Thursday — Newbie/Recent Convert Sessions

OSX Lion Walkthrough & Tips/Tweaks – Finis Price

The newest operating system has been released, and the “Big Cat” is the biggest leap forward since Leopard in 2007. Whether you’re an early adopter or waiting to see how things shake out, this intro session will have you on the road to taming Lion.

Top 30 Utilities for Your Mac – Ben Stevens

Your Mac works pretty well out of the box, but there are programs that can help it work better for longer. Spending just a minute or two per utility, come learn 30 ways to tune your computer for optimal performance.

MS Word Tips, Tricks & Tweaks – Brett Burney

Much as people love using Pages, Microsoft Word is the default word processor for the legal world. Do you think you know everything there is to know about using this must-have software? This session will cover both the basic stuff and the advanced techniques.

Real-World Security – Randy Juip

There has been a lot of debate lately about file security and cloud options. Most of the other conferences feature speakers telling to go running into the hills away from solutions like Dropbox. Randy Juip takes the opposite view; come hear what he has to say.

The Steve Jobs Appreciation Sessions

iPad for Your Practice – Finis Price

Finis Price has developed quite a reputation for giving one of the top sessions on using an iPad in practice. These are practical, real-life suggestions for integrating the iPad into what you do day-to-day. This presentation has been heralded every place it’s been given and we’re lucky to have Finis give this presentation to MILOfest attendees.

PDF Magic – Mark Metzger

PDFs have become a standard way to trade documents, but the file format is a lot more powerful than that. Mark Metzger is going to show you how to manipulate data using Adobe Acrobat to automate workflow and streamline your practice. This is going to be a top session.

DepoSmart/TrialSmart/DocSmart –  John Callis

Clarity Legal is the leading software developer for trial presentation and litigation software for the Mac OS. John Callis will walk you through all of the software you need to take a trial-bound case from prep through closing argument. John was a featured speaker at the Macs In Trial II conference in 2007, and is making his return to show off all of the new features that Clarity has cooked up.

Encryption – Jack Newton

How secure is your data? Do you know how to make it more secure? This session will walk you from setting up security in the most popular programs all the way to creating sparse images and sparse bundles.  Your data will be more secure than the gold in Fort Knox.

Mail.app Ninja Tips – Brett Burney

Every Mac ships with Mail.app to help you manage your email. While some people opt for GMail, most people use this program out of default, but it is an extremely powerful program if you know how to use it correctly. Brett Burney will help you do that.

Podcasting 101 & 102 – Victor Medina

One of the beauties of the Internet is the way it permits everyone to be a distributor of content. Whether you use it to educate your clients or solely for entertainment, this session will show you how to get your podcasting efforts off the ground and turn your computer into a recording studio.

The TED-like Sessions

Marketing Lessons From The Movies – Mark Merenda

More than providing entertainment, the movies carry lessons for our practices. This engaging session will weave movie clips into an educational set of marketing lessons for your practice.

Using Flow for Collaboration – David Satterfield

Lawyers rarely work in isolation. Flow is a task management app that makes working in collaboration with your team a breeze. Flow is used by companies like Disney, Square, TED and our own beloved Apple. You’re not better than them are you?

How To Work Like a Computer – Larry Port

In this thought-provoking session, Larry Port will show us how using principles of how a computer works can be extended to your practice and you life. This is a must-see session.

Quick Hit Sessions

Quick Hits are 20 minute sessions on topics that are MILOfest-worthy, just not for a full hour.

Back-up Done Right – Mark Metzger

Dropbox Bonanza – Victor Medina

Working On Your Practice v. In Your Practice – Mark Merenda

I hope you’ll consider coming to MILOfest 2011. Here is the link to register: Register for MILOfest 2011

Kindly,

Victor Medina

*Note: Titles of Sessions are subject to change, and we’re waiting on confirmation from one of the speakers, but I named him in the hope he’ll realize he’s locked in and would disappoint everyone by not showing up.

Okay, here goes the last MILOfest push for this year. Let’s see if I can make it a good one:

First Big Announcement – 2009 MILOfest Video Access

Last year’s participants are aware that the sessions were videotaped. I’ve been sitting on the videos largely because I recorded them on a tape-based system and it’s been a pain to bring into my computer. But, I’m done with the heavy lifting and I want to do something special with the videos. So, I’m going to give access to videos of last year’s sessions to all of the MILOfest attendees – this year and last. I’ll let you know at the conference how to access them (and by follow-up email to last year’s attendees that didn’t make it this year). But, the salient point is that you can have access to last year’s conference if you attend this year’s conference.

Second Big(ger) Announcement – CLE Accreditation for MILOfest

Thanks to very generous sponsorship by RocketMatter (who came up with the suggestion and offered to foot the bill), MILOfest is going to get CLE accreditation for 4-5 hours of time in the following states: Florida, Illinois, Ohio, New Jersey and California. (NJ and CA receive immediate reciprocal accreditation because of the accreditation in the other states.)

Now, I hope you understand that the entire conference can’t be accredited because not all of the topics touch directly on CLE-worthy matters, but I’m hoping that this development encourages a few more of you to attend, especially if your state recognizes CLE accreditation from another jurisdiction. In addition, as with last year, every MILOfest attendee will receive a certificate of attendance for the entire conference, which may go further than the official accreditation in your state.

Third Not-So-Big Announcement – Housekeeping

Time is running out on the General Admission pricing. General Admission pricing expires on September 30th. Typically, lawyers are notoriously risk-averse – waiting for the last possible moment to commit to anything, but now’s the time to mark your MILOfest attendance in ink on your calendar. After September 30th, the price to attend goes up by $50. Save that money for some Disney swag, like a set of premium  mouse ears.

In addition, the room reservation is about to expire on September 20th. We’ve already sold out of rooms for the 9th (2 days before the event) and given how well rooms are selling at the Coronado, I don’t expect that they will be willing to extend the room rate past the deadline. So, get your room reservation early. (As a reminder, you need to call 407.939.1020 and reference MILOfest or G0570377.)

Fourth Announcement – Giveaways

Last year, we were able to feature a ScanSnap s1500M as a giveaway, along with some free and discounted licenses for software. This year, we’re starting the giveaways with 2 BookBook iPad cases from Twelve South. These $70 cases are gorgeous, making the iPad look like an old book. Check out this link to learn more – http://twelvesouth.com/products/bookbook_ipad/

I’ll be working on more giveaways to make this a fun conference.

Fourth (and Final) Announcement – Shameless Promotion

This conference is INCREDIBLE. The reason has less to do with my skill in organizing it and everything to do with who decides to come to a conference like this. The people attending are simply outstanding – just the nicest, most generous and collegial bunch of lawyers I’ve ever seen gathered together. The topics cover areas that will absolutely put you at the top of your game when it comes to practicing in your specific field.

I’ll be posting some of the testimonials on the MILOfest site so you can see for yourself what last year was like. This will a wise investment on your part, paying dividends the rest of the year.

That’s it.  I’ll bother you a couple of more times before the deadlines expire. But this will be my hardest push to get you to come to the conference.

Hope to see you there!

Victor

MILOfest 2010 Announcement

Hello Mac-Lovin’ Lawyers! It’s that time of year again. Bees are buzzing, pools are being prepped for a summertime’s worth of fun and yours truly has begun to put the wheels in motion for the fall conference known as MILOfest.

Last year was great and the feedback I got was that everyone who attended had a blast and wanted it to continue. So, here we are.

Let’s get the pesky details out of the way and we can move onto some of the exciting (at least I think so) changes for MILOfest 2010.

MILOfest 2010 in a Nutshell

Dates: November 11-13, 2010 (Thursday-Saturday)

Thursday – Recent Convert/Newbie Track (times TBD)

Thursday Evening – Social Event

Friday – General Programming – 8:30am to 4pm

Saturday – General Programming – 8:30am to 4pm

Venue: Disney World Coronado Springs Resort & Conference Center

Orlando, FL

Hotel: $144/night – good for 3 days prior to and after the event

Price: $450/$500/$550/$600

(2009 Attendee Appreciation Rate/Early Bird Pricing/General Admission Pricing/Last Chance Pricing)

Parks: Discount pricing for part-day tickets to the Disney Theme Parks

Dates

The fall is a tough time for conferences because lots of groups are trying to get some last minute things in before the end of the year. Unfortunately, the exact same weekend was unavailable because Disney was completely booked. Given the choice between backing up to Halloween or Thanksgiving, I decided that the next weekend (with the possibility of stretching the trip into Veteran’s Day) would be best. I hope you can join us.

Venue

I am dedicated to keeping it at Disney for a few powerful reasons. First, it’s Disney! For folks that came before with their family, they can arrange a second vacation. Second, if folks came last year without their family and want to change it up this year, they can. Third, for folks who didn’t make it last year, they won’t miss out on the chance to make it a family vacation.

Finally, and most importantly, the facility folks rocked and I can be confident that the same high-level of client service and experience will be there. That’s a big deal for me because I’m planning this from a distance and I’d hate to risk a bad experience so young into this conference’s existence.

I know that some will find it hokey, but I received no complaints from attendees about the accommodation or the facilities. I sincerely apologize I can’t make it more convenient for those who are apt to complain, however I honestly believe this is in the best interest of the majority of attendees and the life of the conference.

More Venue

In addition to the space rental, your registration fee covers breakfast on Friday and Saturday, snacks on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

Unfortunately, providing Internet at the event is prohibitively expensive. So, if you have a Mi-Fi, bring it. If there’s enough interest, maybe we’ll teach a session on jailbreaking your iPhone/iPad and tethering your computer.

The conference rate for the hotel is $144/night and that’s good for up to 3 nights before and three nights after the event. The rate is also about $30 less than the retail pricing for rooms at the Coronado Springs. In addition, for those of you looking to turn this into a Disney vacation, there are special discounts on part-day tickets for conference attendees – these will let you get into the parks at 2pm or 4pm for dinner, fun, and more.

There are a limited amount of rooms booked at this rate. The conference space is really being used a lot and it took a lot of negotiation to get this rate and this many rooms set aside for MILOfest. That rate is good only for the first 60 registrants. I might be able to increase it if there is a big, early rush to registration, but no promises.

Programming

If this is your first experience with MILOfest, let me welcome you and let you know, you’re in for a treat. This conference was outstanding, by all measure, and it was due in part to the superb speakers and programming. (The other part was how warm and collegial the attendees were.)

As with last year, my commitment is to bring the best speakers with the most interesting subject matter. Already we have 6 speakers with topics ranging from “Responsible Connectivity” to “iPad Use in Trial” to “Launching Into the Cloud: A Practical Workshop” to “Trial Presentation Technology” to “Applescript Basics” and more.

We’ve got great speakers for these sessions, like Ron Elkins, Mark Metzger, Jack Newton Larry Port, Finis Price, Larry Staton, Ben Stevens, and yours truly. I’ll share bios and more details on their talks as we get closer.

New Stuff for 2010!

There are some programming changes for this year, beyond just mixing up the speakers and the subjects covered.

First, I heard from many of last year’s attendees that I did not leave enough time for informal networking and socializing. I agree that the “who” of the conference is as important as the “what” and I personally would have liked more time to get to know more of the attendees better. So, there will be fewer sessions on Friday and Saturday with longer breaks in between the sessions for more interaction between the sessions. I think that’s going to work out very well.

The second major change on programming is the addition of programming on Thursday. I heard from some folks who expressed a little anxiety at the skill level assumed by some of the programming. Others wondered if this conference has any room for the “newbie” Mac attorney. So, we are adding a Recent Convert track on Thursday. It probably won’t cover the whole day (details to be determined), but the goal is to provide a general overview of using the Mac OS and some of the more common programs that the attorney new to the Mac might be using. I also think that there will be a lot of value for other attendees as we cover tips and tricks that you might have overlooked. My hope is that “newbies” will feel very comfortable signing up for the conference and following the (possibly) more advanced sessions on Friday and Saturday.

Stay tuned for more information, but if you are at all interested in learning the basics and beyond of using your Mac, plan on being there for Thursday’s programming.

Price

The price has gone up since last year. In part, it’s due to the price of the conference facilities going up from year to year, and in part, it’s due to the additional programming we are offering on Thursday. I still believe it is an incredible bargain given the quality of the conference and the experience you receive. I hope you agree.

As with last year, we are going to stagger the pricing to reward folks who act early, and a special price for last year’s attendees (as a thank you for helping launch):

$450 – 2009 Attendee Appreciation Pricing (good through July 31, 2010)

$500 – Early Bird Pricing (good through July 31, 2010)

$550 – General Admission (good through September 30, 2010)

$600 – Last Chance Pricing (good through day of event)

To register for the event, follow the instructions on the EventBrite registration page or on the badge alongside the MILOfest webpage. To avoid the processing fees, you can call Tiffany Lauritsen, my Client Services Director, at 609.818.0068 and arrange to pay by check. Do not attempt to pay by check on the EventBrite site, or you’ll have to pay the processing fees. I’m a reasonable person – if you are registering within a few days of the expiration of a pricing tier, call with a promise to send a check in 3 days and I’ll honor the lower price.

Conclusion

I hope that last year’s attendees will decide to come back and that some of you will come for the first time. We’ll be sharing more news about the event on MILOfest’s Facebook page, Twitter and the MILOfest website. Any questions – please email me at info [at] milofest [dawt] com

Thank you in advance for your interest. See you there!

Victor Medina

If you are still interested in attending MILOfest, don’t despair. There is still time to increase the room block, so we should be able to accommodate everyone who wants to attend. All you need to do is register online for the event, then drop me e-mail to let me know you’ve done it, how many rooms you need and for long, and I will increase the room block to accommodate you.

We’re just at 30 registrants or so. I’d like to see that number much closer to 60 and I think we can do that easily. That said, though, I can’t place myself at financial risk by setting aside more rooms with that expectation.

With your understanding, I’m going to lock the room block after August 30th. If you register before then, I will be able to increase the room block to accommodate your registration. But, I can’t set aside more rooms for registrations between Sept 1. and Oct. 6th. That is, the number I give Disney as of August 30 is “THE” number and having already met the room block number, I’m not going to place myself at jeopardy for not meeting that number in the hopes that we have more registrations between 9/1/09 and 10/06/09. (That would just take away from the money I have available to spend on the event itself.) So, in short, if you register after the August 30th, you’re on your own to secure a room at the $129/night rate.

If you’ve registered for the event, or are a speaker, and haven’t reserved a room yet (there is one registrant I know is on vacation until August 7th, and I’ve accounted for her), please drop me an email so I can make sure there’s space for you.

This really shaping up to be an incredible event and I’m looking forward to meeting you all. Thanks again for your support.

Victor Medina

I am really excited to announce that BeeDocs Timeline has confirmed that they will be speaking at MILOfest in November. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Timeline, it is THE software for creating visually stunning timelines (which you can export to Keynote, QT, etc.).

As I’ve said all along, I’m not big on a lot of vendor demonstrations, but these guys offer some so unique, so useful to the practice of law that I thought it was important to set aside some time for this unique product.

BeeDocs is sending Elise Hunt to come and present for use. Not to steal her thunder but Timelines is AWESOME. You can export in HD and seamlessly integrate it with any presentation you want. BeeDocs just pushed out an update which lets you export your timelines with a transparent background. Look at the gorgeous results you can get. (That’s the same Elise who is going to come and present for us. Wave hello to Elise!)

And here is the video they posted when they first announced Timeline 3D -

Folks who signed up early are really seeing their confidence in the conference pay off. The rest of you – what are you waiting for?

Victor Medina -
MILOfest Organizer

[P.S. - I think the Internets are getting a little tired of me promoting MILOfest. I do it just because I think this is going to be an awesome conference. If you think so too, can you spread the word around? Thanks!]