BONUS: What Happened at ALPMA 2024?

Sophie: So welcome to another episode of The File Notes Podcast, a bit of a bonus episode that we have here because we attended ALPMA legal conference in Brisbane last week. SoI am joined with our Chief Revenue Officer at VXT, William Burry to have a little bit of a chat with me about how it all went and what our observations were.

Sophie: So welcome William.

William: Excited to be here, Sophie. Thanks for having me along. Glad I finally made it to the FileNotes Podcast.

Sophie: Yeah, it had to be some time. So to kick us off, we just want to give out quick observations about ALPMA and I wanted to start that off with the best booth gimmick. So it leads to the question of what do these companies or sponsors that are at these conferences have to do to actually get people to come and talk to them at their booth?

Sophie: What was your favorite gimmick?

William: Personal favorite had to be the masseuse. Imade at least several trips there. It was a long three days. So it was fantastic to get like a head and shoulder massage. I watched you get your cartoon drawn though. How was that? Who was doing that?

Sophie: I did, Dye and Durham. They had a massive booth. They were owning the floor, with their new practice management system launching. And I did get my cartoon drawn. It was one of those moments when you're sitting there and you're really afraid for them to turn it around because it's those cartoons where they can make you look really fat and have big chins. And I was pleasantly surprised.

William: Got off easy.

Sophie: Yeah, and what else was there? There was a hair salon. I got my hair curled.

William: Yeah, good old MyTimes, right? Getting everyone doled up for the Bris Vegas event.

Sophie: Yeah, the BrisVegas event, so that was sponsored by Actionstep and First AML. That was supercool. There was poker you could do, William won all the money

William: You won a lot of money on blackjack.

Sophie: Now, bestmerch. It's another way that sponsors lure people into their booths to comechat to them. What was your favorite William?

William: Hands down, had to go to Payrix. They had Frank Green water bottles. Thank you so much for the free water bottle. It was incredible. But I can't I can't go here without shouting out the Moda sparkling water. It was the perfect complement to the free water bottle, right?And especially after the Bris Vegas event, it was fantastic.

Sophie: Yeah, it was quite cool. You see all these conferences doing, efforts to be more sustainable,but the water was a tap where you can go refill these glass bottles, which Ithink was a really cool initiative. ALPMA also offered you to plant a tree somewhere on the app that you use during the conference.

Sophie: So that was super cool to see.

Sophie: And I can't help but not shout out VXT's bags that everyone wanted to come see and get to collect their things. Going back to makingthat step to be more sustainable. These conferences aren't giving out bags anymore. So we swoop in with our more permanent tote bags that everybody loves.

Sophie: What do they say on it? They say,

William: I'm billing you for this conversation, I think.

Sophie: yeah, great

William: saw a lot of people dash from across the room laughing about it. The true hit.

Sophie: And the last quick fire observation was best speaker.

William: hands down had to be the keynote speaker Steven McGowan with his incredible story about being held captive by Al Qaeda for close to six years, which was an incredible story about resilience and overcoming a lot of challenges in the Sahara desert, which at nine 30 in the morning after a night at a conference party was a, it was a great way to wake up.

Sophie: Yeah. It's pretty crazy. Obviously there's all the legal speakers, but then they have the keynote speakers, which are attracting people to the conference and changing it up a little bit and always having that leadership twist. But we sat down, not really knowing what session we went to, then like you said, after the big BrisVegas party, and then you sit there and he says, I was held captive by Al Qaeda for six years. And you sit there Oh my gosh.

William: Yeah. What have I been, what have I been upto, right?

Sophie: Yeah, not that.

William: Thankfully.

Sophie: Yeah, so that was our observations of ALPMA, the kind of fun, high level side of that. Why was VXT there? Can you give the one sentence line of what VXT is for anyone who actually doesn't know?

William: Yeah, VXT is communication software built for lawyers to automate work they don't want todo.

Sophie: Nice. So we were there talking to a bunch of lawyers, what kind of phone systems were you seeing law firms already using before they spoke to us about VXT

William: it was super interesting. There's definitely a lot of range. A couple ones really stood out which are what I consider like traditional desk phones. So you can imagine, the old school black phone on your desk. That was a big prevalent one as well as, Teamsfor calling.

William: There's alot of kind of law firms using that and exploring alternative options.

Sophie: when we spoke to people using desk phones, what were the kind of issues they were facing?Obviously, the big one is remote work now for those firms that allow it.

William: that was definitely the major one.

Sophie: I actually spoke to a lady who mentioned the team was physically unplugging the desk phones from the office, putting them in the car, lugging them inside and plugging them back in,

William: which joked about that in the past, but I really didn't think anyone was still doing that.

William: Post COVIDespecially. So that was really cool introducing her to VXT and how our softwareworks. But another big one would have been , the ease of use and their liability was a huge priority for firms. So a lot of people looking at ways to, not only simplify the tech stack but also ensure that they're, having the best possible communications with their clients.

Sophie: And on the desk phone point, this is can sometimes be a hard thing getting firms to, orfirms getting their lawyers to decide to leave desk phones. What were the vibesthere at the conference? Do you think firms are ready to make that move? Or are some still not too scared to do it or very against it

William: Yep, I think I think the firms that have already made the jump to some form of, a soft phone or internet based calling are really open at, looking at alternatives and innovating. There still are firms who are, holding onto the desk phones for dear life.

William: I think those firms a lot of them are becoming ready to make the change. AI is now becoming a big part of all of working world and desk phones are increasingly.Holding the firms behind from like a data collection perspective.

Sophie: sure. And I was speaking to someone who had gone from desk phones. They just forced their staff to do it. They were against it, but they just made them do it. And once they made the move, they were saying, Oh my gosh, I have my hands free. I can use both my hands now. Because I'm wearing a headset.

Sophie: And so sometimes we might just have to force people to eventually.

William: Yeah. Yeah. Once the computer starts ringing, it's pretty hard to go back to the desk phone.

Sophie: Yeah. Cut the cord. So those are some of the other phone systems that people are currently on.When we introduce people to VXT as a phone system, what was that kind of aha moment that VXT is different to desk phones or different to Microsoft teams

William: It was a hundred percent the integrations with our partners. Seeing the amount of time that can be saved, capturing billable hours, taking file notes using VXT was amazing. And it was so cool introducing that, to lawyers who'd never heard of integrated calling before.

Sophie: And when you said partners before, we're referring to all of the practice management systems like Clio, Actionstep, Smokeball, LEAP, and VXT's integration is very specific for lawyers so they can sync their contacts, transcribe their calls, and save that all automatically. On the integration front with all of our partners,there are a bunch of practice management systems there. Should we talk about what we heard lawyers saying about where they're at with their practice management system? A lot of them ate kind of at that point where they have to move practice management systems because they're on legacy systems or they are ready to shake things up.

Sophie: What were you seeing in that space?

William: Yeah, Ithink across the board, a lot of people were like curious what's out on the market. I spoke to a lot of lawyers who were relatively happy where they were,but they're still keeping that kind of, the finger on the pulse to see, who's innovating, who's developing who's up providing more value in a single platform or who's implementing AI the best.

William: There's a lot of like general interest. We were sat next to the Smokeball team they're in the booth next to us and it was really cool. It seems like a lot of, smaller firms were really interested in Smokeball. From what I understand, it's incredibly easy to use pieces of software, so really appealing for those on the slightly smaller side.

William: A lot of New Zealand firms over from the ditch like us a lot of people using One Law, super excited about a potential API there. Fingers crossed, right?

William: what did yousee?

Sophie: Clio, obviously a massive player, the biggest player in North America, they just did a massive 900 million raise recently, which is super excited to see where that's going togo. I don't think they had any features out yet. So I assume a lot of that is going, or I'm assuming it's going to be launched soon because what practice management system isn't launching some form of AI, which we will talk about soon. But yeah, definitely Clio really cool to have another practice management system option in APAC. I think Clio are really well known for their integration network. So I think they have over 200 integrations that you can connect. Sothey have an open API. So very friendly if you want to be able to incorporate other platforms, which I think we will see more and more of law firms starting to use things like a CRM alongside their practice management system.

But on Clio specifically, they actually already have a CRM for lawyers called Clio Grow. So it'll be really interesting to see how they grow in Australia and New Zealand and what avenue they go in. Because I think rightnow the big players for the small to mid sized law firms are definitely Smokeball, Actionstep, LEAP.

William: Yeah. I completely agree. I think Clio is definitely going to shake up the market andAPAC. So excited to see what happens.

Sophie: And so to wrap up the conversation on the practice management systems that were there,who do you think was dominating the market?

William: Definitely Actionstep.A lot of law firms who are really interested in their offerings, we spoke a lot of practice managers who were looking at transitioning to Actionstep in the next year and, actively looking at tools that they can connect with Actionstep to really enhance that experience.

Sophie: Yeah. And now we can get to the point about AI being slapped on every

William: Backdrop in existence, right?

Sophie: Yes. What's your hot take? Is it meant to be there?

William: I think I think broadly speaking, AI is really powerful and it can do a lot. I think. What I'm seeing personally is a lot of people are being told they need AI without having a clear problem to solve withAI. Not to say I can't solve problems but it's really good at solving specific problems.

William: So I think,yeah, I think Sophie said right, everyone had it on their backdrop. Everyone's talking about time savings, efficiencies. Not everyone is incredibly specific about how it works. But a bit excited to see what's out there. I think Smokeball next to us again, where we're launching the kind of Archie product which super interesting.

So excited to see that with, a lot of mutual clients with Smokeball, so excited to hear from them. What is your take Sophie?

Sophie: I think that it is on all the backdrops, but I think it does work. I think you hear all these lawyers and the first thing they'll say when they get to a booth is, do you have AI or how do you use AI in your product? And you hear this again and again at all these conferences.

Sophie: And so it's what you said just then that products might be looking for a way to build AI without looking for a problem that AI can solve without actually adding more complexity because practice management systems can be complex.

William: Yeah, I couldn't agree more. I think Nest Legal did a fantastic presentation looking at a very specific workflow they go through things around like fencing of all things and the, the workflow that they take clients through in the software that's involved in that and how they supplement their, human lawyers with AI to allow them to be more productive but also enhancing their, like their ability to be empathetic.

William: With their clients, which I thought was a fantastic and relatively uncommon for people togo into the weeds of exactly how they're using it. I thought that was a fantastic show and presentation. And I think the recordings are available for those.

Sophie: Super interesting. So that's our wrap up of ALPMA, another great conference, and I hope you enjoyed our 15 minute or so little chat with each other. So William,will we be back next year for ALPMA 2025?

William: Definitely.I'd love to be there.

Sophie: Me too. There we go. Thanks everyone.

William: so much.

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