Nightmares of CLE

Moderator:

Stephanie Ball Best Best & Krieger

Los Angeles, California

Panelists:

Lenne' EspenscheidContinuing Legal Education

Atlanta, Georgia

Justine MauryDykema Gossett PLLC

Chicago, Illinois

Alexandra Wong The Law Society of Upper Canada

Toronto, Ontario

Presented at: ACLEA 52nd Mid-Year Meeting January 30 - February 2, 2016

Savannah, Georgia

Stephanie Ball Best Best & Krieger

Los Angeles,California

Stephanie J. Ball is the Director of Attorney Development and Recruiting.    Stephanie  has  been  in  the  CLE  and  Professional  Development  profes s i on  f o r  o ve r   15   yea r s .   Stephanie received her J.D. from the  Southern  California  Institute  of  law  where  she  graduated  as  the  class  valedictorian.    Last  year, Stephanie’s  entry  in  the  CLE  Program  category  was  selected  as  one  of  “ACLEA’s  Best”  in  the  annual “ACLEA’s Best” Award competition.  ACLEA has appointed Stephanie as the  2014‐2016  co‐chair  of  the  In  House  Special  Interest  Group  (SIG).  As  a  trained  classical  chef,  Stephanie  has  discovered  how  to  guarantee  standing  –room‐only  at t endan ce   f o r   a   C L E   p rog r am ,   s he   bakes  one  of  her signature  delicious  specialty  cakes.     Everyone  stays  unti l   the  end  for  a  piece  of  cake. Cake & CLE, a winning combo!

Alexandra Wong TheLawSocietyofUpperCanada

Toronto,Ontario

Alexandra is a Program Coordinator with the Continuing Professional Development (CPD) department of 

The Law Society of Upper Canada (LSUC). In the last 10 years with the LSUC she has been responsible for 

coordinating  over  100 CPD programs.    As  a member of ACLEA  since  2008, Alexandra  contributes  her 

expertise  in  CPD planning  and development  to  her work on  the ACLEA Executive Committee and  the 

Communications Committee.  Most recently, Alexandra was a member of the planning committees for 

the  San Diego  and  Chicago meetings  in  2015.    In  addition  to  her  CPD  expertise  Alix  has  a  Law  Clerk 

designation  from  The  Institute  of  Law  Clerks  of  Ontario  and  Bachelor  of  Arts  degree  in  Urban  and 

Economic Geography and Business Administration from the University of Toronto. 

Page 1 of 5

In CLE, it’s always good to have a Plan B, C, D….Z

Alexandra Wong, The Law Society of Upper Canada

“If anything can go wrong, it will!” – Murphy’s Law

“The most successful people are those who are good at plan B.” – James Yorke

No matter how much you plan for the smooth development and delivery of a CLE program, things might

not go the way you want or expect. In 10 years, I have had perfectly executed program deliveries,

programs where a few things go awry, and programs that are nightmares from start to finish. Here are

some nightmares that I’ve experienced in the pre-program/program development and post-

program/program delivery of CLE programs.

Pre-Program/Program Development

Speaker who thinks they are confirmed to speak and isn’t: A speaker contacts the program coordinator

a couple of weeks before the program to indicate they are confirmed to speak and to determine

deadlines and requirements, but somewhere in the transmission of information between the program

planner and the program coordinator, the speaker gets missed and is not included in the faculty list.

Best practice in this scenario would be to use one document (e.g. program agenda) as a repository of

faculty info between a planner and coordinator. For the techy savvy planners and coordinators, Google

Docs is a great tool for collaboration.

Speaker does not respond for weeks and you find out a week before the program they’re on medical

leave and not available: Despite attempts to email and call, there are no indications that the speaker is

out of the office and on a medical leave and is therefore be unable to speak at a program. This has

happened more and more at our CLE programs. Best practice advice would be to contact someone who

works with the speaker to see if they can shed any light on why are you aren’t able to get in contact with

them, and speak to the program planner. In addition, make arrangements to secure a backup speaker.

Speaker has clearance to speak from their direct manager, but not from the CEO, who has the final

approval: During the development of a CLE program, a speaker receives clearance from their manager

to speak; however, you find out two days before the program they need further approval by CEO. To

complicate matters, the speaker is from out of town. Best practice is, if you had to make travel

arrangements for the speaker, cancel them to salvage some of the credit and minimize your costs. It is

then recommended you contact the program chairs and/or panel members to determine if the speaker

should be replaced or if the panel can continue without a replacement.

Page 2 of 5

Speaker does not submit materials on time: This is one of the biggest challenges we face in CLE

program delivery, especially when the materials are to be printed in hardcopy format or even electronic

format. Suggested best practices, in addition to the standard presenter confirmation letter, is to include

a program reminder email that goes out a month before the materials deadline and a deadline reminder

email that goes out a week before the materials are due. From there, follow-up with an email the day

after the material deadline email is sent with an extension to the end of the week. For our CLE

programs, materials are due 3 weeks out from the program date, which gives you some contingency

time for presenters who always go down to the wire before delivering their paper to you.

Speaker who promises a paper before a program, doesn’t deliver and still doesn’t deliver post-

program: In rare circumstances, a speaker who for one reason or another cannot meet the materials

submission deadline, promises you a paper after the program day. Best advice is to avoid this scenario at

all costs! I’ve been through this, and it took reminders and follow-ups by the program planner and

coordinator in order to finally obtain the paper. If you encounter a situation like this with an extremely

busy speaker who is vital to the program, suggest that the speaker have a junior/associate write the

paper for them.

Speaker inquires if parts of their paper can be printed in color: The easy answer is no, and the reason

behind it is simple: all of our registrants have access to an online version of the program materials,

which will appear in color. In addition, to determine how many registrants would require a color copy

would be difficult, since publication of the materials occurs post-program and the sales are

unpredictable; registrants are turning to online versions of the material more and more. Explain to the

speaker that the materials are available online to everyone and suggest that they direct the attendees to

the online version of the program materials for more details.

Speaker decides to add a paper/materials the day before the program (at the last minute): A speaker

who indicated that they would not be submitting any materials changes their mind at the last minute

and provides you with a paper/materials. If you’ve posted your materials online, best practice would be

to send an email to all registrants to advise that the materials have been updated and recommend they

return to the program landing page to obtain the new materials. At the same time, have the speaker

make the announcement prior to their presentation that their paper is available online. If you have

hardcopy materials as well, you need to arrange with your print shop to print an insert that will be

provided to the registrant when they arrive or at a break, depending on when the copy run is done.

Speaker submits Powerpoint presentation as a paper: Some speakers consistently use Powerpoint as a

stand-in for their paper. To deter this, the Law Society no longer includes Powerpoints in our program

materials; we indicate to speakers that they are for presentation purposes only. This has encouraged

speakers to submit more substantive papers, since they want their paper to be published as a form of

marketing for themselves.

Speaker repurposes materials that were previously published for inclusion in program materials:

Speakers sometimes want to use articles that have already been published as their submission. You

need to get copyright permissions, and if the speaker indicates they already have copyright permissions,

ensure they forward that to you for the file records.

Page 3 of 5

Speakers uses actual cases as precedents/fact patterns: A speaker presents a case study using an actual

client file. Ensure that any identifiable information is redacted before the information is included in the

published program materials. When speakers submit precedents of actual cases, you have to review the

documents to ensure personal information has been redacted.

Speaker comes from out of town during a major event and hotel space is limited and at premium

rates: This happens to CPD at least once or twice a year, either as a result of a city-wide conference or

Toronto’s annual film festival. Since the dates are fixed for these types of events, put room holds on

hotels close to your program venue as far in advance as you can; the reservations can always be

cancelled either the day before or on the day of, depending on the agreement you have with the hotel.

Program venue is booked, contract is signed, but construction at venue is unanticipated: The venue for

a program is booked, contract signed, a deposit cheque has been mailed out to the venue for a January

program. We find out in early November, after a follow-up phone call to confirm receipt of the deposit

cheque, that construction will be taking place in the room next to the booked one. The venue has

advised that the noise levels will potentially be an issue for our program. Promotion for the program has

already begun, and the date and time of the program cannot be changed because marketing has already

begun to promote the program; the location was the only thing we could change. Best practice is to

always secure a backup venue (just put a hold on it) when scouting locations, in case the original

location falls through. Luckily, we had an alternate venue on hold until the deposit was confirmed by the

original venue.

Program Delivery/Post-Program

Weather-related delays: In general, programs that are held in the winter months are at the greatest risk

due to snow storms; however, delays have been known to happen during the spring/summer as well.

These types of delays mostly affect speakers that travel by plane, but can also affect those that drive or

take the train. The best alternative for this scenario is to make arrangements for a speaker to speak via

telephone for the program. At the same time, a Powerpoint slide can be posted in the program room

that displays the speaker’s photo (which should be obtained ahead of time), name, firm name and topic

name.

Webcast provider unable to handle high volumes on a webcast: Despite your provider’s reassurances

and preparation for higher than normal registrant numbers for a program, always have a plan B. Either

have an alternate link to provide to the registrants to view the program, or provide a phone line they

can call, so they can at least listen in on the program.

Speaker cancels at the last minute due to ill family member: This happened to us right at the start of a

4-day CLE program. In this scenario, there were many components to this workshop intense program.

The faculty for this program had multiple roles, as speakers, team leaders and/or instructors. In the case

of this speaker, they were a team leader. The decision was made by the chairs to move in an instructor

as a replacement team leader. When planning the assignments of the faculty, try to make sure the

strengths of each faculty member are taken into consideration, which makes it easier if you have to shift

a speaker from one spot to another.

Page 4 of 5

Speaker comes in with Powerpoint presentation on program day. When you offer programs via

webcast, in the past you were able to accept slides up to the speaker’s presentation time; now you may

need to have the slides in advance of the program day for your AV team to upload and test in the

webcast system. Loading them on program day would not allow time for testing and could cause

potential issues to the slides that have already been loaded. Explain this well ahead of the program to

your faculty to get their cooperation and understanding.

Power failures: Your first recourse is social media to try and get the word out. However, contacting

registrants who are not on social media can be a challenge, especially when the power failure occurs

midway through a live webcast. Best practice would be to prepare a backup communication plan to

program registrants taking into consideration that not all will be on social media. You may have to

cancel or reschedule some programs.

Fire alarms/testing in the program venue (or neighbouring venue): What happens when you have to

evacuate the building, or fire alarm testing is scheduled during your CLE programs? Best practice tip:

work with the Facilities department at your venue, and ensure they understand that you cannot have

interruptions. Request that they consider rescheduling the testing outside of regular business hours.

Short on catering: This is a CLE Coordinator’s absolute worst nightmare! You ordered enough, but then

discover there are not enough lunch boxes for all faculty and attendees—likely due to attendees who

took more lunches than they were allotted. Best suggestion is to work with the catering staff at your

venue to determine what replacements they can prepare or provide on short notice. In advance of the

program, look at the profile of the registrants that are attending the program; some programs have

attendees that will eat more than others. Venues generally provide 5-10% extra to what you order as

well. Make sure you never run out of coffee and tea by ordering more than is required based on the

number of attendees and faculty.

Unpaid registrants “crash” a program: Though rare, sometimes (unpaid) registrants try to that sneak

into a program, especially one that has a capped attendance. When this happened to us, the faculty

helped to detect these individuals; in a small community, they happened to know the unpaid registrants

would not usually attend such a program. Best practice would be to have a central registration desk and

not multiple entrances into a program room.

Opening keynote speaker fails to show up on program day: As CLE professionals we understand that

some things are beyond a presenter’s control. This has happened in a program I was involved with. We

were notified that the speaker did not show up for another organization the day before and there had

been no communication whatsoever from his office on whether he would make it. Facing the unknown,

we had to come up with a Plan B (the show must go on). Trying to come up with a replacement

presentation that would apply to all was a challenge—but we managed to do it. A good

recommendation in a situation like this would be to have the faculty have some discussion questions in

their back pockets to facilitate a discussion to fill the time or secure an alternate speaker. In our case,

we were notified at the end of our absentee’s scheduled time that he was unable to attend due to a

work-related emergency—and his research assistant was ill and failed to notify us!

Page 5 of 5

Never let a speaker make their own AV arrangements: Speakers who take it upon themselves to make

their own AV arrangements could end up costing you a lot financially at the end of the day. Make sure

you connect with the program planner and the speakers for their AV requirements. The program

coordinator should be the one to finalize these arrangements and provide them to the AV team.

Speaker appearing via Skype/Vidyo or similar software has technical problems: To cut down on travel

expenses and to maintain a geographic diversity of speakers, from time to time we will have speakers

scheduled to speak via Vidyo (our version of Skype) for a program. One on occasion, although testing

was done prior to the program with the speaker, the speaker was unable to connect on program day.

Best practice is to have the speaker connect 30 minutes prior to the scheduled speaking time, and have

a Powerpoint slide ready with speaker photo, name and presentation title as plan B. Ensure you

complete a test run when using this type of technology.

Using an audience response system (polling): You choose to use an audience response system (polling)

during a program; however, despite testing prior to the program day, the software fails. Still, the most

you can do is ensure that you have up-to-date software for the system you are using and ensure that the

AV equipment supports the same version of the software. Best practice would be do a dry-run to ensure

the system works when the devices are used and also that the presenter’s slide deck works correctly.

The situations that have been highlighted above are by no means the only nightmares a CLE professional

will face in the development and delivery of a program. There are likely many more situations that

others have experienced. The bottom line is to always expect the unexpected. Try to think ahead,

anticipate what could possibly go wrong and what backup plan you should have in place. Talk to your

colleagues when you have a program with similar features and share best practices.

NIGHTMARES OF CLE

IN-HOUSE

Accreditation

Attendance

Multiple Locations

Faculty

Technology

From a professional speaker’s perspective:

Murder, She Spoke or

How to Kill a Perfectly Good Presentation

By Lenné Espenschied

Death by Congestion:

Death by Combat:

Death by Duel:

Death by Toxic Takeover:

Dead on Arrival:

Plan for the unexpected

Planner/Coordinator

Production Team Speakers are late submitting their papers

Stress Relief The Last Resort

What else can go wrong?

Presented By Lenne’ Espenschied

Continuing Legal Education

Justine A. Maury Recruiting and Professional Development Manager

Dykema Gossett PLLC

Alexandra Wong Program Coordinator, Continuing

Professional Development The Law Society of Upper Canada

Moderator

Stephanie Ball Director of Attorney Development and Recruiting

Best Best & Krieger LLP

Thank You!