IGHS54 - InfoCon2024 Recap of ILTA Legal Track at InfoCon2024

Jim Merrifield (00:00.877)
Well, hello and welcome to the InfoGov Hot Seat I'm your host Jim Merrifield and with me today are Christine Becker and Jeanne Martinez at ILTA. Welcome to you both.

Jeanne Martinez (00:11.216)
Glad to be here.

Christine Becker (00:12.238)
Hi, thanks for having us.

Jim Merrifield (00:14.115)
Yeah, it's great to see you again virtually. I know we just connected in Houston at Infocon and other events. So you both at ILTA. So it's nice to connect virtually and see how you're doing. But the audience wants to know who you are and what you've been up to and even a fun fact. could we'll start with Christine. Could you start by giving us a brief introduction of yourself, including your current role and one fun fact about yourself?

Christine Becker (00:35.15)
Mmm.

Christine Becker (00:43.288)
Okay, so an introduction about myself is I've been in law my whole career. So I started off as a paralegal for many, many years. Then I moved over to legal operations. And then two years ago, I left my firm to come join ILTA on the ILTA staff. So I was a member of ILTA, I was a volunteer of ILTA, and then I joined ILTA staff. So I've been working with Jeanne in our membership side for two years now, and it's been amazing.

And so my fun fact, which I'm terrible at, by the way, of these things, maybe it's fun slash interesting is every summer I train for a long distance swim. So I swim in like open water lakes and I, I will train all summer and I'll do one or two big like event. Like they're technically called races, but I'm not actually racing to win it. where I'll do some open.

bodies of water where I do that. And that's kind of like a fun summer activity I do every year.

Jim Merrifield (01:47.629)
That's cool. Hey, who knows? Maybe, I know there's always a run at ILTA or at Legal Week. Maybe one year there'll be a swim.

Jeanne Martinez (01:53.346)
it.

Christine Becker (01:53.39)
Yeah. Well, when we were there at National Harbour, two years ago, I think it was, there was a group early in the morning that were going off the dock. They had their wetsuits on and were going for a swim. And I was walking by and I almost wanted to join them, but I knew I had to get back to a session. So I couldn't do it. But it was there. There's that body of water there.

Jeanne Martinez (01:57.596)
I

Jeanne Martinez (02:05.628)
crazy.

Jeanne Martinez (02:15.676)
That's right, right there.

Jim Merrifield (02:16.677)
my goodness, that's amazing. So Jeanne same questions.

Jeanne Martinez (02:19.964)
Yep, So like Christine, I've been in legal my whole career, was with a large litigation firm in Houston while I was a member of ILTA back in the 80s and came and involved volunteer at the time. Went through a lot of the volunteer opportunities, was on conference committee, conference vice president, and then was actually on the board of directors. And then when I moved from Houston to Florida,

I, at the time, I could not go back to the typical 60 hour work week that law firms have. And I had a, Randi Mays who was the executive director at the time, reached out to me and asked me if I'd be interested in being an actual ILTA staff. So I've been an ILTA staff since 2000, October of 2000. So 24 years, I have actually been an ILTA staff member. And I've gone through many different, you know, I've been the online services probably for 20 years. And then a few years ago,

I moved over became the director of membership and volunteer operations and I really do enjoy it because I do like working with our membership at large as well as our volunteer programs. They're really a great, great group of people. And as far as fun fact, it's tough. would say basically you could put a gun to my head and I wouldn't exercise in any way, or form. I have an aversion to it. I call it an allergy. That's my fun fact.

Jim Merrifield (03:44.749)
That's all good. All good. Well, you both do a wonderful job at ILTA. I still remember, I think, getting emails from you, Jeanne. Many years ago, I think, when I was at my first firm, Finn Dixon and Herling so, yeah, that's great. So both started in legal and law firms. Now you're servicing all us law firms and legal departments, providing education, training, and...

Jeanne Martinez (03:53.388)
Yeah, many, years ago.

Jim Merrifield (04:12.447)
all sorts of industry knowledge. So that's awesome. That's great. So I know both of you attended Infocon 2024 in Houston. You curated part of the legal track. Christine, I know you were heavily involved with the curation of the ILTA ARMA track this year. What were your key takeaways from the track? How did it go?

Jeanne Martinez (04:17.051)
Yeah.

Christine Becker (04:32.75)
Yeah.

Christine Becker (04:36.268)
It was amazing. We love collaborating in that way. So we produced, helped collaborate with five sessions in ARMA's Legal Track this year. There was a wide range of topics. It was really awesome. It showed me honestly how much the legal professional has to take on, has to know about, has part of our daily routine.

because we had sessions that were talking about, you know, the typical things like vendor management or there was a session getting into, you know, DMS and that your electronic file. But then we also had a session on like learning from different industries like healthcare and finance and what they're doing and trying to apply it in the legal industry. And we even had a session on marketing yourself within your organization and your IG program.

It covered such a wide range of topics. So A, I just love the variety. But it just, I couldn't help but be in awe of what the legal professionals are having to do today in their careers. And it was really, really great sessions. The rooms were full. People were asking questions. It was very engaging sessions. And we had a really great experience.

Jim Merrifield (05:53.527)
Yeah, it was, it was wonderful. was great to have ILTA back. and part of that track. I remember, I think the first ARMA conference I was at probably about 20 years ago. I attended a pre-con and it was an ILTA I know. forget what it was called back then, right? Jeanne, you probably know, right? Yeah. Yeah. It an Ilta track. Yeah. That was my draw actually to go to ARMA. I think that year, because obviously I've been in law firms my whole life.

Jeanne Martinez (06:08.597)
It was a track probably. It was probably just an ILTA track. Yeah, we did educational tracks.

Jim Merrifield (06:22.719)
And so personally, I'm thrilled that we were able to do that track this year. Hopefully it's the first of many to come. Yeah, that's awesome. So speaking of AI, I know there were sessions all over the place about AI. It was a hot topic at ILTACon It was a hot topic at Infocon this year. Jeanne question for you. What advice would you give IG professionals to stay ahead of the curve in this?

Jeanne Martinez (06:29.776)
Really? Yep.

Christine Becker (06:31.224)
Yeah, I hope so too.

Christine Becker (06:37.219)
Mm-hmm.

Jim Merrifield (06:52.063)
evolving field of AI.

Jeanne Martinez (06:53.99)
So one, would say try not to get into AI fatigue. mean, like you said, AI is the buzzword for the moment. And I think sometimes it seems very overwhelming. But I think most IG professionals could probably benefit themselves just from reading up on the differences between generative AI and what would be called practical AI. Because generative is where you're getting into that creative aspect.

By and large, know that for even our educational programming priorities for 2025 is to do more on practical AI. And that's stuff where I think you're really looking at trying to implement systems and tasks that can make things more efficient, but you're not really looking into trying to have your CEO talking remotely as an avatar.

Jim Merrifield (07:50.573)
Hehehe.

Christine Becker (07:50.9)
Hehehehe

Jeanne Martinez (07:53.232)
I think learning the differences, because AI itself is a huge field, and so learning some of the subsets and the differences between them, I think makes it easier for people to then ask questions as to what are the risks versus rewards.

Jim Merrifield (08:07.329)
Yeah, I think that's an excellent point, right? Understanding the difference between generative AI and practical AI or like machine learning technologies that have been out there for years. I think a constant theme across, I guess, the IG world or you could say industry these days around AI, even speaking to business partners at Infocon is you got to clean up your data.

before you can actually understand and prompt the data. So there's a lot of efforts, I think, around data cleanup and better understanding, organizations understanding what data they have so they can actually benefit from it. So again, excellent, excellent point. So listen, to keep the momentum going, I know ARMA is teaming up with Iltah for Global IG Day on February 20th. I think it's the...

Jeanne Martinez (08:34.598)
Yeah, learn.

Christine Becker (08:57.312)
Mm-hmm.

Jim Merrifield (09:01.805)
Thursday in February. Yeah, so who would like to give us a sneak peek of what this event will entail?

Jeanne Martinez (09:04.092)
That's about right.

Christine Becker (09:11.254)
I'm pretty excited about it. We're taking our momentum of what we just did at Infocon and we're planning already into next year. So yeah, you're right. It's February 20th, 10 to 2 Eastern time. It's a virtual event. So we're just getting all the planning aligned right now. know, invitation registration isn't even open yet, but it will be soon. But we have a really amazing keynote that we're planning around

for our C-suite folks and their IG needs and their IG demands. We're gonna have a session around a white paper that's recently being produced specifically around AI, Jim, that you're really familiar with. And so we have guest speakers coming in to talk about that. And we're gonna do a workshop around ARMA's IGIM domains.

So we're planning out that. So there's going to be a nice mix of variety for a virtual event. We're pretty excited about it. And we just know it's going to just continue the buzz that we've built this year.

Jim Merrifield (10:22.443)
Yeah, it's going to be great. I know last year we did 90 minutes and it was a great event, but I think it wasn't enough, right? It wasn't enough. We kind of tested the waters last year and now we're going from 90 minutes to four hours. And we're going to allow people to have time to chat and eat their lunch. Don't worry, right?

Jeanne Martinez (10:22.777)
Good.

Jeanne Martinez (10:30.736)
you

Jeanne Martinez (10:36.641)
you

Jeanne Martinez (10:42.364)
Exactly. Breaks.

Christine Becker (10:43.094)
Of course, of course.

Jim Merrifield (10:44.835)
Yeah, for sure. So yeah, it should be a great event. It's virtual and you know, so looking forward to partnering up with the both of you for that event for sure. So listen, I know we could probably talk for, we could probably talk for 90 minutes or even four hours about this topic, but I know we all have busy lives and things to get to. So before I let the both of you go, Jeanne, would you like to share anything else?

Jeanne Martinez (11:11.612)
you

Jim Merrifield (11:13.591)
with the audience, any final thoughts, and then we'll ask the same question to you, Christine.

Jeanne Martinez (11:18.716)
I think the final thing that I would say is that I really do enjoy the collaboration between ILTA and ARMA. I'm all about education and education for our members, ARMA's members. I don't care where the education comes from or who puts it on. So I really do believe in a collaborative environment for educational content for both of our associations.

Christine Becker (11:42.542)
Believe it or not, we did not talk about our answers and that is virtually what I would have said is I just such a fan of collaboration over competition or any type of attitude like that. And I think our organizations are perfect examples of how that benefits both. And really our members are only better off for it. When we work together.

That's only more for our members like Jeanne said. It's not about who put on the content, it's not about, but it's the relevant, topical, and applicable content that we want for our members. I think keeping yourself open to those collaborative opportunities is really key to benefiting this way. So we want members in both of our organizations to feel that they're supported and well looked after.

And there's no better way to do that than collaborating with another organization that has similar values as you and is strategically aligned so that you can make it happen. that's, to me, that's just the best part of of my day job and our, Jeanne and I get to do within the membership department and how much we enjoy working with ARMA and their staff. Like, you know, Nate and his crew over there is outstanding to work with. And so we really appreciate these opportunities. And when it,

when it goes so well, you just want to do more. And we will.

Jim Merrifield (13:10.965)
Absolutely. And I could tell you the staff love is working with the two of you. You know, this, this industry is too small, right? The IG info gov records management, I guess you could say discipline is a really small niche industry. And the more we can do together, I think the better, right? We see each other at different events, I think throughout the year. And we have lots of

of upcoming opportunities. And I definitely look forward to collaborating with the both of you and the ILTA staff and membership and even the board as well in the future. So listen, thank you so much, you both for joining me today on the hot seat. I didn't ask any wild questions, right? You kind of knew what I was gonna ask, see? I have a couple that I could have asked, but it's okay. We'll hold those for another time.

Christine Becker (13:58.05)
No, you're very good to us.

Jim Merrifield (14:06.307)
To our audience if you'd like to be a guest on the Infogov Hot Seat just like Christine and Jeanne here all you have to do is submit your information through our website infogovhotseat.com and Thank you so much and enjoy the rest of your day. Thank you to you both

Jeanne Martinez (14:23.046)
Great, thanks.

Christine Becker (14:23.808)
Thanks.