Entertainment Adds Value to Any Event

One of the features of the LMA Annual Conference this year was the outstanding schedule of keynote speakers and balanced Emceeing. Of particular note was the Emcee of the Your Honors Award event on Wednesday evening. Dr. M. F. Ludiker (aka free-agent savant, Fred Knipe) did a wonderful job of both moving the ceremony along and entertaining the audience with a crisp comedic performance. Kudos to LMA and Dr. Ludiker for making me laugh out loud.

LMA Conference Video Link

To all that might be interested in a bit of law firm/marketing humor here is a link to view the opening tongue-in-cheek video put together by the LMA folks for this years annual conference.

Leadership Training for Attorneys and Law Firm Marketers

Have you ever been in a meeting or negotiation that stalls and accomplishes nothing at all? Have you ever wondered how you could be a better leader no matter the situation? While most of the sessions I attended at the 2007 LMA Conference in Atlanta were outstanding and useful, the most dramatic for me was the session called, "Lead, Follow or Get Out of the Way - Is That Any Way to Speak to Your MP?" led by ForStrategy Consulting principals Robert Fortunato and Mindy Danna.

While I do not wish to give away the punch in their presentation or surrender the techniques they use to achieve incredible results I have to say that their take on how to move people toward leadership is amazing! In the session they did a demonstration, on-stage, with random volunteers from the audience. It was astounding the way they used very simple demonstrations to reveal both leadership challenges and uncover individual capacities (of the volunteers) to deal with emotional situations.

I recommend that you take my course of action -- call ForStrategy and start a conversation that will definitely produce results for your firm. Leadership is a hard thing to teach. These folks have it figured out.

2007 LMA Confernence - Observations

The conference so far has been a great example of how to run a good conference. The content is overall pretty good and the schedule has a great pace. I especially like how much time the organizers scheduled for networking... The people and conversation are awesome. Some things that come to mind after most of today's activities are complete:

• I can feel the presence of the higher percentage of seasoned marketers in the mix -- conversations are deeper and broader in all things marketing.
  
• A comfortable number of the sessions focused on driving client-facing marketing and business development activities. Since my own marketing strategies at Rutan are happening in that ballpark right now the content is quite relevant.
• As marketers we emphasize to attorneys the important role they can play as mentors and advisers to their clients. This year the session speakers spoke with confidence that marketers could fill that same role within their firms for individual attorneys. I think this speaks to the growing importance and value acknowledged to legal services marketing professionals.

Dr. Maya Angelou - 2007 LMA Conference Kickoff Keynote

It is not often in our careers that the job we do is presented to us as something much nobler than just the daily tasks we accomplish. After hearing Dr. Angelou speak I am certain I need to change the title on my business card from CMO to "Composer". It has a great ring to it. Kudos to the LMA for putting such a person on stage for us to hear.

Dr. Angelou talked about her childhood in Stamps, Arkansas, of her Uncle Willie and the lessons she learned from his life. She spoke of her amazing journey and the many "composers" that guided her path. Through all of it she kept getting back to us, the people in her audience, and relating her experiences to the importance we play to the people we work with, for, and around. She spoke for an hour and a half -- I could have listened for days more.

Some things she said that I wrote to remember included:

• In asking her sister (a lawyer) about the work of law firm marketers: "Oh, I get it. They compose peoples lives. They put peoples lives together. They help make some of the rocky path level, straighten the crooked road.
  
• Our lives will have influence we might never know
• Our work is a calling... much more than a career that cannot be measured but has immeasurable effect on the people around us.
• "I don't trust people that don't laugh. Be careful when a naked person offers you his shirt.

Other great and fun facts from the beginning of this conference:

• 1043 in attendance... the largest ever. 83 marketers from California -- I found that pretty cool. 200 and some CMOs and directors, also pretty cool.
• The opening satirical video (YouTube link) was excellent at presenting a lot of the tongue-in-cheek hard parts of the evolution of bringing marketing to an industry where change has been difficult to be sure. In fact, it has been hard and I congratulate the leadership of this year's conference put the silliest parts on-screen. The title "Napkin Folder" has finally been said out loud to great laughter.

2007 LMA Conference-Part Two

What goes around comes around... fair enough. This evening was an informal dinner meeting of marketing professionals from the western U.S. at Piddypat's Porch in downtown Atlanta -- a fun and noisy group. As I walked around introducing myself one of the diner's asked, "Are you blogging the conference?" It turns out that the words I posted this morning at 10:00AM had already made the rounds... people where talking! This person (who asked me the question) along with the person beside her were responsible for constructing the registration process this year. I imagine, as graceful as they were, that my rant on spam did not go over too well. What goes around comes around Bruce. Say anything out loud and I better be ready for the rest of the story.... They assured me an opt-in process existed.

Amazing how fast the word got around that anything was posted in reference to the conference.

This evening was also the opening reception in the exhibit hall. Lots of people meeting new folks and greeting old friends. It appears the number of exhibitors is up from last year, which is a good message about the health of our industry. I am surprised though at the limited number of product categories marketed at this conference. The number of categories and depth of choices is significantly deeper at marketing conferences I've attended in other industries. My guess would be that legal services marketing still has a way to go before it is able to support heavier attention from a broader range of vendors.

I did talk to one board member about LMA supported activities for more seasoned marketers in the industry and she responded they have created two new conferences specifically for that niche. Both will be announced at this conference and held later this year in Chicago and London respectively. More on that when it's official.

Blogging the 2007 LMA Annual Conference

At the registration center this morning the gentleman checking in next to me was having his check-in conversation in French. Hmmm. An interesting early-morning lesson in the international interest in the marketing of legal services.

One trend this year that I am undecided about -- the proliferation of pre-event spam finding it's way into my email and landmail inbox. The landmail is easy enough to deal with (into the round file) but the email requires a bit more consideration. Some of these companies do a good job of disguising their spam as legitimate business communications and get their hoped-for three seconds of my eye-time. What is disturbing to me about the communication is that I did not, in registering for the LMA conference, offer my attending status and contact information as available for distribution to vendors. Apparently the LMA is offering their registrant lists as a benefit to vendors that buy showcase booth space.

If the LMA had asked me (called opt-in folks) I would have been happy to receive information from vendors with products or services specific to my current needs... But instead I have to sit through a three week spam-storm (no thank you, I am not interested in hearing more about how your pens with my logo are better than their pen with my logo). OK, rant over.

I am very excited about being here this year. Beginning with the gentleman speaking French at registration I anticipate the crowd at this years conference to reflect how broad the profession has become and how much "new" there is to learn about.

BTW, I am writing this at the Caribou Coffee inside the Peachtree Center. Sitting two feet away as I write are two women chatting away in Mandarin.