I was excited to go to ILTACON this year, especially given that I hadn’t been in a couple years. I planned to spend my time attending sessions, networking with other participants on new technology in the marketplace and going to some meetings with the media in attendance.

I was particularly interested in learning more about what other participants thought of Office 365: Were they using it? Considering it? I also wanted to talk more about the cloud and the future of legal technology.

The sessions were a great starting place for me. Here are a few key takeaways I had:

Blockchain

Although I did not attend the entire series, the session on the last day really opened my eyes to some of the possibilities for using blockchain technology and what the future will be for some of the more sensitive data we currently retrieve, store in our systems and host for clients. We will be keeping a close eye on this technology in order to not only adapt to what is coming, but flourish in this new environment.

Microsoft 365

Having chosen G Suite five years ago for our internal cloud email solution, I have admired the growth of O365 from afar and now up close since we recently adopted RelativityOne (which I consider to be the eDiscovery cousin to the Microsoft stack). It is clear that this platform was built from the ground up with the purpose of fitting the enterprise and watching it come together and adding the pieces – very useful pieces I might add – on top of the regular Office programs. It is extremely impressive. Not only that, but the platform is clearly designed with security and compliance in mind. Although they require configuration, the Security and Compliance add-ons seem to be loaded with features and templates that can help you comply with any type of standards you might require. There was a considerable number of sessions and discussion around the new Microsoft Teams module, which, in my opinion, could be a Slack killer. The ability to utilize this feature, collaborate alongside your existing enterprise data and also manage the data from a security and compliance standpoint tells me the O365 stack is loaded and ready to do battle with any platform out there.

Artificial Intelligence

Clearly the buzzword of the conference, AI is everywhere. While it’s very easy for the layperson to confuse AI with just normal computing – was the first electronic calculator AI? – some of the advances are amazing – and terrifying at the same time. That said, every time my GPS takes me to the wrong spot, it’s a good indication to me that the robots are not ready to take over just yet. Just remember: AI is only as good as the data set the intelligence is depending on. When looking at AI solutions, you should always question how the system learns and applies its intelligence.

Overall, the experience was a good one. I really enjoyed the sessions that were offered and heard some very interesting information. In addition, the ILTACON app was great! It had many features that helped me get where I needed to be – on time. I look forward to ILTACON 2019!