Betsi Roach, executive director of CLOC.

Last week it was announced that Betsi Roach would be joining the Corporate Legal Operations Consortium as the organization's first executive director, a role that will find her looking to expand the organization's membership, content and digital footprint at a time when COVID-19 has thrust much of the legal industry into the virtual realm.

CLOC's annual Las Vegas Institute, for instance, was canceled in response to the pandemic and replaced with a series of ongoing webinars that will continue to unfold throughout the month of June. Upcoming topics include legal project management, outside counsel spend, maturity planning and maximizing spend.

While Roach, who has previously served as the executive director of the Legal Marketing Association and as the director of the section of intellectual property law at the American Bar Association, does expect in-person events to return at some point. However she also sees the addition of a virtual component to such activities as a way to expand the guest list to include people who might otherwise be unable to travel.

In the meantime, it looks like CLOC—and other organizations—will be continuing to experiment with how virtual event formats can be tweaked to promote maximum audience participation.

Corporate Counsel: CLOC launched an ongoing series of webinars after COVID-19 forced the organization to cancel its annual Las Vegas Institute. What has the response been so far? 

Betsi Roach: People are clearly hungry for the content. Last Thursday when Jason Barnwell, Jae Um and Ed Sohn held a webinar, hundreds of people signed up within the first hour. There were over 1,300 people that were registered for the final event. We're really excited about the receptivity.

CC: Do you anticipate trying to fold more webinars into CLOC's programming?

BR: We do want to look at how do we break our dependence on in-person events. Those are always going to be part of our strategy. What the COVID-19 pandemic has really brought for us and many organizations is an opportunity to help change on how our members meet and focus and do more online like our webinars.

CC: People are on their computers so much these days. They have to do video conferences, they have to do virtual meetings. How do you combat virtual burnout?

 BR: That is really an issue. And so one of the things that we are starting to talk about in designing a bigger virtual event is what is palatable for people? It's like 90 minutes when you are in person is kind of the max. Well, you've got to shorten that for online because of the burnout and the ability for people to multitask more than ever. We're kind of thinking 45 minutes. What does that look like? Does that mean it's a 20-minute presentation and then 25 minutes for Q&A? We're still talking that through because one of things we're realizing is that the Q&A portion is also where there's a lot of great information.

CC: Will you continue to build video into online events and presentations?

BR: Video is always going to be an important factor however we use it. We haven't gotten to this detail yet but from some associations that I've talked with, other association professionals and even events that I've been on over the last couple of months, there's a real benefit to those prerecorded presentations. That allows the presenter or presenters to be a part of the chat that goes along with the presentation. It frees up the presenter a little bit to help address the questions that come in on the chat from the Q&A features.

CC: Networking is a huge part of the conference experience. How do you recreate something like that in a virtual space?

BR: Most of these [conferencing] platforms have this ability built in so that you can have the breakout rooms that focus on a specific topic or question. And we will need to be doing a lot of prep with our facilitators or speakers to facilitate that conversation because sometimes people are multitasking or they are just not paying attention. Everybody is busy and so how can we make sure that those smaller opportunities to connect are still there? We're also looking at what that means for the vendors or the service providers. Do people sign up for time to talk with them?

CC: Once there is some recovery and lockdown restrictions are lifted, do you think that physical conferences will make a full comeback?

BR: I don't know when, and I know it will be a while, but I really believe in-person events will come back and they will continue to be a part of an organization like CLOC's future. Again, I'm new, but I really believe that. And this has given CLOC to ramp up and save what could be years to try a hybrid model. To me, that's really exciting. Not everybody is able to get to an in-person event, and I really think and want to push for some type of hybrid event going forward where we can continue at a reasonable cost to meet the needs of people that are in-person at the conference as well as some type of broadcast for certain events—whether it's all or some—so that people who can't make it [to an event] in person can still get some of the great content that's there.