2022! That's a wrap!

ILTACON Europe 2022 finished up with a bang, with a high energy session from Dr. Rob Archer of Cognacity, helping attendees to perform under pressure. More on that later, but first we wanted to reflect on what we designed as "the conference we want to attend". When putting together ILTACON Europe, we had several key objectives:

• Engage high quality speakers and give them dedicated time to deliver their messages and for attendees to ask meaningful questions;
• Maximise the opportunity for attendees to speak to each other and to our ILTA valued business partners; and
• Emphasise and demonstrate that ILTA is peer-powered and show how useful it is for developing your legal network and career

We are pleased to say that we believe we have delivered on those aims and would like to thank the speakers, partners, and, most importantly, attendees, for making 2022 a great success!

The Conference was held at ILTA member firm Allen & Overy in Bishopsgate, which provided us with a superb event space for presentations and networking. Our format was simple: 5 sessions, with plenty of time in between each to catch-up with peers and partners.

Our speakers?

We kicked off with Dr. Hannah Fry's electrifying presentation: "Human or Machine?: the trouble with automating law", which took us on a rip-roaring ride through driverless cars, bias in the judiciary and in data, the dangers of trusting machines with important decisions, and more.

Stephen Carver of Cranfield University delivered a fantastic (and frightening) look at complexity in projects. Filled with jokes, jibes, stories, and slides that explained to us the difference between complicated and complex when it comes to projects. He gave us a great analogy: a jumbo jet is complicated, mayonnaise is complex.

After coffee and catching up, we had a panel session on "The Future Workplace", focusing on how organisations can make their office magnetic, rather than mandatory, reduce the digital distance, and how we can design innovative spaces that change how work gets done.

Following that, we kicked off with ILTA's president, Ginevra Saylor, and Vice President, Tony McKenna telling us how ILTA had transformed their careers and urging attendees to get involved as volunteers – something ILTACON Europe co-chairs Andrew and Damien wholeheartedly agree with.

Then it was over to former UK cabinet minister David Gauke giving us a canter through the geo-political landscape we find ourselves in and the impact on cyber security, followed by the NCSC explaining the threats to our sector and how to protect against them.

Finally, we rounded off with a highly interactive session with Dr. Rob Archer of Cognacity, on the dangers of stress and burnout, how to ensure we increase our performance under pressure by prioritising rest in the way athletes do, and how to avoid destructive "mind traps".

After the after-party, and the after-after party, we all reflected on a fantastic array of speakers and how fortunate we are to have these opportunities to meet each other and share knowledge and support one another – which is exactly what ILTA is all about.

Cheers!