Since our conference in June, it has been on my never-ending list to write a short article about it, and I’ve finally gotten around to it (thanks to a few cancelled meetings while people enjoy the school holidays! 😊). Anyway, what an amazing day this year’s BigHand Conference was! Us BigHanders say every year, this was the best one yet, and this year is no exception.

As I look back on the day, it is a chance to reflect on the growth we have achieved in the 11 years I have been fortunate enough to spend here. BigHand itself has grown from a single product (good old and still as reliable as ever digital dictation) business to one which has a suite of complementary products and solutions all aimed at helping law firms increase their operational efficiency, productivity, profitability - and their capability to better meet their clients’ evolving needs. Ultimately, to quote our CEO, Sam Toulson, our growth has been born from our singular purpose: “helping our clients achieve success in a world of constant change”.

Consequently, our growth has transcended more than our product portfolio. Today, we have more than 4,600 law firms as clients and almost 500 amazing BigHanders supporting them! Because of this, the BigHand Conference this year also brought together the highest number yet of law firm professionals from every corner of a firm – and many of our clients tell me it’s now a key event in their calendar (which we obviously love to hear).

Growth doesn’t happen by accident though, as we heard from our guest speaker, the motivational Professor Paul McGee – aka The Sumo Guy. Through inspiration, practical advice and humour, we learned about E + R = O – or Event + Response = Outcome.

Every event we encounter, whether individually or as a business, triggers a response that determines the outcome. This outcome can be positive, negative, or neutral, depending on how appropriate and effective our response is. To drive positive change, we need to practice learning from past events, responses, and outcomes, and adapt to consider different perspectives.

So, if E + R = O, to put it in terms of today’s legal firm challenges, if the Event is the question of how to increase profitability; provide greater transparency within client engagements; or improve retention and staff satisfaction, then it is the data that can be surfaced through technology that will help inform the appropriate Response – which in turn will drive the optimal firm Outcome.

Paul also called us all MAD, (which as the event organiser with a room full of clients and prospects created a slight moment of panic) – but he very quickly explained its meaning - that every single person can Make A Difference.

Unsurprisingly, these points are very much aligned to our BigHand values (Make Big Happen sound familiar? 😊); As Sam told our delegates on the day, as BigHanders, we do things together – both as a team and with our clients. We learn and must embrace adaptability, in our product offering, our approach and in line with the changes the legal industry is facing. We strive to do the right thing and aim for transparency in our approach. We own it – we truly believe we are as accountable as our clients for their tech investment and their project success, which has always been something I’ve loved about BigHand. And, lastly (and expectedly for those that know me or BigHand), we do all of this while having a lot of fun.

Once again, I got to share the stage with our Chief Product Officer, Rob Stote, and between jokes aimed at me, chatted about the three pillars of our product roadmap: Cloud, Data Analytics and AI. We were excited to share the progress we have made in Cloud, how our data and analytics platform is progressive and where AI is starting to be embedded into our Business Intelligent Platform. More on that front in coming months…!

I couldn't write about our day, without mentioning the amazing speakers! Over 57, across 20 different sessions. The lineup consisted of clients, industry experts, partners and BigHanders. The openness of sharing insights, trends and lessons learned made the sessions so engaging and was the perfect example of what an amazing legal tech community we have! I’m forever grateful for everyone that gave us their time and expertise! (If you missed our conference and want to see some of insights discussed, lots of our BigHand experts have written blogs on them which you can find here!)

The conference might have been a month ago, but us BigHanders are still on a high from such a great day with so many great people. For everyone that came – thanks a million! Roll on 2025 which also happens to be BigHand’s 30th birthday!