Our big adventure across the pond
Last month Legal Geek headed over the Atlantic for our North American Tour with the ambition to extend our ever-increasing community of individuals wanting to help each other within the legal innovation industry, as well as have lots of fun networking.
Although our hosting countries were not used to our style of events, we were extremely pleased with the positive feedback we got across the board.
The Tour
Our tour started off in New York on 16th June, held at Sixth Floor Loft on Broadway. Onto Chicago for 21st June at 1871, and concluded in Toronto on 23rd June at the Legal Innovation Zone. Hosting 90% American cohort to 10% British in the USA, and 90% Canadian to 10% USA when over in Toronto, the attendance showed a healthy appetite for what Legal Geek have to offer.
With over 420 registrations for the three events, we were delighted to achieve over 50% attendance which is an incredible result for an IRL event, stacking up against webinar results, and let’s be honest, it is a lot easier to open your laptop screen still in your pyjamas. This shows us that we are all wanting that in person connection to return after the past few years. With EventMarker reporting in 2020 that 83% of Americans working from home missed attending in-person meetings and conventions and 78% of Americans working from home planned to attend as many or more live events when it was safe to do so, we were very happy to see this confirmed.
We would also like to thank our sponsors BRYTER and Thomson Reuters, in particular Bryanne Baye and Zorik Pesochinsky for their contribution to the day.
As you will have heard from our incredible line-up, we don’t do things by halves. If you would like to be involved in our 2023 conference, then get in touch with the team.
In addition to these legends (who we are very grateful for being involved) in Toronto we hosted an open mic session where we got to hear from some brilliant folk including Patrick Lau who told us all about Google’s Data Analytics Apprenticeship Programme.
Apprenticeships contribute towards the development of digital skills by providing opportunities for work and study. They can serve as part of your journey to a meaningful career. During the program, apprentices get exposure to different areas and teams at Google, while receiving external training and developing their professional skills on the job.’ It is great to see the next generation being supported on their journey into our space.
Patrick told us “I went to LegalGeek to hear from modern disruptors and leaders in our industry. Different viewpoints and perspectives are needed now more than ever. During the open-mic, I talked about my work in building a more diverse and inclusive team at Google Legal through our apprenticeship program. Afterwards I made more connections and learned about a whole host of other local community investments and opportunities.”
Only at a Legal Geek event
With Covid putting a stop to our usual icebreaker of high fives, we embraced Rock, Paper, Scissors this year. For those of you that have been living under a rock (pun intended) and never heard of this game, or haven’t dusted off your hands since childhood, then you can find a little reminder of the rules here.
We were amazed to find out that Toronto was the home of the first Rock, Paper, Scissors (RPS) World Championship back in 2002, started by two brothers, Douglas and Graham Walker. Our RPS minds were then blown when Hersh Perlis, (Founder and Director at Legal Innovation Zone at Ryerson University) confirmed that it was his good friend who was the current world champion. It was meant to be!
Not all business
With us always looking for inspiration from the world around us, the team made sure we made the most of our trip, and flight from a sustainability point of view; using the tour as an opportunity to hunt for the perfect venue for our 2023 New York conference, scouting venues across the city.
We also managed to carve out some time to embody the culture of our North American friends and were kindly invited to a Yankees game with our sponsors Thomson Reuters.
Plus, not ones to shy away from getting into full on tourist mode, we did the obligatory open top tour bus experience too.
We would love to thank everyone who was able to join us across the three cities, and we are excited to start planning our conference in 2023, to further support the industry and provide a platform of support, help, nurture, learning and teaching. See you next year!!
High Fives,
The Legal Geek Team
