Making Denver 2010 the must-attend event.

• Author: Manton, Jennifer
• Position: PRESIDENT'S PODIUM - Conference news

There's no doubt that LMA members are passionate about their profession and the association that supports their professional development. And be assured that LMA is committed to delivering the resources, tools and information that you require to do your job better. Your voice shapes our organization as well as our profession. Today, your input is more important than ever.

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As you know, LMA's most ambitious undertaking each year is the annual conference. It's the one event where members come together in one venue for a few days of education, professional development and networking. This past year, however, we heard that some members found the event hard to justify, especially in these tough economic times. Thus, we began to investigate ways we could take this from a "nice to attend" to a "must attend" conference.

To find the answers, we turned to the American Conference Institute (ACI), an organization that has provided business intelligence to senior executives, predominantly within the legal community, for more than 25 years. ACI is a leader in planning, organizing and facilitating events for corporations and associations. Our charge to them: find out what it takes to make the 2010 LMA conference the number-one priority for legal marketing executives, decision makers and professionals.

ACI's Director of Research and Programming Kristy Perkins immediately took the torch and began an in-depth study of conference trends and history that included reaching out to LMA members. By early August, more than 60 of you graciously accepted her invitation to be interviewed by phone; by the end of September, Kristy expects to have more than 100 interviews completed.

"LMA members tell me they care deeply about the organization and want to make the annual conference a good use of their time and budgetary resources. They also say its business value must be clear in order for them to justify it to their firm management," she says. "In fact, because members are so willing to share thoughts and ideas, my interviews so far are averaging 60 minutes in length, well above industry averages. "

Most of those interviewed by Kristy are "C" level marketing executives and law firm CMOs. These veteran marketers report that, with the right topics, speakers and focus, they would look forward to attending future conferences. LMA 2010 President-elect Nathan Darling and I are very encouraged by this response. It tells us that our most experienced members...