A few weeks ago, some of the Ambition US team were lucky enough to attend the Legal Marketing Association Annual Conference in Hollywood, Florida for the first time. Here’s a brief overview of our highlights and observations across the 3 days.
What is the LMA conference?
The LMA conference is the largest global conference specifically for the legal marketing and business development community. The theme of the conference for 2023 was ‘amplify your impact’.
The event
The LMA certainly knows how to start a conference with a bang!
At 8.30 am, the hall was full of attendees, all looking forward to the conference, drinking coffee, and trying to up one’s own energy levels in preparation. Then, wow!
Roy Sexton, LMA's President, appeared on stage in an amazing sparkling suit and belted out Lady Gaga's 'Born This Way'. The lyrics were adapted to showcase the LMA and Roy was then joined on stage by the renowned drag queen and community activist Athena Dion. I can easily say this was the best start to a conference I've ever seen, bar none!
Every conference attendee was up, dancing and singing at 8.30 am! No mean feat and filled the audience with a different level of energy and excitement for the conference ahead.
Another thing that was incredibly impressive was the size of the event and how well run it all was. Despite there being over 1000 attendees, there was ample time to get around and meet lots of new people. There were multiple networking events held throughout the day as well as the chance to grab lunch and drinks.
This provided the opportunity to meet people formally as well as informally and truly provide a platform to be able to build relationships.
The scale and how effortlessly this was implemented really is a testament to how much effort and sense of pride the organizers had put in. We tip our hats to you all!
The talks
There were a wide variety of sessions running throughout the event. It was incredibly interesting to attend these talks and hear the perspectives of individuals at all different types of law firms. There was an eclectic mix of speakers and the audience really added to the dynamic of the discussions and questions asked.
Whilst all the talks I attended were great, a session that I found particularly interesting was ‘Spearheading Strategy & Winning New Business with Marketing Tools’ chaired by Oscar Buitrago, Laura Galeano, Pamela Tobias, and Aja Hendrix.
It was particularly interesting to hear how firms’ leaders have turned to marketing tools to analyze their brand, retain clients, and win new business, and to hear their thoughts on how this could continue to change the future of Legal BD & Marketing.
Our overall verdict on the #LMA23 conference
There were so many highlights, from the content delivered by the speakers to the Modello beer….!
However, what I really enjoyed most was the opportunity to get face time with so many fantastic people. We had the chance to reconnect with some ‘old faces’ as well as lots of new people we had never met before. The setting and opportunity to connect with these individuals were really enjoyable and I am grateful to everyone we managed to speak with throughout the 3 days.
Also, Hollywood, Florida, was a fantastic choice of location and provided a great opportunity for individuals to enjoy the sun whilst having a bit of downtime.
Overall, it was an incredible conference to be a very small part of, which sets the bar at an extremely high level for San Diego next year. However, having seen first-hand the comradery and real sense of community displayed in Hollywood, Florida, I have no doubt the LMA will smash it out of the park!
