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 Foust, President of RingBoost, and Seth Price, Founder of BluShark Digital and Managing Partner of Price Benowitz.
Paul Faust 0:16
Good morning, everybody. It’s Paul Foust from RingBoost and Seth Price from BluShark here from the Conference Connection. Want to give you a wrap-up on the PILMMA conference we just got back from and also talk to you about some great conferences coming up in June. Seth, you want to take it away?
Seth Price 0:31
Yeah, PILMMA, I thought that Ken has raised the bar again. I mean, this started off sort of like, you know, cheap hotels and, just bootstrapped and he’s turned into a destination. A lot of people see it as a place to go meet others, a ton of lawyers there, a ton of marketers, really good conversations. And I think he does a particularly good job of weaving. You know, anyone who puts on conference is gonna have a certain amount of pay-to-play. But he really does a nice job of inter weaving talent, both lawyers and marketers, who have unique things to bring to the table. Nalini crushed it with our with our local talk, but Justin Lovely’s update on AI, I thought, was one of the best talks I’ve heard in recent times. And really just an overall lot of substantive value things that I came back with to work on at Price Benowitz and move the firm forward.
Paul Faust 1:25
Yeah, it was great. You know, this was, I think, his largest PILMMA yet. There was a lot of new vendors as well with new technologies, new offerings, which is good to see that there’s constant growth in the industry. And, one thing I find really interesting about PILMMA is I noticed, you know, yes, there’s an element of pay-to play; you know, you got to put on the conferences, great speakers. But I also noticed lots of packs of lawyers just networking together in little groups outside of the sessions. And that is what we’ve always told people, you know, you can look at a conference and say, I don’t love that speaker list, I’m not such a fan of the vendors who sign up, but the immense value of networking with your peers, who’ve been there done that, meeting new people—I saw it in pockets and pockets of lawyers spending time together. And I think it’s always refreshing to see, and I think lawyers get a lot of value out of that.
Seth Price 2:16
Just like the masterminds that Ken and other people put on, you know, there was there, there’s stuff that you can see so much easier to give advice to somebody else than for yourself. But you know, somebody was struggling with an employee that was sort of getting special favors from the managing partner, everybody else was resenting it. And like, you know, there are answers that are pretty visible, and just being able to get out of the office and discuss them. And I think the format of PILMMA where there’s such extensive social space, you know, in the vendor hall really is conducive to that, so great substance while at the same time really valuable time for networking.
Paul Faust 2:51
Yeah, so hats off to Ken and Sherry and the whole team that put on a great event. You know, it’s always it’s always fun to see to see the people out there. Pretty exciting June, we got two amazing conferences coming up, two well-known conferences. The first one, June 5th through 8th, TLU Dan Ambrose’s Conference. TLUbeach.com to register. IIt’s, I believe, the Pasea Hotel and Spa—I think that’s how you say it—in Huntington Beach. Dan’s been putting on this TLU for a while. This is TLU live, so he does some online. And this is an unbelievable event that has lots of individual breakout rooms with very specific trial skills, where you will learn from people like Brian Panish, and Chad Dudley, and Dan himself, specific trial skills, techniques on all the different aspects of law. Seth, I don’t know if you’ve been to a TLU.
Seth Price 3:45
Dan puts on a—what’s great about Dan is, you know, his mind’s moving a million miles a minute. Not only does he have great substance, but he always tries to do stuff to make it fun and engaging. It is pure substance, right? Occasionally, there’s a marketing track when they’re in Vegas. But this is sort of the where you go to become a better trial lawyer, and the people going. I was talking to Chad, he’s sort of like, yeah, we’re thrilled to be speaking, but at the same time, the amount of stuff he’s going to miss because he’s in there. Even at his level, people are well aware that what’s going on around him is, so it’s become a destination for people who want to sort of get into the nitty-gritty of trial skills.
Paul Faust 4:27
So, this is definitely a conference you want to send your trial lawyers to. And then, and that again, it’s TLUbeach.com You can still register get tickets, Huntington Beach, June 5th through 8th. And then, when you’re done getting your trial skills there, you can go to none other than the Lanier trial Academy. It’s laniertrialacademy.com, June 17th to the 20th at the Marriott Marquis in Houston. But don’t forget to get there a day early, so you go to Rick Meadows charity golf tournament, which is always fun and a great spot to network. This is a very different conference, because there is one speaker. There’s one speaker the entire time, who is none other than Mark Lanier, where he will walk you through the techniques, the strategies and the tools to use uses to get the verdicts he does. And, there is, this is such a unique conference. I’ve been as you know, as the vendor watching. And I’ve never seen a conference where every seat is filled the entire time; they don’t want to miss one word that Mark says.
Seth Price 5:24
Which it’s just rare that you could see sort of the, you know, the GOAT, sit there and be able to lay it out. People, many people go year after year. There’s some people who sort of go in and pop in every couple of years. And just, it is intense. It’s not generally the marketing world that’s there; it’s the people who need to try the cases. And so, from a vendor point of view, it is a more challenging conference because people are so glued to the substance. And when they leave the room, they’re spent. You know, at other conferences, there’s highlights, lowlights, and people may have downtime. Whereas here, this guy is so good that he’s at such a high level the entire time that I find that lawyers are just like, my brain can’t take any more when they leave the room.
Paul Faust 6:13
Yeah, but what I found out, which is really interesting, because I thought that originally, tough for vendors, yes, you have to be more strategic in how you work the event. But I find a lot of the top firms, like you’ll see Mike Morse, he will bring his trial team. They will be in the room the whole time, while Mike will be wandering the vendor area, and the decision-makers are often out in the vendor hall while the trial teams are inside. And it’s just amazing that one man can speak for two and a half days, keep your attention, engage the audience, and you will walk out of there with a master’s education in trial skill. It’s really just amazing. You’re gonna watch and meeting other amazing trial lawyers to talk real trial technique. There’s really no one like Mark Lanier, and I think they put on an amazing event.
Seth Price 7:07
Couldn’t agree more. And the hotel, it’s a great conference hotel. My favorite part is the Texas-shaped Lazy River, that’s in the back. So if you do get some time and you stay late or after the sessions are done for the day, it is one of those things that people all over Tiktok and Instagram are always bragging about staying at. And here you are, it’s a write-off, and you get to get some great knowledge as well as relax in one of the cooler pool decks in the country.
Paul Faust 7:36
Yeah, so look, we just came out of great marketing conference, Practice Management Conference. Now June is really running into two nuts-and-bolts, trial skill conferences. And that’s really great about this industry. There’s different conferences: some are meant for the pure marketing and the business side of the firm, and some are meant for the trial skills. And there is conferences that are for the paralegals. So Seth and I encourage you, if you have a conference, if you have an event coming up, please send it to us. We want to talk about it. We want to have you come on and talk about it. And I’d also like to encourage every vendor and every lawyer to please invite your friends to this group. The whole purpose of the Conference Connection is to let people know what’s coming up, where the events are, why you should go, who the speakers are, and getting you out of the office. So the more that people join our group and tell us events that are going on, the more we can bring it to the community.
Seth Price 8:26
Right, and next time we’ll start to give the sort of preview for AAJ, the big summer conference for trial lawyers, so we can tease that for for our next podcast.
Paul Faust 8:38
A lot of great stuff coming up. Thank you guys for tuning in. Appreciate you. See you next time.
BluShark Digital 8:44
Thank you for tuning in to the Conference Connection. Make sure to hit subscribe if you haven’t already. And we will see you for our next episode.
