I attended my second Rhodium event last week. This meant another trip to Las Vegas. Once again, the trip was bereft of gambling and shows and only saw mixed results in trying new restaurants. Perhaps by next year I’ll feel secure enough to treat myself to a blowout experience or two but that wasn’t on the cards for this year.

It was a different experience this year. There were times when I knew I belonged. I had seen most of the people before even if I hadn’t talked to them previously. I knew how the sessions would flow and was more deliberate about the roundtables I attended. I was part of a bonus session at the start that I’d been unable to attend the year prior, a session for a smaller group that holds more regular meetings that I’ll be more involved in during the coming year. Throughout the conference, I spent as much time reconnecting with people I already knew as meeting new people (the former being a much easier task given my temperament).  

Then there were times where I still felt like an outsider. Some of these stemmed from my energy management strategies of walking off or sitting by myself for a few minutes to recharge, deliberate moments of physical separation. These weren’t an obstacle; they were planned. More telling, though, were the moments when I was reminded that this is a conference full of operators and I’m a service provider. They may be my clients but I’m not exactly one of them, not yet anyway. That may only be a subjective difference but that doesn’t make it any less real. I don’t know if this difference can be bridged. A law firm is a different business than those operated by the other attendees and any strategic or tactical insights have to be translated into our specific context. There’s no problem with this. It is just a reality to navigate.