November 29th, 2011 by Gwynne Monahan
Conferences. Is That an App for That?
There’s a nice technology timeline on the Mobility, Flexibility, Agility and the 21st Century Workflow post on Small Firm Innovation that shows how quickly mobile technology has advanced. The iPhone, the iPad and the Kindle brought information and tools to our fingertips. The question, “Is there an app for that?” became a punch line as much as a legitimate question.
From games, like Angry Birds, to productivity apps like Evernote, there is no shortage of answers for “Is there an app for that?” Except when it comes to legal conferences.
If you rummage around your office, odds are good you’ll find a collection of name badges as well as a various conference brochures, handouts and the like. Maybe you toss them at the end of the year, maybe you hang onto them to compare sessions and see what has changed and what hasn’t. Did the question, “Is there an app for that?” pop into your head?
In our increasingly digital age, one has to wonder if conference planners ask themselves the same question as they sort through and prepare brochures and other paper materials.
And the answer seems to be: Yes.
The 2011 State Bar of Texas Annual meeting had a conference app, created by CrowdCompass and available on Android devices, BlackBerrys, iPhones and iPads. It not only put the conference schedule at your fingertips, but also let you “join the discussion on Twitter and connect directly with other attendees.” The 2011 Wisconsin Solo and Small Firm Conference also had a mobile app from CrowdCompass. I used it myself and found it easier to check out the day’s sessions than thumbing through the paper conference materials.
And if you’ve been following news trickling out about the 2012 ABATECHSHOW, word is there will be an app for that, too.
Makes you wonder: will conferences one day be paperless, too?
[...] speculated on conference apps in a previous post, wondering if conference apps would one day lead to paperless conferences. ABA TECHSHOW is taking [...]