Relativity Fest 2023 Recap

[EDRM Editor’s Note: The opinions and positions are those of Tom O’Connor.]

I’ve just spent the week in Chicago attending the 2023 Relativity Fest and, as always, came away impressed with both the energy level and the technical expertise of the attendees. Nearly 2000 registered attendees were present, and they were a diverse group of people from law firms, corporate law offices and government agencies.

Here are my major observations:

THUMBS UP

The technical sessions offered a variety of solutions to specific technical issues. The ability of attendees to seek out and find these specific solutions was stated by many attendees who I spoke with as a major factor in there attending the conference. 

From learning labs to workshops on issues such as responding to public records requests, API’s for the Relativity platform, importing and exporting of data and using AI to accelerate PII detection and also privilege review. These last two were cited often by attendees as specifically strong sessions that gave them solutions to issues they had in their daily workflow.

On that note, a number of attendees gave positive reviews to various “ Road Map” sessions which pointed out the development of specific features both new and existing in Relativity which they felt helped them in their planning for 2024 expenditures, staffing and workflow needs.

Relativity Fest was not just a technology conference. In addition to technical sessions, the conference focused on public sector and educational issues. With sessions such as Managing Burnout in the e-Discovery Industry, The Law, the Taliban, and the Women Judges of Afghanistan How to Stand Out in a World of Automation: Skills You Need for the Future and my personal favorite, What the Arts Taught Me About e-Discovery.

Once again David Horrigan moderated two stand out sessions , the 10th annual Judicial Panel and the State of the E-discovery Union. These provided feedback and commentary from, in the first instance judges, and in the second instance journalists such as Bob Ambrogi and Joe Patrice. I look forward to these sessions every year and I once again was not disappointed.

The sessions closed on Thursday with a panel on Access to Justice featuring James Sandman, President Emeritus of the Legal Services Corporation (LSC) and lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School. I reviewed the first panel in this series back in 2007 by calling it “the best session at Relativity Fest you didn’t hear”.  David Horrigan made note of that column and spoke about how happy he was to see that there were now 10 times as many people attending. Jim Sandman closed by saying he was extremely happy to see this turnout and he felt that it showed a real trend towards using technology as a game changer in the access to justice field which made him extremely optimistic about the future in this area.

Special note on the emphasis towards the wellness of attendees, especially on Thursday morning. From the fun run with Ari Kaplan (not sure why they call it fun, but that’s just me) to a meditation session, a yoga session, and a 12-step meeting, taking care of yourself while you were at the conference was a major focus. The only downside here….. don’t schedule all of those at the same time, please. Spread them out over several mornings.

THUMBS DOWN 

The registration process was harrowing to say the least. I traveled to Chicago on the City of New Orleans train, which is an annual habit of mine. Amtrak, not known as a particularly technologically advanced institution was able to board 500 people onto our train in New Orleans in 10 minutes with two conductors using handheld devices to scan the boarding passes we had been sent electronically. I’m not sure why an advanced technology company such as Relativity can’t do something similar. 

The mobile application was quite troublesome on the first day of the conference. It logged users out after a 10 to 15-minute inactive period which required getting a new security code to log back in. Not technologically difficult but irritating. To their credit, Relativity solved that problem quickly and on days two and three I had no problems whatsoever with the app. In fact it was extremely helpful, especially in building my own personal schedule.

A number of attendees commented to me that they would like to have seen a skill level rating for sessions. Some people attended a session that they felt was too basic for them while other people reported being in a session where they felt they were over their head technically. Some sort of star or color coding rating system would help alleviate that problem, which is something we did many years ago in response to the same comments when I was on the planning board for the ABA Tech Show.

The sound level at the Wednesday night party. I know, I know, several people at the party said that Mike Quartararo and I should have taken up residence on the second level railing to make our impression of Statler and Waldorf really precise, but really, my eyeballs were vibrating.

All in All

All in all, however, this was an outstanding conference both for technical and socially important issues. The energy level of attendees, the great attitude of staff and the willingness on the part of the many Relativity employees on site to engage in conversation with attendees is a major plus. This has become the most pleasant conference on a personal level and the most productive conference on a professional level that I have attended.