Obsequious grovelling to sponsors
Geeklawyer and Ruthie are hugely grateful to our sponsors:
The Law Society Gazette who have been vastly helpful.
In particular Rupert White who was a star and who gets the highly valued and sought after Geeklawyer “I Will Defend Your Next Patent Infringement Case in Monrovia for Free” token (Valid for 1 year not transferable).
CPA Global a major player in the Intellectual Property portfolio management business. CPA have generously provided the venue, excellent public relations help and catering. Charlotte Presse, PR sweety, gets a Geeklawyer peck on the cheek.
Freeth Cartwright A spiffingly good law firm whose mad IT legal skillz are second only to Geeklawyer’s. Particular thanks to Alex Newson.
A discussion forum for arrangements, contents & general questions can be found here.
Attendees:
A number of magic circle firms & London chambers + most UK lawyer bloggers are attending.
Venue:
The venue will be CPA Global’s London office: 1 Oliver’s Yard London, EC1Y 1DT. Google map here.
There will be a buffet lunch laid on. Post conference entertainment to be will be in the form of a curry.
Date & Time:
The date will be 18th of May.
Registration: 11 am.
End time: 5/5.30-ish.
Post conference beer and curry 6pm onwards (let Geeklawyer know if you wish to participate in the curry)
Cost:
Students & pupil barristers and those on training contracts will be charged a nominal fee of £5.
Individual lawyers & bloggers £20.
Firms can send no more than three people for (space reasons in the venue) at £80 a head.
Cash on the door!
Accreditation
Accreditation should be sorted: hopefully 2 hours CPD
Content
Topics:
a) intro + keynote
b) technology: walk though the concepts, software, technology that aids: spam control rss feeds, podcasts etc etc. self serving or blogger.com?
c) blogging and communication: peers, public, punters. blogs are? good for my firm/me?
d) dangers: legal, career & professional.
e) marketing blogs. search engines, content.
f) IP issues: copyright, trademarks, linking, defamation, employment T&Cs
g ) real world experiences (mixed bag, multiple speakers): tips, results from blogging
1) One size fit all? Productively using Blawgs in firms of every size. Large medium small firms
2) Using your blog to market your practice.
3) Getting Started In Blogging: Blogging 101
4) Creating practice-specific content. Building a blog-centered practice.
5) Writing Weblog Posts to Engage Readers and Build an Audience: The Secrets of Legal Underground, Revealed.
6) Reputation building with blogs.
7) Introduction to RSS and News Aggregators
8 ) Blogging Ethically.
9) Group Blogs.
10) Why blog design matters.
11 How’d you do that? Technical tips, tricks, and problem-solving techniques.
Podcasting Basics
Freeform discussion with speakers.
Speakers
Hosts
Geeklawyer & Ruthie
attend: Ruthie & Geeklawyer. Barrister & Solicitor-Advocate respectively.
Keynote Speaker:
Other Speakers
humanlaw Solicitor.
Professor Jeremy Phillips: IPKat University of London
Geeklawyer & Ruthie
[Maybe: Dan Hull From US firm Hull Mcquire]
Plus many other bloggers.
How to register
Too late. Conference full (unless you want to do last minute sponsoring 
)
Comments? say it on the forum.
Report on the conference
How it all went:
Geeklawyer was a little apprehensive about the UK and Europe’s first legal bloggers conference. Would it be well attended? would it get support? would people find the content to be useful and would the social networking work?
Yes.
Caveats exist on the delight both Geeklawyer and Ruthie felt about the results: it was a little small, though this was down to the still small size of the legal blogging community something that will change in future years; and a several desirable bloggers failed to show up; trying to co-ordinates the diaries of more than two lawyers is usually a nightmare so the fact we managed it for thirty is an achievement in itself but inevitably some academics such as Martin fell victim to exam marking, pupilblogger & Liadnan fell prey to clerks and Corporate Blawg collapsed under the weight of numerous client files suddenly being heaped unannounced on his head.
Nonetheless, these were merely small clouds on an otherwise sunny and clear blue sky. Several members of both the general and trade press were present so we hope that the evangelical component of the conference will achieve its goal of greater awareness and uptake of lawyer blogging in the UK.
Several speaker commented on the mixed objectives of bloggers. CharonQC spoke of the egotists ranters anarchists serious commenters and marketing departments and the horrors inflicted by errors such as that Watson Farley Williams debacle; and provided a taxonomy of blogging.
Geeklawyer spoke of the four main dangers of blogging for lawyers: professional misconduct, the Google eternal; memory problem, malicious commenters and lack of upkeep. He also discussed the acquisition and control of co-bloggers.
Justin Patten led what ended up as quite interesting question and answer session on such things as the goals and objectives of blogging as well as the risks.
Ruthie talked about her life as a blogging sidekick. Inevitably much of this was biased propaganda presenting her twisted agenda and deluded grievances; no-one it seemed to Geeklawyer was fooled for a moment.
Ruthie caused a significant amount of disappointment by not turning up in her pink leathers citing their weight and the heat. A rather glorious Chinese smoking jacket, while in other circumstances sensational, failed to be an adequate substitute for the leching lawyers present. She presented her plan for a Ruthie calendar for next year merchandise like t-shirts mugs and leatherware. Lacking any concept of discussion she disclosed some gossip about Geeklawyer’s initial inability to manage her effectively as a blogger (guilty). She said that while she was not anonymous she didn’t exploit the blog as a marketing opportunity and eschewed providing legal advice. She also commented on the disappointing ability of sex to get enduring hits.
Perhaps the surprising hits of the conference was Headshift Consultancy and Professor Jeremy Phillips of IPKat. Of all the conference attendees Geeklawyer was most nervous of Headshift because of their content. They emailed him when they heard of the conference and Geeklawyer thought they were doing something that sounded interesting. The trouble is that being a bit of a geek Geeklawyer has a distorted value and interest system and perhaps, just perhaps, this geeky stuff attracts him in a way it may not or should not do for anyone sensible: like lawyers. They discussed the use of social networking to provide resources within large firms and organisations using easy existing software Wikis social bookmarking tagging and blogs. They described how quickly built projects costing next to nothing radically changed knowledge sharing and workflows in several prominent law firms. Geeklawyer knew all the technology well but hadn’t considered its use in this way. He found it to be a revolutionary idea and it genuinely has made him look at whether he can adopt this on a lesser scale for his own needs. To his astonishment several other lawyers said to him afterwards, unbidden, how interesting this talk was and what revolutionary ideas it revealed.
Professor Jeremy Phillips was the other great surprise: Geeklawyer had of course read his blog on innumerable occasions and read as the product of a heavyweight and austere intellectual. In reality Jeremy was funny friendly and polite. He told the rather impressive story of the creation and growth of IPKat, and he was a highly engaging speaker.
