Dearest ILTAns!
We thought 2020 brought us more change than we could handle, then along came 2021...We found that change - including seemingly endless pivoting – was our only constant.
But change also brings opportunity and can inject fresh ideas and new priorities, which help us grow and evolve.
There are so many examples of that within ILTA!
So, what happened at ILTA in 2021? Well, in no order, here are some of the important (and often amazing) accomplishments of 2021!
ILTACON 2021: This was really three conferences: one in-person, one digital, and one hybrid. We made it happen, despite changes in operating parameters that often occurred daily. This demonstrated tremendous agility not only by the staff but by the volunteers and business partners. Board Election Process Vote: We needed to fulfill our commitment and to respect the concerns among our most invested volunteers. In 2021, we prepared and delivered educational materials, executed the member vote, and quickly moved to the next steps following the vote, all with effective communication and transparency throughout. Moving the Needle on the Strategic Plan: The following language from the Strategic Plan is telling, “We currently have a critical, overarching, and compelling goal of sustaining the organization through this challenging time.” We developed that language in mid-2020, and the objective was the same for the balance of 2020 and has lasted throughout 2021. We will continue to focus on this in 2022. However, we also made some important strides in the three pillars of myILTA: Content, Connections, and Leadership.
Content Virtual Road Show – Our Women Who Lead Roadshow, which visited four cities in the Southern US virtually, garnered some of the highest attendee satisfaction ratings ever received and tested some new types of content and programming Successful virtual events on Security and Diversity – Our second year of LegalSEC Summit Virtual Edition featured a virtual tabletop, as well as our excellent security content, helping members in running tabletops of their own. Our diversity event was new to ILTA and focused on issues that our emergent in our culture. Content Archiving – We instituted content archiving to improve the relevance of search results. Content Briefings – These quarterly gems provide one-stop reading as they feature a summary – with links – of the ILTA content created in the previous quarter.
Connections Working Groups – In 2021, we introduced working groups, starting with blockchain, adding women and security, and now centralized docketing. These groups consist of peers who wish to take an extremely deep dive into a specific topic or issue and network with others with similar interests.
myMentor – In November, we announced the pilot of our new mentoring program. Applications have been submitted, and we will begin matching mentors and mentees in January.
Leadership Candidate Education – This initiative provided videos for ILTA Board Candidates to learn more about the process and Board service. This was an important first step in our evolving candidate education process.
VLTF Efforts – The Volunteer Leadership Task Force undertook a comprehensive review of our volunteer structure to test it against the strategic plan. The result was an excellent proposal for evolving – and ensuring the ongoing care and feeding – of the volunteer structure. The proposal is currently under review. Look for more on this in 2022. Expanded Volunteer Opportunities – Micro-volunteering helps people become involved in ILTA with a smaller or more constrained time commitment. In the UK and Europe, our Special Interest Group (SIG) leaders represent a brand-new kind of volunteer – focused equally on content and connections. Our Program Planning Council introduced subcommittees, providing new learning opportunities around, for example, content innovation and development of young/new-to legal professionals.
And all of this happened in a year where our staff was smaller than it had been since 2016, our volunteers were busier than ever in their day jobs, and we produced more content in new and innovative ways that we had not dreamed of before... We had live Twitter and video segments from onsite at ILTACON, streamed webinars and roundtables in multiple languages, released a first-ever Climate Survey, extended peer-written articles across multiple platforms and podcasts, and had social media takeovers across multiple platforms. All told, across all ILTA-fronted media, we pushed live, recorded, and published over 1500 pieces of content, just this year. And we are continuing our mission to create and aggregate content in new and exciting ways: we know that content and connections fuel our members and partners and allow us to engage and educate globally.
We also made important strides in terms of the business of ILTA, among others, selling the building in Austin and achieving a 20% decrease in tech costs by changing platforms, consolidating systems, and leveraging our internal IT talent.
Many of you may be aware that 2021 was a particularly challenging year for me, as well. I suffered a serious health crisis in late May and was out until 16 August 2021. The fact that a number of you did not know I was gone speaks volumes to the inherent strength of ILTA in terms of talented staff, committed volunteers, and supportive business partners. A huge thanks to all of you! And a personal thanks for the many cards and well wishes I received during my recuperation.
Now, what are we looking forward to in 2022?
Our Service Delivery team will be onsite, in National Harbor, in February 2022, conducting a typical site visit, before our August event. There, we will engage the conference venue staff to find creative and educational ways to bring our attendees together, safely, but distinctly in person.
We will hold a vote on amendments to the Bylaws required to implement our new Board election process. Look for that in late Q3 or early Q4.
In 2022, we expect to begin phasing in the VLTF’s recommendations around the volunteer structure. This was done with tremendous care, respecting the culture of our organization.
We will also be fleshing out our new Innovation Hub, designed to incorporate legal tech start-ups and private equity into our ILTA-verse in appropriate ways that benefit members and business partners alike. We will begin by forming an advisory committee.
Many of you have expressed interest in hearing more about Microsoft Teams. Parts 4-8 of our Teams deep dive Webinars will be held in January and February, followed by a two-day Teams virtual event on 23 & 24 March.
Next, we often hear from you that you want to hear from more thought leaders. In response, we will be introducing a new quarterly Webinar series featuring our G100 CIOs talking about their top-of-mind issues. We are also exploring a similar program with our Knowledge Advisors.
Finally, we know that you want to spend more time together. We are looking for a return to local meetings in 2022. St. Louis folks, your 2021 Holiday Social looked like a blast, BTW! But this means virtually, too. You want to spend more time talking with peers. Look for more roundtables to be added to our programming menu of fantastic, prepared presentations.
I know I said finally right above, but I want to say one last thing:
What I look forward to most in 2022 is spending it with all of you – virtually and in person. Your commitment to excellence, passion for delivering for your organizations, and desire to grow as technologists, leaders, and people inspire me every day. It is what makes this the best job in the world.
Wishing you the best for 2022!
Hugs to all!
Joy
PS! Our ILTA office will be closed for Holiday Break from 24 December through 4 January 2022 so that our terrific staff has time to spend with their families! We will see you fresh and ready after the break!