Group on video call with multi-ethnic international colleagues. Credit: fizkes/Shutterstock.com

Legal conferences have already begun following the rest of working life online. But as organizations like Rocket Matter, Litera and even the International Legal Technology Association (ILTA) all begin moving events to the internet, such conferences may test the theory that if you build it, they will come.

So far, so good. Earlier this month, Rocket Matter staged a virtual legal conference titled "Rocket Aid" that garnered 490 attendees and raised $22,250 for the United Way, Feeding America and Pro Bono Net. However, as big-name organizations like the Corporate Legal Operations Consortium (CLOC) and the International Legal Technology Association (ILTA) start putting online events of their own on the calendar, there's also a risk that virtual conference fatigue starts setting in sooner rather than later.

It doesn't help that the shift to remote working finds many legal professionals already spending large segments of both their working and personal lives online, trapped in an endless series of video chats and virtual tete-a-tetes.

"I think there's a fair amount of Zoom fatigue in the world right now. One person said to me the other day, 'I've never been on so many useless video calls in my entire life,'" said Joy Heath Rush, CEO of ILTA.

While ILTACON 2020 remains scheduled for Nashville in August, ILTA has transformed its June 8 LegalSEC Summit into an entirely virtual conference. That arrives on the heels of a May webinar series that CLOC has scheduled in lieu of its 2020 Las Vegas Institute.

It's not a competition of content so much as it is a search for a reason to be. Rush, for example, consulted a focus group of ILTA members and business partners to ask what they wanted from an online conference.

"The phrase I keep hearing if is that if it's just a bunch of Zoom webinars, you might as well just record them and let me listen to them. So there has to be something compelling to do the event live," Rush said.

A big part of what normally drives people to conferences is the opportunity to network with other legal professionals. Attorneys build connections with clients, while legal tech providers and other vendors can seek out new potential customers and business opportunities.

The only catch is that the virtual conference format is not exactly ripe for those kinds of chance encounters. "When I'm coaching attorneys, it's trying to figure out new ways for them to get in front of their clients. That really is a huge challenge, and it's hard to virtualize that experience," said Jill Huse, president of the Legal Marketing Association.

For legal tech providers, however, it could actually be a blessing in disguise. Huse pointed out that some would-be customers shy away from tech vendor booths at conferences because they dislike getting the "hard sell." A virtual conference format could force tech providers to find creative ways to showcase their products absent the personal touch of an exhibit hall.

"I think there might be opportunities for companies who can adapt and show their products in a different kind of environment where it is very low touch, that they are able show that off a little bit," Huse said.

What that may look like may ultimately depend on the organization hosting the conference. ILTA, for example, is partnering with a virtual conferencing company named Communique on its LegalSEC Summit. "The Communique platform actually has a virtual exhibit hall, so we'll see how that works. We're pretty excited about it," Rush said.