Texas triumph! LMA members network, collaborate and learn at the 2012 Legal Marketing Association Annual Conference.

• Author: Wojtalewicz, Theresa
• Position: Conference news - Cover story

From March 14-16, 2012, LMA hosted its annual conference in Grapevine, Texas. The more than 1,000 attendees brought with them enthusiasm and an eagerness to learn. The conference started off with a bang with the pre-conference sessions including QuickStart: Legal Marketing Core Competencies; A Recipe for ... SMORS--Small Marketing on Limited Resources; and the CMO Summit. Those attendees that were there for Wednesday night got to enjoy both the First Timer's Reception and the Welcome Reception in the Exhibit Hall (see pages 10 to 19 for detailed articles on the pre-conference sessions).

Starting Thursday, the conference was in full swing. Keynote speaker James Kane, a Harvard University-trained researcher and loyalty enthusiast, took attendees on an entertaining ride. He journeyed with his audience into the human brain and explained the secret to building and maintaining loyal relationships. To access The Loyalty Switch Workbook that he designed just for LMA and to learn how to make anyone loyal to you, your organization or your cause, visit http:// www.jameskane.com/storage/lma/loyaltyworkbook.pdf. Later that morning, Jonathan Michael Bowman, Esq., president and CEO of Clear Picture Leadership, led attendees through an energetic presentation in which he taught them how to teach and ignite their teams to achieve "Picture Perfect" change.

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Throughout the day, attendees had the option to select from concurrent breakout sessions that were divided up by tracks. The tracks touched on topics such as social media, business development, CMO roundtables, alternative fee arrangements and branding, to name a few. Thursday night wrapped up with a night out at the Glass Cactus Nightclub where attendees could unwind and network with one another in a more relaxed atmosphere.

Day two offered attendees additional options for breakout sessions again based on tracks. Some of these sessions included marketing and IT, finance and business, competitive intelligence and crisis management. This conference centered on "Leadership and Effecting Change," and the sessions all worked around how marketers could become better leaders and have a greater voice in their professional lives.

Friday wrapped up with a post-conference session titled "Achieving Measurable Lead Generation, Increased Brand Awareness and Business Development through Social Media." This session--led by Jennifer Manton, chief marketing officer with Loeb & Loeb, and Shawn Amos...