Robert Ambrogi Blog
Just five days after the wrap of the Legalweek/Legaltech conference in New York, the ALM vice president who oversaw it is out of his job.
John Stuttard, senior vice president of global events at ALM, is no longer with the company, ALM has confirmed.
A trade show veteran, Stuttard was brought on in 2016, following the departure of Henry Dicker, who had overseen Legaltech and other ALM events for 17 years.
There will be an announcement in the coming weeks as to who will take over his role, ALM said.
It was Stuttard’s idea to revamp the conference as Legalweek, aiming to broaden the scope of a conference that had become dominated by e-discovery vendors.
But the number of exhibitors was down this year and some say revenue for the conference dropped dramatically from just a few years ago.
ALM disputes this. Carol Everson, chief marketing officer at ALM, said today that the company was very happy with how Legalweek turned out this year.
Stuttard’s leaving had nothing to do with the results of this year’s conference, but the timing of his departure was delayed in order not to disrupt the conference, she said.
Once his replacement is named publicly in a few weeks, she said, it will be obvious why Stuttard left.
I also heard from Stuttard, who similarly said he was pleased with this year’s show. In an email to me, he wrote:
We got good feedback on the progress of Legalweek, and the new strategy. The data-driven metrics support this, and we are awaiting the results of the post-show survey for specific action points to continue to improve. But overall we’re really pleased with the way it went.
I am moving on from ALM, after two very enjoyable years. The events strategy is well underway, and the integration of business units is paying off. The leadership team is very strong, under Bill Carter’s excellent guidance, and this is a good time for me to move on to pastures new, and wish ALM continued success.
ALM has promised to update me as soon as Stuttard’s replacement is named.