COLT Second Annual Convention

Despite the HIRL/HOA technical issues surrounding the recorded part of our convention, it was a resounding success.  We have several new “Hang Arounds” who are seeking admission as full-patched members, and one drove from L.A. to Vegas and went back afterward.  So I saw a lot of dedication and commitment, which is fantastic.

One exciting part about this year’s H.I.R.L. is that many attendees have probably never done a video conference like this. So I was able to spot some of my weaknesses in not recognizing that only a few of the Originals understand the H.O.A.

In any event, we did a round table in the conference room at personal injury attorney Richard Harris’ law offices in Las Vegas, NV.  Why is this particularly interesting? Well, it allowed me to analyze the strengths and limitations of a H.I.R.L. under the pressures of production. I mean one on a less than “Sundance” style budget.

But first, let me tell you about this personal injury law firm that volunteered to use a vast conference room, catering, and with the volunteerism of accident lawyer Seth Price, in their vast, sprawling law office.  This was great because we could meet at close quarters, mix, and exchange pleasantries, cards, and handshakes.

Of course, in more detail below, I will talk about some of the drawbacks to such a close-quarters H.I.R.L. Check out this picture of the exterior of this mammoth legal facility. We used one of the many conference rooms within the facility.

Any injured client would be proud to be represented by such as successful firm. They are doing right by their clients to have been so generous in loaning us a room for almost 8 hours!

The Location of Our Convention | Injury Lawyer Richard Harris’ Law Building

Law Vegas Personal Injury Law Offices of Richard Harris

Observations About Audience Participation In a Full Conference Room

The oval table.

Unlike most hangouts, this was a H.I.R.L., or
href=”https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/chat/cmr8AgtToTg” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”>“Hang Out in Real Life”, <<< Click. This means that listeners and watchers at home could watch the H.I.R.L. on their computers. Physical attendees could also view the H.I.R.L. while seated around the conference table, and be able to see the online slides and graphics, as well as the video streaming of the speakers that are just sitting across the table.

What is the Format of a H.I.R.L.?

A HIRL, like any other H.O.A., is designed to be a 15-30 minute presentation by a physically present speaker or a speaker at a remote location by streaming live video and audio. Typically there is a question-and-answer session at the end of the slideshow. Then there is an oral presentation by the guest speaker.

Well, unfortunately, this is still a new technology for non-users. And some of the chaos that occurred to us is partially my fault for not knowing how a H.I.R.L. must be run.

A conference in a large chamber room, enabling the sounds and voices of others to cause great feedback, too many computers are tapping into a single wifi connection, Plus physical attendees are asking questions to the speaker mid-sentence, and so forth. So I came to some findings and conclusions.

Finding One – Let the Speaker Finish His Presentation

• Finding 1. Let Him Speak. First, for you attorneys, for example, when a trial lawyer speaks at a seminar, he makes his presentation; after that, there is an open discussion.  I believe we called this the Socratic Method at law school.

• Conclusion. In a H.I.R.L., we have limited time, and each speaker is scheduled t speak at different times, and many of them are volunteering, despite being celebrities in the Google Community.

We did have a scheduling misunderstanding due to time zone issues. (Eric Enge and Mark Traphagan are on the East Coast Time Zone, Las Vegas is not) But we were able to fill in the gap. We had the speakers present out of order. So it was like a court, like experts and other subpoenaed witnesses at a jury trial.

A few attendees unfamiliar with the Google H.O.A. format asked questions during the initial presentation. But more problematic, their interrogatories were not heard by people at home. This is because the questionnaires were too far away from the speaker. So the microphone failed to pick up the questions.

Audience Too Far Away

For example, when Dan Goldstein was making his presentation. Notice when the viewing audience could not hear the questions. So for a significant part of the video, you can listen to mumbling. And then, Goldstein attempts to answer questions that no one else can hear.

Finding Two – Limitations of the Hangouts Require Special Technical Accommodations

• Finding 2 – Hire Ronnie Bincer First, I know this sounds crazy, but Google keeps tweaking how Events and Hangouts work.  It is also more challenging to run aan H.O.AA from your Place/Community. This is opposed to running it from your profile.

Ronnie Bincer keeps up on this stuff, and he has led us in aan an H.O.A. once before.  I should have contacted him at his Google Plus contact here before running the HIRL For an example of just a few problems.

• Looking Dumb – In the first 15 minutes of the part one raw video below, I am trying to figure out if it is recording or not since there is no “record button” anymore (it turns out it was recording, and I look silly)
• I was avoiding Audio Feedback and Delay-. If I had spoken with or looked at Bincer’s blog, I would have known that having all the audio on all computers within the confines would cause feedback. So we have to cancel the audio out.
  
• One wifi Connection Not Enough For Multiple Users in Real Life – I am sure more than a few computers can tap into one wifi connection at a particular location. This is due to the video streaming larger video files. We quickly determined that one should feed the MC’s computer to the large monitor next time. That way, all attendees have one more computer for the live speaker. And then, they pass a mic around for attendees to ask questions. This is one of the limitations of streaming in close quarters for sure.

We need to edit the raw video and try to salvage the tape into something that doesn’t make us look like the Three Stooges.  In all events, it is imperative that live attendees at a conference with greater wifi capacity need to mute their computers.

Imagine a thousand people at a wifiH.I.R.L.. and trying to eliminate the one mic with feedback.

Conclusion.

Get technical updates on H.I.R.L.S. and mute the microphones till your turn comes to talk.

Raw Video of The Seminar – Part One

Please Start at 15:13

You can see in the raw video that we started getting along pretty well after we ironed out the basic stuff. So I feel confident we will have an even better seminar next year.

New Blood to the Circle of Legal Trust

Without naming names, we had some new prospects come to the seminar. We had one attorney come from Oregon and from L.A., and others traveled from the South and Eastern states. I was proud to see all the interest.  Some people get it. And Sgt at Arms, Anthony Castelli, is working with these new prospects. His job is to get them into our elite legal warrior organization.

The rollout of Paid Services

Although each member must be accessible and accepted, and membership is merit-based and free of monetary charges, it is not accessible for my developers and me. When I started this, I always wanted it to be self-administered by me and a few Originals. But there are too many people wanting to join.

For me to maintain human-edited quality control, Andre van Wyk and I are coming out with some new paid services to help offset costs. And that way, we can hire more help to build our various online publications.

• “COLT Journal” Magazine Advertising – We announced paid advertising slots for our Legal and Marketing journal, which is multi-state, multi-practice. (this is available for members and outside vendors)
• Personal Injury Warriors Magazine Paid Ads – Due to the fact thatP.I.I am the most competitive law practice in the united states of America; we have a stand-alone P.I. practice, a magazine that is also now selling paid slots for outside vendors and inside members. Both COLT Journal andP.I.I Warriors are going to be pushed to online apps and distribution channels.

• Mastermind Group Memberships

  – We are also offering additional services for members only.

• This will include the ability to receive a place of recognition on our Circle of Legal Trust AttorneyN.A.P.P Data Directory, currently being developed by Andre van Wyk. This is a White List of Trusted Colt members that will act as a data provider to Google. We offer three levels; Mastermind gets the top of the page by order of who purchased first (in time is in the right)

• Mastermind: Top Slot. Includes a 1.N.A.P. Data, 2. Graphic or photo, 3. link to your site and COLT user profile, 4. A short law firm bio on the page.
• Gold: Middle Slot. Include: 1 N.A.P. Data, 2. link to your site , and COLT user profile.
• Free: Bottom Slot. Includes: 1. N.A.P. Data, 2. (COLT Members only)

• We will also use our “List Serve,” which is also being developed so lawyers can share leads and private communications off the Google grid.
• Also, Each Gold Member gets an ad placement=. So this is regardless of whether they provide an article. But current, non-paying members will still be able to provide articles free of charge.
• Mastermind members will also be eligible to participate in our PRIVATE once-a-month Q&. This is aan an H.O.AA with Andre, myself, or another invited expert. These will be private, one-hour sessions where we discuss things we don’t want our competitors to know.

• • Eligibility for Elections

    – Members who pay dues will also be eligible to participate in awards elections. Yes, that’s right, elections promote extraordinary members who pay dues and join in COLT. We promote paid members who have gone above and beyond the call of duty each year with accolades and awards. We will now award outstanding performance in the following categories: For all practice areas of law (injury, divorce, criminal law, civil rights, etc., will each have their award), as follows:

  • Litigator of the Year,
  • Trial Lawyer of the Year, 
  • Law Clerk of the Year,
  • Marketer of the Year. 
  • Most Sef-less Lawyer of the Year.

All Originals will maintain voting rights regardless of payment. And this is due to their original loyal involvement. The awards will come in the form of a press release, write-up, and banner on your Web-O-Trust Profile. And you can get the membership banners added to your website. We are designing patches presently.

How Much Is MasterMind Membership?

• • • $1000 per year. If you have any questions, contact Andre van Wyk, or myself, if you wish to contribute funds and become a “Mastermind.” That way, we will discuss this further via email. The buy-in for Mastermind is $1000.00 per year. The products and services are rolling out, and some are already available. And I almost forgot all masterminds will be listed on our prominently located “Mastermind List” along with a lawyer picture and citation back to each lawyer’s website. This will be posted on the Circle of Legal Trust Website, linked from the Home Page. We will be promoting this list as well. You also get an upgraded patch for your website and emails telling the world you are at the pinnacle ofC.O.L.T.. membership.

How Much For Gold Membership?

• • • $60.00 per month, payable by PayPal only or paid in full by check. Here is what you get. Gold includes all publicH.O.A.’ss except the Mastermind Private Monthly Sessions. You still get all your free services, including your patch, but you also get a particular GOLD patch for your site.

How Much is “Free”?

Free means no money.  Free members can post on the legal torch in addition to all the free services, like the Web-O-Trust allow listing network, posting to our magazines, and H.O.A.’ss The cost for blog maintenance will be $30.00 per month, and each member will also get their user profile with a citation back to their sites, social profiles, and blogs, just like web-o-trust, but connected to press releases and articles on their Legal Torch blog.

Announcing Revisions to Legal Torch

After the consultation, I have decided to move forward. We will be using one website for promoting COLT. So our services and our members will use one platform ONLY. So we are going to go with subfolders. And we will interface more like lawyers.com to join.

Charges for Blogs Maintenance

Using that site will come with a minimal fee of $30.00 per month. This will cover the costs of editing and maintenance. (No exact match anchors allowed, and they must be original. Also, it must be non-plagiarized content.) Again, the cost per user will be $30.00 per month. And each member will get their user profile with a citation back to their sites, social profiles, and blogs.

Moving the Question and Answer Forum

The Questions and Answer Forum, Attorney Directory, and advanced products will now be accessible only via the Circle of Legal Trust.

In Conclusion

We all feel that we need to use the Circle of Legal Trust for other services and that we can get many more benefits from one brand. In closing, I wanted to thank everyone, and I will update this evergreen article as more things materialize.