‘Tis the season to begin the Bentley blog blitz to hype the most excellent AUTM Annual Meeting we have in store for y’all next March (I am living in the south now and am told that the “y’all” is mandatory). The meeting is not that far away, and the hotel has fewer rooms than usual – so it may be worth signing up early to ensure you are in the conference hotel (although there are ample accommodations all around the area)).
Last year’s meeting will be hard to surpass in terms of overall satisfaction, and we are definitely bringing back some of the most well received programming elements for this year’s event – the Venture Forum, Texas Hold’em Tournament and open 2nd day afternoon, to name a few. I’ll be detailing some of these programming highlights in the coming weeks, but wanted to start here with a few exciting events new for this next Annual Meeting.
For starters, this year we are teaming up with LES to offer some jointly developed programming on Wed, March 14th. By design, the LES Winter Meeting is being held in the same hotel immediately preceding the AUTM Annual Meeting (attendees have the opportunity to attend both back-to-back!), and after the LES closing lunch on the 14th, we are offer joint programming that includes the triumphant return of the “Dirty Tricks” negotiations session, followed by a new AUTM Debate taking the form of a mock trial, where attorneys will argue their point before the Honorable Randall Radar, Chief Justice of the CAFC – how cool is that! These two marquis events will sandwich an AUTM/LES networking break.
The first full day of the Annual Meeting will open with an IP Roundtable Plenary session featuring a heavyweight cast of panelists: USPTO Director David Kappos, WIPO Director General Francis Gurry, and Microsoft General Manager of IP Licensing Tanya Moore – who also happens to be the president elect of LES, I believe. This session is not to be missed.
We are also rolling out some new networking functions this year – like our first ever AUTM Wine Tasting event. This event – made possible through sponsorship by the law firm of Tarolli, Sundheim, Covell and Tummino – will be an excellent opportunity for attendees to network off site with other AUTM wine enthusiasts over some of the best California and other U.S. and international wines available.
This is just the tip of the iceberg. We will endeavor to make sure you are all well informed of the wonderful programming opportunities that comprise the 2012 Annual Meeting, including some of the excellent industry-academia partnering opportunities. And for those that really, really want to know: no, this is not a Disney venue of any sort, but you can walk to Disneyland if you want (that’s where you’ll find me any time after the Dirty Tricks presentation is over).
Cheers,
Alan