ABA TECHSHOW 2023 is now a wrap. After a whirlwind of activity (and just barely making it into Chicago before the bad weather hit), one of my favorite legal technology conferences is now behind us.

As my fellow Above the Law columnist, Bob Ambrogi, recently noted, this year’s conference was quite a departure from prior TECHSHOWs. The speaker roster was radically different from years past, as was the Keynote — which consisted of a panel discussion between the founders of Avvo, Rocket Lawyer, and Legal Zoom — instead of what we’d come to expect: a presentation from a single leading technology visionary or legal technology futurist.

This year’s TECHSHOW also broke with precedent by including a legal tech startup showdown between 12 different companies: ClariLegal, UniCourt, LegalClick, eBrevia, Ping, Paladin, TrustBooks, Aggregate Law, Court Buddy, Doxly, JustLegal, and Alt Legal. The competition occurred on Wednesday night, after which the audience voted on their favorites. The winner was Ping (who won free advertising here on Above the Law), followed by Doxly and UniCourt. After the event, the startups set up shop in the back corner of the Expo Hall where “startup alley” occupied a small footprint of the Hall and allowed each company to showcase their wares to attendees.