The Conference Connection: Episode 1 with Paul Faust and Seth Price

Welcome to The Conference Connection, with hosts Seth Price and Paul Faust! With so many conferences in the legal space, and so little time, Seth and Cool Guy Paul are here to help you understand what events to attend to maximize your education and networking opportunities. In this episode, Seth and Paul detail some of their favorite conferences to start the year, why they like those conferences, and much more about what they plan on accomplishing with this new podcast!

Have more questions about upcoming conferences and the dos and donts? Check out our Conference Connection Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/legalmarketingnumbers

Transcript

Seth Price  0:00  
Welcome, everybody, very excited to have you here for the first ever Conference Connection. I'm here with Paul Faust of Ringboost myself Seth Price from Price Benowitz and BluShark. And we are very excited for the first ever podcast discussing legal conferences, what's coming up, how to get the most out of it. And who better to have that with than Paul Faust cool guy Paul. 

Paul Faust  0:22  
How you doing everybody? I'm excited to kick this off with Seth, I think it's really important in our industry, for both attorneys, and the vendors and sponsors of these events to know what's coming up, know where it is, know what the gist is. So people can plan their calendars and get out more, I think a lot of the business happens on the road, the knowledge, the networking, and it's important. So I think this is gonna be great. And hopefully, people tune in, and we're gonna do this every month. And we'll grow from there. 

Seth Price  0:48  
Absolutely, so look. So our goal here is to both inform people about what's coming up and give them a little bit of a flavor, because conferences have their own, you know, strengths and weaknesses, what, you know, why should you go to one over another. And I feel like there's a lot of people who sort of just say, hey, this is coming up, I might as well go to it, I hope that we can spend our time educating people as far as what the opportunities are, and what is best for what they're looking for at their stage of law firm growth. 

Paul Faust  1:16  
100%, there's some conferences that are more focused on the business of law, marketing, sales, growth, media, and others that are focused on trial skills, and tactics. And there's ones that are specifically set up for your paralegals to attend. And, you know, as we start covering more and more, you'll understand where I should send my staff where, I should send my lawyers that to trial, where I need to send my marketing people and things like that. And I think that that's, that will work well also for vendors to know who to target and where to where the right environments for them are. 

Seth Price  1:46  
Right, so starting off kicking us off Paul, we're in January, everybody's back. They've spent their time with their family, and they're ready to get out right, you're ready to ready to get, you're an empty nester, but for those of us that are not, like, you know, it's great spending quality time with the kids. Now it's time to hit the road. So what do we got coming up in in January?

Paul Faust  2:03  
 Well, look everybody knows, you know, or generally thinks the first big event of the year that kick off is NTL National Trial Lawyers in Miami. That's usually I mean, there's other ones that pop up, but that's the sort of annual kickoff that everybody shakes off the dust and, and gets excited on going on the road. You know, you've been a moderator on many panels. And I think what's great about NTL at The Loews, we're at The Loews, in Miami is that it's got a little bit of everything. There's, there's some trialscope rocks, there's marketing, there's business of law there's, there's some of the top attorneys talking about cases they worked on and maybe you know, as an attorney who ran panels, I think you could talk a little bit about your experience there. 

Seth Price  2:47  
You know, I look, I love, love, love this conference. This is sort of make- makes my year every year, I've been going since the very first one. Keith Givens has become a friend and mentor and it's his baby. He's the genius that sort of came up with this idea that we weren't spending enough time, now it seems like commonplace, there are conferences on the business of law. But this was the first one and what I think makes it particularly special,  besides the fact that I'll be both moderating speaking during the entire, there's a first day, the first afternoon, a digital marketing masterclass, where four hours of nothing but digital marketing. So that's near and dear to my heart. But what I love about it is contemporaneously, the masters of the courtroom are there. And I think what makes this special for all but a couple years of the conference it's been at The Loews on South Beach, which is an amazing property. Just you know, when you, when you want to recharge, there's nothing better. And what I love about it is, it's it's sort of a captive audience, people are there, the the sort of common spaces there are bustling with A players that really have helped build my career, people that normally wouldn't give me the time of day when I started out, are there and if you sit down in the middle of the lounge and have a have a drink, the accessibility to people who are at the top of their game, I think is unmatched at this conference. And that's part of the reason I go back year after year. 

Paul Faust  4:10  
I agree completely, you know, it's, it's generally, there's one big exhibit hall with some exhibitors outside in the hallway right outside, but you come up one escalator, all of the, almost all of the speaking of the main stage is in one room, there are a couple of side rooms with with very specific topics that you could send someone to your firm from. There's a couple of small rooms, but everybody stays there. By the way, I want to just throw this out before I forget, it's NTLevents.com If you want to go look at registering, getting a ticket, or I don't think there's any booths, left, it's Janurary 18th through the 21st in Miami. What I love about it, first of all, it's the kickoff everyone's excited, everyone's ready to meet, meet and you know, and what's nice is we're up on that second floor and then right downstairs when the conference ends after the cocktail parties, people just generally congregate at the bar downstairs. Um, yeah, there's, there's some parties that get thrown at some restaurants locally, but people tend to stay together in that bar area and the conference, great entertainment, it sort of covers everything and gets the year kicked off.

Seth Price  5:11  
And look, it, over the years, they have spent more money on those parties. They sort of set the bar with A level performers. It's just I, just the way they put it together. What I also love is that if I bring my litigators with me, there's plenty for the litigators. Whereas I still get my full full plate of business of law tracks, speakers, you know, panels, it really is one where you can come back with a notebook full of ideas to implement the following week. 

Paul Faust  5:42  
Absolutely. And we know there's the A list awards, where they give out awards for best marketing, best PR, best 30 second, best social best, digital ads, which is an amazing way to recognize the marketers out there. So it really combines it all, and really gets everybody excited for the year ahead, it sort of sets the tone. 

Seth Price  5:58  
And looking at it from the vendor point of view. One of the things that's nice is that they have taken the approach, the philosophy that we want to make sure that everybody is exposed to everybody. And literally to get to the main venue. You walk through all exactly, which is sometimes I get it can be a little bit a little bit tiring, because it is a couple extra steps. But a it's good for you steps are a good thing. 

Paul Faust  6:25  
New year, let's get more steps in.

Seth Price  6:26  
Yeah, but but the idea that so much happens with serendipity and the fact that a conference is created with that in mind, I think just you know, they do a tremendous job. And Michelle, who's the executive director has really built this thing from 175 people at the Ritz to one of the go to conferences of the year if your're a trial lawyer. 

Paul Faust  6:50  
Absolutely can't agree more, can't wait for it coming up. Another one that, I was doing some some looking around. Another one's a one day conference I heard about. It's called the business of law not to be mistaken with the business of law that NTL puts out with the Givens. This is this is a more workshop. It's at the Bank of America Plaza in Atlanta, I believe this is put on by Cartiga. So I was looking at it's cartiga.com/businessoflaw, again, not to be confused with the buisness of law, that Givens and NTL puts on in Scottsdale, and some of the speakers, Andrew Finkelstein, who many people know, Alexander Shannara, and others, from my looking at it. A lot of trial work. I was looking at case evaluation, cash flow management, risk assessment, intake, the cover some other topics, but a lot of it was real meat and bones of of handling those trials. And I just saw that and it's coming up on January 10th, in Atlanta, it's a one day conference, you go to the website, you might have some spots left. 

Seth Price  7:47  
And and look, I would say that this is a great example of we are always looking at what is truly business of law and what is going to be sort of a litigation backed. And as we talk, you know, there are a bunch of them. But just the counterpoint to an NTL is an AAJ, which although it has elements of business of law, its really first and foremost, the trial lawyer juggernaut conference, this is the the winter conference, the summer one may be slightly larger, but the Winter AAJ coming up in Austin in early February, you know, this was, this is the original, it has the lobbying arm. And it is, you know, one of the larger attendance wise of all of these conferences with unlimited CLE opportunities. 

Paul Faust  8:36  
Yeah, so let's talk about that because you brought it up. So that's Austin, Texas, February, I believe, 10th through the 13th, you can go to justicewinterconvention.org. You have to really plan that one out a little bit more as an attorney. And as a vendor, because it's very big. There are like, dozens of different rooms covering very micro topics, there's political tracks, there's trial tracks. There tends to be a lot of groups that have their own events there. They have their own parties. There are some organized events with AAJ, the opening party, the young lawyers party, but there are so many events that if you just go there and say I'll just figure it out, you might get pulled around a little bit. So you might want to spend some time in the AAJ site, look at the tracks. What's important to you, who I should bring from my firm, because it's really a pretty big thing, and it's a good time and a big crowd, but it definitely covers a lot of, a lot of tracks and topics you agree?

Seth Price  9:28  
Right, like I've been involved with AAJ for years. The Leaders Forum is a group of lawyers who contribute to help make sure AAJ runs. And it's one of those things that when, when there are political fights over tort reform, this is the juggernaut that is in place to help make sure that political contributions are placed so the trial lawyers voice is heard in Washington.

Paul Faust  9:50  
 Right, that's that's what makes it a little bit different. You don't see that a lot with the other conferences, and they also have the trial skills, and there are some marketing tracks, so it really covers everything, jam packed schedule, again, that's Austin, Texas. February 10, through the 13th JW Marriott, justicewinterconvention.org. Another one that we should talk about that kind of is end of January, it's  January 31st to February 4th, at the Ritz Carlton, New Orleans. Is the Southern Trial Lawyer, southerntriallawyer.com. Their their annual Mardi Gras event. I have never personally gone to and maybe you have, I've heard a lot about it. I was looking at some of the topics, a lot of brain injury, a lot of deposition skills, I hope I say this right, Voir-

Seth Price  10:31  
Voir Dire, it is the  questioning of jurors, before they get onto the jury.

Paul Faust  10:36  
It has a lot of trial skills, that you know, there were other things, but it really looked to me like this is for the Southern Trial Lawyers, and if I'm right, I'm not sure but I think (inaudible) is now the president of the Southern Trial Lawyers, a great guy, who I know, but that's January 31st to February 4th at the Ritz Carlton in New Orleans, southerntriallawyers.com If you want to check out their event. And then the- I don't know if you want to talk more about that one because you-

Seth Price  11:00  
No, no, I would just say the, the, the irony is that it with AAJ and NTL I still remember a picture of you on Facebook from years ago. Like at the end of NTL, realizing that AAJ was like two weeks later in the same place?

Paul Faust  11:16  
Yeah, I,  this is why I think we're doing what we're doing. Because I totally would have been like, I have to come back here? Why can't I just stay here. One other one I want to talk about because its important to me, my friends put it on. It's TortX. And this is tortx.events, tortx.events, you can go sign up and be on the waitlist. This is in Scottsdale, February 7th to 10th. And this is a combination of a really good time with an amazing conference on the topic of mass torts. Velocities is right, I believe Open Jar is  a sponsor this year. But it's a great networking opportunity, then a day of actual meat and potatoes, talking about the mass tort world, issues affecting the mass tort world, technology, you name it, some great parties and social aspects and then going to waste management open golf tournament, which is a lot of fun. And tortx.events is their website to get on the waitlist February 7th through 10th, in Scottsdale, Arizona, which is always a great place to go. 

Seth Price  12:16  
Awesome. And I'll say look, we're gonna probably do a lot of talking about different masterminds. And, and, you know, there's no shortage of really high caliber groups where lawyers get together and figure out how to how to raise the level of their business collectively. There's one the- that I'll just throw out there because it's a one off, it's not one that you join necessarily and stay a member of. But the John Fisher Mastermind Experience at mastermindexperience.com. They do one the final Friday in January. It's a one day in West Palm Beach. And it could be a good entry level place for people that have never done masterminds before and want to just see what they're like it's, there's no long term buy in although many of us have stayed with it for a long time. And it's a passion play by John, I don't think he makes a cent. It's very reasonable. And one that if you're trying to sort of  get the flavor of what masterminds are all about, definitely throw an application in. 

Paul Faust  13:12  
Yeah, that's what people need to understand is there's different conferences for different purposes. Some are masterminds, those masterminds are organized, usually by a trial lawyer, but a lot of the people who attend share ideas, then there's just pure coaching, where the coach does the talking. And then there's the conventions of conferences, which are lots of booze, lots of vendors, where you can learn a lot from different tracks and different speakers. So it's different experiences on the road. And some of them are meant for the trial lawyer. Some of them are meant for the marketing partner. Some are meant for the COOs, paralegals, and that's what we hope to bring with this. You know, podcast and Facebook Live. And we have a Facebook group that you can go ask questions in. And if you've said, hey, tell me more about that. Has anybody gone? You know, the point of this is to grow it and be really a resource for everyone in the industry, both vendors and lawyers, and the staff of law firms to really understand so you're not oh my god, I didn't hear about that. I wish I knew about it. And kind of giving you a little insight so when you get there you're a little bit more prepared.

Seth Price  14:09  
 Absolutely. Well this has been awesome, quite a first kickoff. Our goal is to keep these tight. So you give people a lot of information and then get them going about their day and hopefully getting to see them at one of these great places across the country. 

Paul Faust  14:23  
Yeah, we are gonna, we're gonna have Facebook group, The Conference Connection, which we'll we'll put into the video so people could join, join the group, you can ask questions, you can participate. And we'll start putting up calendars and other stuff there. So hope you guys find this valuable. I'm excited to do this with my friend Seth, and bring you guys as much info as we can. If you are organizing a conference or mastermind or coaching and anything, please send it to Seth or I, send it to both of us, and reach out, and you know we can let people know about it.

Seth Price  14:50  
So until next time, thank you for being here and we will, we'll check you out on the road.

Paul Faust  14:56  
See you on the road.