The technology I really want to see is a time machine or some kind of teleportation device. I once attended conferences in Barcelona and Sydney in the same week. I have had breakfast in Sydney and dinner in Washington on the same day and, later this year, I have to do a three-day conference in Germany and a two-day conference in Washington in the same week. I have had to accept that I cannot be with Sedona in Lisbon and with InnoXcell in Hong Kong next week (Hong Kong wins), and I was equally sorry last week that I could not be simultaneously in Frankfurt and Georgetown.

The Georgetown event was the Georgetown Law eDiscovery Training Academy. Guidance Software gave copies of its Encase Forensic Software for each delegate to use during the week and Craig Ball explained the computer context and showed how to use EnCase.

The faculty for the five days included US Magistrate Judge John Facciola, Chief US Magistrate Judge Paul Grimm, Michael Arkfeld (Arkfeld & Associates LLC), Jason Baron (National Archives & Records Administration), Maura Grossman (Wachtel,Lipton, Rosen & Katz), Tom O’Connor (Gulf Coast Legal Technology Center),  and Larry Center (Georgetown CLE).

Patrick Burke, Senior Director and Assistant General Counsel of Guidance Software describes the event in two blog posts here  and here, and Tom O’Connor wrote about the wrap-up here. I like in particular Judge Facciola’s comment “this conference crossed the bridge.  I for one can’t go back to superficial lectures any more.  I’ve never seen anything like this.  It’s been a terribly exciting experience for me.” 

Training and education are rather like marketing – we are always looking out for new ways of delivering knowledge and understanding. Events like this take an immense amount of organisation and need the support such as Guidance Software gave to this one. For the foreseeable future, articles, seminars and conferences will be the backbone of the education effort. This event shows us that there are different and more imaginative ways of getting messages across. I wish I had been there.

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