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Earlier this April, Jobst and I attended the 25th anniversary of the ABA LPM Section's ABA TECHSHOW. I have to say that over the years TECHSHOW, along with the Annual ILTA Conference, have become my favorites in our space. This year was my 12th year attending and as always, it was a pleasure to visit with the'family' of volunteers (also known as the 'who's who of legal technology) that sacrifice precious time throughout the year to put this event on.

TECHSHOW above all is about connections & networking… I reminisce about the first connected event, the "Consultants & Technologists Dinner" (THE DINNER) that Ross Kodner and I used to produce (2003-2006) and more recently, our co-produced events with Matt Homann of LexThink, including LexThink Lounge in 2006 and Ignite Law last year and this year (you can read our coverage of Ignite here and, yes, we'll have the videos up on the website soon!). Staging these 'socials' has not only allowed us to get to know the volunteers and speakers, but give the collective TECHSHOW family a chance to mingel and re-connect.

This year's TECHSHOW began for us with the ABA's Opening Reception. Up at the podium first was Andrea Hartley, Chair of the ABA Law Practice Management Section to welcome everyone to the event and introduce this year's TECHSHOW Chair, Paul Unger. We have worked with Paul Unger and his team quite a bit this year to bring Ignite Law to the TECHSHOW audience and it was nice to see all his work come to fruition.

The highlight of the event was the Silver Jubilee Reception MCed by Simon Chester, and hosted by Phil Shuey, Storm Evans, and Jim Calloway who reviewed the last 25 years of TECHSHOW and all the emerging technologies (from fax machines to social media for lawyers) that left their mark, year in and year out. A standout was the technology game changers (in InsideLegal's photo album above) – typewriter, IBM, fax machine, the blue screen of WordPerfect – and the technology museum including original floppy disks, the original BlackBerry, the Palm Pilot, Commodore 64, and the Apple IIGS (provided by proud owner Brett Burney).

Our favorite session at TECHSHOW each year is "60 Sites in 60 Minutes", this year featuring Jim Calloway, Eric Mazzone, Sharon Nelson and Paul Unger. Here are some of our favorite site tips from this year…

• Pamela for Skype – Recording Skype Calls and Videos
• AttorneyatWork – "One Really Good Idea Every Day"
• ge.tt - The best way to publish and share your files
• spamgourmet – Self-destructing disposable email addresses for when you want to give someone an email address they can use for you a few times
• 280 Slides - Create beautiful presentations, access them from anywhere, and share them with the world – no software to download and nothing to pay for.
• Topicmarks – Summarizes text documents electronically. Like Cliffs Notes for your own documents.
• FileGenuis - Web-based, expertly hosted, secure file transfer, exchange, and management application, exclusively for business use. 
• Chrome Web Store – Search for apps and extensions to 'pimp out' your Google Chrome browser.
• Greplin – "The search bar for your life." Greplin indexes the information you create on different websites (like Gmail, Twitter and Facebook) and provides fast search of all your information.
• YouSendIt – Makes sending and receiving large files easy and works with Outlook.
• KeepVid – Download online streaming videos to use offline. 

These are just a few of the great tips that were shared by the panel. You can also check out the list from "60 Apps in 60 Minutes" shared by iPhone J.D., Jeff Richardson, Reid Trautz and Josh Barrett and coverage of "60 Tips in 60 Minutes" paneled by Andy Adkins, Michael Morse and Nerino Petro here and here.