Two weeks ago, I had the opportunity to attend the Women in eDiscovery 2022 Conference. As a first-time attendee, I wasn’t sure what to expect, although the event theme of “Knowledge. Network. Revive.” sounded like exactly what I needed.
This event provided a wonderful opportunity to reconnect and network among a diverse group of exceptional professionals, and after two long years of mostly virtual interactions with industry peers, it was reinvigorating to be face to face once again.
After some exciting “Speed Networking”, I attended the Seeds & Fruits of TAR session with Dr. Gina Taranto, Cristin Traylor, Sarai Schubert, and Mary Pat Poteet. The session explored the benefits of TAR from the selection of a seed set, to training the system and establishing a relevancy threshold, and the importance of validating the quality of the predictive coding from the beginning of a matter.
In addition to the technical tracks, my biggest takeaway was diversity, which was on display in several aspects of the conference: diversity of background, of experience, and of course, challenges and successes. It was invaluable to hear from so many different voices of women who shared their distinctive perspectives based on their industry and life experience.
The Stellar Women session with Amanda Sabia, Florinda Baldridge, Joy Murao, Erin Tomine, and Blair Cohen was one where this dynamic stood out, as these formidable industry colleagues openly shared their journeys in eDiscovery. Some planned, some fell into it, but they all worked hard, achieved great things, took on more responsibilities and at some point, found themselves needing to step back and focus on themselves or their family. They were authentic in expressing the diversity they had experienced and how those lesson-chapters in their stories empowered them in their next.
This idea was also conveyed in a resume-writing session I naturally couldn’t help but attend. Krista Morris, who presented the workshop, encouraged attendees to unburden ourselves of the strict rules we think are required around how we define our backgrounds and experiences. Instead of focusing on traditional descriptions and roles we may have fulfilled, we were told to focus on the unique ways that we problem solved or managed a client, process, or project and to emphasize our transferable skills. It’s time to see things, including ourselves, through a new lens – one that promotes more creative thinking and application of what we have to offer and honoring those skills.
The same theme rang out during a session on entrepreneurship as the accomplished Ariana Tadler, Amy Juers and Julia Hasenzahl detailed their highs and lows of starting, and now running, their own businesses. This included many sleepless nights and financial considerations at various stages of their companies’ growth. Julia, co-founder and CEO for ProSearch talked about the passion and dedication to the “work”. In high school while working for Wendy’s, she found out the Founder, Dave Thomas, was going to be visiting their store and Julia knew she needed to be the one to close the night before–after all she was the “Closing Queen”–and she knew she needed to be the one at the register the following morning, because her passion for the “work” made her the right person for the job.
Julia also advised the audience to stop shying away from the financial conversations that so many female founders avoid. Whether it be obtaining a line of credit or pursuing investors, women need to be more comfortable with deploying capital.
Diversity, equity and inclusion remain a big focus for many firms and organizations, which is a great thing, but in addition to diverse demographics, there is value in bringing together people with different perspectives based on their unique backgrounds and experiences. They offer creative viewpoints and ideas that strengthen teams in ways that may be difficult to measure but yield success. For example, in some roles, bachelor’s degrees may or may not truly be necessary, and often, soft skills like strong communication, coachability, the wherewithal to work well with people and effectively manage projects may be more important than technical skills, even in the evolving, tech-laden world of eDiscovery. In fact, because of that continual evolution, people with the ability to embrace change and learn new skills often find greater success than those who may be steeped in technology, but struggle to adapt to new processes.
This year’s Women in eDiscovery Conference gave me a fantastic opportunity to learn from and share with an impressive group of women. I’m grateful for the familiar faces and new friends and, of course, all of the invaluable insight that was shared. I’ll be pulling on these stories, people and perspectives for the rest of my career, and I can’t wait to learn even more from this spectacular community.
-Savannah Granger