After the lengthy 2-year covid induced pause over the past 2 years in international travel, it was delightful to travel to Chicago to attend RelativityFest 2022.
RelativityFest is quite a unique experience with a vast scale encompassing:
- more than 1,400 in-person attendees / 650 virtual attendees from 21 countries
- 60+ sessions across numerous tracks
I had the privilege of attending the 2019 edition of RelativityFest, and the 2022 edition surpassed it – a new venue, a broader range of sessions, and increased attendees. There was an amazing atmosphere at the conference, and I think everyone shared the same feeling of delight in attending an in-person conference and the overall celebration of the eDiscovery community.
It is also quite a unique event, given Relativity’s vast global user base. I had flagged 47 interesting sessions to attend in the schedule, but as many of these sessions were running concurrently, I couldn’t quite manage to attend all of them while at the conference. However, I have since been able to watch recordings of the other sessions to ensure I didn’t miss out on anything.
Amongst the innumerable highlights of attending a global conference, my highlights included:
- The keynote from the CEO Mike Gamson, as well as some very interesting features that are in the pipeline – particularly the integration of AI through the acquisitions of Heretik and TextIQ;
- The sessions – to hear the latest and greatest, as well as hearing some great insights and tips on how people have used technology to solve complex problems;
- Networking with global colleagues – particularly some who I had not previously met in person;
- A conference that is a celebration of eDiscovery;
- Meeting eDiscovery luminaries in person such as the Relativity founder Andrew Sieja and CEO Mike Gamson;
- Insights from the close partnership between Relativity and Microsoft and also daydreaming about the future possibilities of the Microsoft and Azure eco-systems – for example the recent integration of translation into the RelativityOne platform (called Relativity Translate) is powered by Translator, part of Microsoft Azure Cognitive Services, as well as the Microsoft Graph APIs and Microsoft Purview eDiscovery;
- Inspirational stories of the journey of the Relativity Justice for Change programme;
- Attending as many sessions as possible that focussed on AI;
- The closing keynote from Dr Timnit Gebru on Ethical AI – it was a thrill to see and hear Dr Gebru in person and hear her bigtech experiences and thoughts on ethical AI.
Summing up RelativityFest, it is equal parts knowledge and learning via the sessions and the power of networking and meeting new people, old friends, new friends and occasionally an eDiscovery luminary.
Author:
Matthew Golab, Advisory Board member – Information Governance ANZ
