BluShark Digital 0:00
Welcome to The Conference Connection, your go to place to get the scoop on what conferences are coming up that you need to know about. Here are your hosts Paul Faust, President of RingBoost and Seth Price, founder of BluShark Digital and managing partner of Price Benowitz.
Paul Faust 0:16
What’s up everybody? It’s Paul and Seth, here again with another episode of The Conference Connection, trying to do this every couple of weeks for you to let you know what’s coming up, what events are happening, what conferences, where you should go, who should be there. So let Seth jump in quick and say hello. And then we’ll get right into it.
Seth Price 0:35
Absolutely. No, it’s, you know, it’s one of the things that April brings is sort of the first big, big conference of the year, you know, following MTMP, with MTMP. That that’s, you know, seems to be come sort of this meeting ground that goes well beyond just mass torts. That is a place that many, you know, PI lawyers are coming. Yes, they want to know what’s going on with mass torts. But you know, that you’re going to see about as big a swath of people there as anywhere right now, from the sort of conference scene.
Paul Faust 1:08
Yeah, in Vegas at the when you could still register. I think registration on site for lawyers is about $1,600, $1,595. But there’s business of law sections on marketing. There’s sections for paralegals. So while it is the big mass tort conference, there’s something there really for everybody, and really, anyone in the firm from leaders, paralegals, lawyers, trial lawyers, marketers, it’s really, it cuts everything and it’s a, it’s a big, big, big gathering. So-
Seth Price 1:33
Right, so and what you’re referring to is the first day, sort of it’s a three day conference, two, two days of solid mass torts. The first day has a bunch of tracks, and one of them so if there’s anybody watching that’s like, what’s MTMP, there’s a track which they call nuts and bolts. So somebody who’s never touched mass torts before, but wants to either get into it or figure out what it is. There’s an entire day of programming, treating you like a three year old, like what do you need to know to make you an expert in mass torts, there’s also the business of law track, that’s, I moderate a fair bit of that day, everything from digital marketing, to intake, to software to use, a lot of different, very useful, powerful sessions. And then the next two days, it’s really substance specific based on the different mass torts that are out there and getting face time with some of the people on steering committees to get a sense as to where cases are going.
Paul Faust 2:31
It’s also unbelievably social, a lot of networking, a lot of suite parties, a lot of dinner parties, a lot of private events, you can go to MTMP.com. It’s April 3rd to 5th at the Wynn. Before we get into the other conferences, I just want to, I’ll recap I got back from the motorcycle conference that was put on by LMA, legal mark- Um, LAM. And the NTL crowd and Law Tigers. Really, really, really enjoyed this conference. I think it’s great that, you know, there’s a lot of conferences that are general in nature, they talk about marketing, and this, PI, and mass tort, and all this other stuff. This was hyper focused on motorcycle cases, how to find them, how to market to them, the community, how to try them, it was really hyper focused. And I loved the concept. I think we have another one coming up. That’s more on trucking cases. He was the first one out of the gate. They’re gonna redo it. Great attendance, great speakers, and I want to say kudos to the Law Tigers group and the NtL crew, the LAM group for putting it on. It was in Savannah and I highly recommend you look at it next year if you if you want to talk about motorcycle and want to add motorcycle cases to your firm practice.
Seth Price 3:39
Awesome.
Paul Faust 3:41
So what else we got coming up, I dont- Women in Trial, Women in Trial Travel Summit in Punta Mita. I don’t know much about it. But that’s coming up, I believe. I think it’s the same time as MTMP actually, April 3rd, to 7th. And that’s Women in Trial Lawyers, and Legal Marketing Association has one at the same time to I’ve never been-
Seth Price 4:00
So, I’ll to speak to that one. So I’ve been to that back in the day, I was really hopeful that that was a place that might be interesting. It’s much more of a B2B law firm community. A lot of big law, very little B2C, very little SEO lead gen. This is mostly marketing, like marketing director, CMOS, big law down to smaller firms, but generally trying to figure out how to position attorneys at multi attorney firms in the b2b practice area so that people who go there thinking that this is sort of unlike any of the other ones we talked about, it really is apples and oranges. While there are similarities, always interesting. It’s it’s much more figuring out how to position the attorneys at a firm as thought leaders in their space more than direct to consumer marketing.
Paul Faust 4:55
Okay, so you guys can check it out if you want. There’s another one. I don’t know much about to Society of Women Trial Lawyers, that’s in Scottsdale in, in mid April, I think April 18th to the 20th. And then also right after MTMP. This one we know about, we’ve talked about it before, which is Craig Goldenfarb Seven Figure Attorney Summit, Craig, very successful attorney at sevenfigureattorney.com. It’s April 11th in Boston, his is a one day event 100 plus, maybe 150, lawyers, mostly single event, really about how to build a team, how to become a leader, how to invest for the long haul, great, great, great conference, and I know that there’s one following that date.
Seth Price 5:34
Right, so I’ve been to Craig’s a number of times, and he does a very thoughtful job. Basically, it’s a 360 on his practice and what he’s done to build it. And a guy who’s just very intentional with how he’s built his firm. What, there’s a one-two combination, so that if you are in Boston, John Fisher has the Mastermind Experience, which is lots of masterminds out there. This is sort of the nope, no commitment mastermind, I call it in that it is a fraternity, there are people that go back time and again. But what’s nice about it is you just pay when you go. There’s no long term commitment. And it really is a great place, you know, if you’re there in Boston to focus group an issue. So you get a hot seat, you get a period of time to talk about whatever issue your firm is facing, they bring in a couple of great speakers. And that’s, you know, if you’re gonna make it all the way to Boston, the people in that mastermind experience have become some of my dear friends over time and really enjoy that that process.
Paul Faust 6:30
And then after that, you go home, you rest for a couple of weeks, and then turn around and get right back to Vegas for Vista’s conference, April 29th to May 1st at the Aria, you got unbelievable speakers its put on by Tim McKee who is the owner of Vista, Bill Biggs is your host, you have unbelievable speakers. This is about leadership, culture, just an unbelievable conference, a conference by people who really know how to build and run a top notch law firm for the long haul. I know Seth, you’ve been to it, um-
Seth Price 7:00
Yeah and I’m a huge fan of Tim’s I mean, he this is again, a really thoughtful guy in the space. He’s coached more firm, more high performing firms than just about anybody else, his team does, comes in does a 360 on the firm makes, you know, different suggestions. That’s one, one widget but this this particular conference they have, which he now is in partnership with Bill Biggs, who, you know, is one of my favorites in the space. I mean, this guy is just, you know, emanates, you just want to be better being around him. The fact that you get Bill time and Tim time and some of their other great speakers. You know, I’ve sent my team to this. And I’d say that it was eye opening, they don’t always come back with as many we got to change, fix this, this and this, but it’s how they think about their job, the firm has elevated them into leaders in very limited time in a way that I have not seen any other product out there do. There are a lot of places you go and get great takeaways and not that there aren’t takeaways, but from, as you mentioned, leadership development and empowering your people to step up not just in the widget making but in who they are and how they work within your organization. I think its just a great opportunity. Pretty reasonable for what it is. And one that is you know, there are some that are great to bring your team to and some that are not. This is a great one to bring multiple people to.
Paul Faust 8:27
Yeah, and the domain is vistact.com. You’ll see, you know, they have the list of speakers from Tim and Rachel, who’s a Druckenmiller who was a TED speaker, Mark Sandboard, I’m just going through do names, Jen Gore, Chris Seager. We got Madi from BluShark Digital there. Josh Sanford. I mean, this is, Jacqueline Bertell for Big Horn Legal Tom Kirker. I mean, you got a who’s who, of people in the industry, Ken Hardison, I believe is speaking so, highly recommend the Vista Group. I’ve been out to a couple of them. I think it’s great content. And that pretty much gets the through, believe it or not just April. April is, you know, kind of, yeah, we kick off in January, February. But now we are in full swing, lots of conferences coming up lots of events to get you and your team to. And you know, even if you look at these things and say, oh, I’m not sure I need to see that speaker again, do not forget about the networking with other lawyers, other vendors, and just the people in the room. There’s three parts to a conference. There’s the speakers, there’s the attendees, and there’s the vendors. And there’s something to be learned from all of them. And the connections you will make it all of them. So I highly, highly, highly recommend it, I don’t care the size of your firm, that get somebody out to start making these rounds at some of these things and you will find unbelievable growth in one or more area of your practice.
Seth Price 9:53
Absolutely, and you know what? I think that, you know, look, there are these conferences. There are masterminds, I think and like I’m a junkie of them as you are, but I find that getting away from your desk, that there’s certain amount, for, for extroverts, like us the energy that you get, the networking, and then you pull those nuggets in. I mean, I credit it with building both organizations, I mean, like the fact that I’m able to go and tap into people, who have done extraordinary things, and just how they operate. And then when you, when you form those relationships, it’s part of your Slack group or your Facebook Messenger group, where you have somebody on, on speed dial, that doesn’t, that is not charging you tens of thousands of dollars, but literally, can help you with threshold questions about what to do next.
Paul Faust 10:41
Yeah, it’s hard to reach out to man- many of the top trial lawyers or marketers in the industry, because they’re busy, when you just reach out on a cold email, or a phone call. But when you get to a conference, and you sit next to him at a dinner, or you grab a drink at the cocktail event, or you go see the comedian with them, everybody is open to speak, look as a vendor in the industry. I get 50-60% of my business from other vendors. I’ve also had vendors, like I remember the day that you came over to me and said, Paul, I think you should redo your booth. As a lawyer, I’m walking in the room and I got tips, so what did I do? The next conference, my booth was different, because I got perspective. So I don’t care who you are in the space, whether you’re a vendor, a lawyer, the trial lawyer, the marketer, the paralegal, there is a spot for you to learn, network, and grow in the space. And together, we grow the whole industry. So I highly recommend these events.
Seth Price 11:32
Right, and I hope that what people figure out is where, by listening to us and sort of, you know, crowdsourcing, this information, is figure out what’s right for them. Because there is, there are times when you send your staff to something, and it’s either over their head, or not appropriate for staff versus principals. And making sure that you are, you know, purposeful, and where you do go, both for yourself and for your staff. Because it is, it’s like it’s time and it’s not insignificant money to get there, flights are getting more expensive, hotels are getting more expensive, and making sure that you do, when you do leave the house, that you’re doing it for a place that will deliver meaningful ROI. Again, there’s a lot of serendipity that happens. I’ve never, I don’t think I’ve ever gone to one of these and not had something positive happen. There’s always positive, whether it’s personal, or whether it’s actual takeaways. But I genuinely believe that, you know, for many people out there that if you just take a moment to reflect, is this the best place for them? And then do it. It’s not saying you shouldn’t do any of them. I’m just saying like, there’s a lot of choices and figuring out what makes the most sense for you.
Paul Faust 12:37
I agree completely. And on behalf of myself and Seth, what we’d love to ask, it’s a real ask, please, please, please tell your attorney friends, tell your vendor friends about this group. We’re doing it strictly to provide value to the industry, so people know. If you have an event coming up. If you have a conference coming up, please send it to us, send it to myself or Seth. You could, and we will post it, we want to talk about it. We want to grow this for everybody. It’s this, this came about after years and years and years of people asking what’s coming up, what conferences, where should I go? What’s good for me? We want to make it a central place for people to find this information. So please tell your friends to join the page and send us information if you got something coming up that we didn’t mention.
Seth Price 13:20
Take care everybody, we’ll see you soon.
BluShark Digital 13:21
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