Today's General Counsel Institute (Formerly the Executive Counsel Institute) held the San Francisco stop of their "eDiscovery for the Corporate Market" series, nicknamed "The Exchange".  Prior to this, I'd only attended in Los Angeles – and only the first day – but I was on a couple of the panels this year, so attended the entire one-and-a-half-day event.  The moderators for this location were Browning Marean III, Robert Brownstone and David Kessler.

This format is still working for me, folks.  The roundtable approach and ability for all attendees to participate is simply a great way to info-share, and as I've mentioned in prior summaries, the vendor attendees do not overpower the conference with blatant pitches.

Most importantly, I learn something new every single time I attend; and that's the point, isn't it?  Let me share with you the sessions that were covered this year:

• Polling the audience (Pain points, role, expected outcomes)
• Data security, social media and the cloud (with a healthy portion of BYOD included)
• Dealing with challenges of legal holds
• Recognize/reconcile the ethical and contractual tensions that can arise between I/C, O/C and providers
• Importance of day-to-day processes, management skills, swimming upstream, info management and governance
• Effective and efficient project management
• Recalibrating the program – unaddressed issues
• Resources and tools
• Search technologies and forward thinking

And most importantly, several coffee breaks…

Every flavor of eDiscovery professional is represented at these conferences, from lawyers to techies to support staff; and each brings to the (round)table their real-world perspective of what they see on a daily basis.  Practical information, not theory!

I encourage you to check it out the next time the conference is in your area.