President's Message - Fall 2008

Summer 2008 is behind us .  I trust that a lot of you were engrossed in the Beijing Olympics like me.  Now I have one Michael Phelps and one Nastia Liukin “wanna be” at home –and that’s just me and my husband.   The Metro Philadelphia LMA all-volunteer Board and Committee Chairs had a busy summer.  Although we weren’t competing for the gold, we met on Friday, July 25th and focused on chapter succession planning, areas for chapter improvement, future educational programs, member networking socials and much more.  Plans for 2009 are coming together.   Now that we have officially welcomed Fall, our educational programming is ramping up, so get ready for a full third & fourth quarter.

On September 16th and 17th, I attended the Chief Marketing Officer’s Forum presented by Incisive Media in New York City.  The program had a deep line-up of legal marketing talent so I'm happy to share any highlights you might be interested in learning about.  On September 18th, our chapter welcomed Nat Slavin of the Wicker Park Group and past –president of LMA, to moderate our General Counsel panel.  This is the first GC panel we’ve hosted and we learned from our panelists first-hand about what they really think.  On September 25th, the member social at Apothecary Lounge undoubtedly provided you a remedy to relax and enjoy some downtime with your colleagues. In October, we welcome Greenfield Belser to present on Conversational Branding. During the month of November, the chapter will provide an educational webinar presented by Kevin O'Keefe of LexBlog on social networks and  last but certainly not least, Philadelphia will host the 2008 QuickStart program.  Be sure to use this opportunity to send either your new legal marketers and/or any staffer that would benefit from the agenda topics. 

Now with budget spreadsheets in front of you, holiday cards samples galore and Web 2.0 questions polluting your in box, take a deep breath and remember that you have a network of support in your backyard. Thank you for your membership and feel free to contact me with your opinions and suggestions on how we can better meet your LMA-Metro Philadelphia Chapter membership expectations.

Best regards,

Jennifer Smuts
President LMA-Metro Philadelphia