Several City Groups chose to award a scholarship to the LMASE Regional Conference in Atlanta this year. Caroline Huddleston was the winner of the Nashville City Group's Regional Conference Scholarship.
Name: Caroline Huddleston
Position: Senior Coordinator-Public Relations
Firm: Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP
Nashville City Group Conference Scholarship Recipient
As a relative newcomer to the legal marketing field, I found the LMASE Regional Conference to be a valuable learning experience, and I left the event with numerous key takeaways.
One of my favorite things about attending the conference was meeting other legal marketing professionals, learning about their jobs and departments, and trading ideas about how we all work to market the attorneys at our firms. Coming from an editorial background and a public relations role at a large global firm, it was beneficial speak to marketers whose roles encompass various types of marketing at firms of various structures and sizes.
The conference programming also offered a number of opportunities for me to learn from other marketers. Mary Crane's keynote address about creating a powerful personal brand was superb. I was fascinated to learn about her career trajectory and all of her exciting experiences. Mary's analysis of how to develop one's own brand identity was enlightening.
I found the session "Bringing it All Together Regarding Content," to be particularly educational, since the panelists were able to speak to their experiences with large firms. I left with several insights into how marketers meet demands and work around obstacles similar to those I encounter. Additionally, "Lawyers' Expectation of Law Firm Marketers," was especially worthwhile. Lawyers at all firms are pressed for time, and marketers' interactions with them are so often focused on the completion of time-sensitive tasks, so hearing directly from lawyers at various levels of the profession about how they expect marketers to meet their needs was revealing. A significant facet of my job is working with attorneys on social media and external content, and much of the conversation in both of these sessions centered on those topics.
Altogether, my first LMASE conference exceeded my expectations and was an invaluable experience. I sincerely enjoyed interacting with counterparts in the legal field and learning from authorities in law firm marketing.