The NextChapter Team spent a week in Chicago exhibiting as a featured startup in ABA Techshow's Startup Alley. We met a lot of attorneys, other legal tech vendors and ate so much Chicago deep dish pizza! Overall it was a major success. 🍕

When we were selected to participate in Startup Alley, we considered it a good opportunity to invite the entire team to Chicago and have our Annual NextChapter Retreat while exhibiting and connecting with others in the industry. What an experience it was!

Our software engineers got a taste of sales by manning the booth for a few hours and pitching NextChapter to attorneys, while our customer support and sales teams got to see the innovation happening in the tech space. We got to talk to a lot of other legal companies about future integrations and working together on projects. To share our experience at Techshow, here is a photo diary of the event:

Wheels Up! Half of the NextChapter Team took off from Columbus, Ohio to Chicago bright and early in the morning.

The whole team joined together, coming from Serbia, Los Angeles, Cleveland and Columbus to enjoy a nice steak dinner at Capital Grille in Chicago. 

First thing in the morning, we got word that our booth was up so Mandy and Janine ran down to check it out! 

The conference wasn't starting for another day, we had some time to focus on our big release! Everyone on the team had a task to get the Spring Release features built so we could present them at the conference. We found an amazing place to work in Soho House (thanks to a friend recommendation) where we ate a delicious breakfast and cranked out work! 

Our software engineers surprised us by deploying our new product: NextMessage right on time! NextMessage is a client text notification system to communicate with your clients directly in NextChapter! 

After hours of working, we took a break across the street for espresso at Sawada Coffee.

That night, we kicked off the conference as a Startup Alley Competition participant! NextChapter showcased the entire product in a 2.5 min video in front of 200+ people and received oooh's and ahhh's throughout! 

Photo taken by Ed Walters

After the competition, the team gathered around the booth to represent the company at the welcome reception.

The next couple days looked pretty similar...

At one point, our friends at Clio (integration partner) brought over an award-style plaque to display on our booth! 

To us, one of the highlights of the show was talking to other legal tech companies, asking them advice and learning from them. Rocket Matter and Clio share an anniversary date and this year at TECHSHOW marks 10 years for them both. It was an honor to be there with these legal tech visionaries and see the progress they've made!

Photo from Rocket Matter!

Alas, the final night came and we celebrated a successful show with Clio at their 10-Year Anniversary Party!

NextChapter Engineer, Lazar had a good time at the party.

The conference was a major success in our books but we are happy to be back in our new office, working on features again.