a myriad of different events that were being held during the conference. At first, I was a bit lost…which function do I attend? Am I even “invited”? However, I soon met plenty of people who were kind to invite me to events such as the Gen X / Gen Y networking drinks after which I discovered the wonderful Fastcase hospitality suite and realised “Ohhh so this is where everyone is….”

Being at a conference by yourself can be overwhelming. While I knew other people attending, the conference was so big I found I rarely ran in to the same person twice! Being overseas, I had limited mobile (cell) phone access. But I found I just needed to put on my big girl pants, walk in to the room and say “Hi, I am from Australia” and in no time I was making new friends. My other strategy was to find someone else in the room who was standing by themselves and approach them to say hello. They are usually in the exact same boat as you and together you can form a team to meet others!

When attending conferences at home or overseas, remember that everyone is in a similar situation, and they are your colleagues. They are interested in meeting you! Be brave, (have a glass of champagne), and make a new friend! I am so pleased that I did not spend all of my evenings in my hotel room watching trashy TV!

The main thing that I took away from the conference was that law librarians across the globe are all facing similar challenges and looking towards similar solutions. The main challenge we’re of course all looking at is how do we continue to add value to our organisations?

I met so many wonderful, warm and welcoming colleagues (and a few random Aussies!). Exploring beautiful Boston and attending a Red Sox game was also a highlight. And I loved visiting the US Supreme Court and the Library of Congress in my travels around the US (special thanks to Linda Corbelli at the Supreme Court for arranging a tour for me).

Now I look forward to our own Australian Law librarians’ conference in Brisbane this month. Our theme: “Respect the past. Embrace the future”. Papers and presentation slides will be available from the website after the conference concludes.

I’d be interested to hear from you:

Do you love or loathe conferences?

How do you choose your conference session? Do you base it on what you are currently working on, or what just sounds interesting?

What strategies do you use to navigate a conference?

Marisa Bendeich
President, Australian Law Librarians’ Association

A Wind Up - ALLA: from Inc to Ltd

Yesterday, Thursday 13 September, the Australian Law Librarians Association took a historic step in voting to voluntarily wind up the Incorporated Association and become a Limited Company.  The reasons leading up to this decision have been well documented, and work in progress for a dedicated and hard working group on the National Executive Committee these past few years. 

I jettisoned into the final vote yesterday by way of the Committees need at the eleventh hour for a new Secretary, I felt like someone who had turned up to a party just as it hit full stride, I mean, I missed out on all the hard work.  And really, that's what I want to talk about - the hard work and the passion people have for this Association.

I joined the Australian Law Librarians group in 1997, I was new to Melbourne, new to Australia for that matter, and my boss back then was a leading light of a group of Victorian Law Librarians called the VILLANS, who had convened two very successful Symposia in Melbourne.  Joining the Association was a matter of course, you needed to know who was who, and, the group always put on great parties, that was a big draw card and the start of many friendships for me, newbie in town.  But there was more, lunch time seminars, access to a list of serials held across the state, and, new to the profession, an invaluable course called Finding the Law (which frankly I was finding bewildering).  I was struck by the knowledge, expertise and willingness to invest their time by a wide range of professionals, and, the dawning realisation that this was a two way street.  Eventually I took Finding the Law classes myself, co convened a Conference and had a stint as Convenor of the Victorian Association.   

When I attended the AGM yesterday I met old friends I hadn't seen for years, members of the National Executive who have served many years tirelessly, editors of our professional journal, the team that run the website and our social media presence, the Brisbane conference committee who have worked on the two day conference the AGM is one part of.  People who really care about our group, people who voted for, and people who voted against, the special resolution, people who felt passionately about the outcome.  I am very proud of our Association,  the familiar faces, the new faces, the people who make up the body of our Association.