Relativity Fest 2017 Review – Part I

The Popsicle Moment

This is the first in a two-part review of Relativity Fest 2017.  Part two is titled – Relativity Fest 2017 Review – Part II – The Rise of The Machine.  Subscribe to ESI Gladiator to receive notification when it's published tomorrow.

Introduction

The verdict - TWO THUMBS UP!

This was my very first Relativity Fest!  That’s right, I went kicking and screaming into the den of the dragon I have somehow avoided all these years.  Avoidance of Relativity has not been by accident.  Like other old industry war horses, I’ve used virtually every “eDiscovery” application that’s hit the market over the past 25 years, but not Relativity.  Not until past few years.  I am no different than the average consumer – I have my favorites.  My favorite historically has not been Relativity, for reasons that are unimportant here.

Like many service providers in the industry these days, the company I work for offers clients options.  A few years back, a client pulled us into both Eclipse AND Relativity.  That law firm client has an even mix of Relativity and Eclipse cases.  Even though we have our own review software, Recenseo, and highly advanced “predictive analytics” application, Envize, we had to bring in the technology the customer wants.   Of course, we believe our technology is just as good as those other guys.  Yet, we now support substantial matters in all three review tools.  Clients have choices.  We are not alone; many providers now offer multiple options.  FTI, one of the largest companies in our space, recently announced that it has rolled out Relativity and spoke about why during the keynote speech at R Fest 2017.  Yes, that’s the same FTI that bought both Attenex and Ringtail.  More on that in Part II. 

We are rapidly reaching the point where you can get a wide variety of technology on any street corner.  So how does a consumer differentiate between “providers”?   Service – create those Popsicle Moments.  What the heck is a Popsicle Moment?  Read on.