As Co-Chairs of ILTA ‘08, we are thrilled to be part of the premier peer-networking and educational program for legal technology professionals in 2008. Our theme, Global Perspective, Peer Advantage, helps us direct the educational content and networking opportunities as well as the marketing materials, website and some of the conference events.

The tracks for ILTA ‘08 frame the content for the sessions. In addition to our general educational tracks, each of our vendor-supported Peer Groups and our topic-based Peer Groups are presenting sessions in their tracks; we continue our Sharon Swartworth Leadership Development Seminar, and we provide sessions for each of our Discussion Forums.

Michele and I are very excited about leading the ILTA ‘08 team. We have a number of overall conference goals. We want to ensure the conference aligns with the strategic goals of the organization; it should be a high-value, affordable event; we continue to increase the networking opportunities at conference; and we continue to balance the vendor interaction to our culture and member needs. We have also developed some very specific educational program goals:

Deliver high-quality sessions:

• Define the focus of each track in specific, qualitative terms and match session content to the track focus
• Define the target audience for each session, and match session content to the audience
• Ensure tracks are complementary to one another and avoid duplicate content across tracks through consistent communication and monitoring
• Define the technical depth for each session and match the session content Strive to increase the technical depth of sessions in appropriate tracks
• Continue to increase quality of panel presentations

Manage the speaker population:

• Maintain a member/vendor speaker participation ratio of 65/35
• Seek out the best qualified speaker(s) on each topic
• Define and publish session presentation types (presentation, panel, roundtable discussion)

These goals will guide us in planning for conference and in measuring our success. We will be looking to ILTA '08 attendees to tell us the extent to which we are able to achieve the goals.

Our 26 educational tracks present 192 educational sessions! Our volunteer Conference Committee and Peer Group Vice Presidents are developing the topics listed throughout this website and working to find the "right" speaker(s) for each session.

Beyond the educational program, the conference will provide myriad networking opportunities to allow attendees to share and learn from other members and vendors.

We are certain that attendees will find the value proposition of this conference to be very high and that they will take away an amazing array of knowledge and professional contacts to benefit their firms and law departments.

Bill Mertes and Michele Gossmeyer
ILTA '08 Conference Co-Chairs