In this podcast, Andrea Erasmus, the production director of Eventful People (the South Africa-based organisers) chats to regular festival attendee, Africa Legal’s own Tom Pearson, on how taking the event online needed out-the-box thinking to find a new way of looking at this popular meeting of legal minds.

“The Fest” has always been focused on celebrating the people, ideas, technology and innovations that are transforming the way law firms and inhouse legal teams in Africa operate, Tom explains, which is why Africa Legal has been a regular partner.

Andrea tells Tom how planning for this year’s event began in October last year but everything changed with the pandemic.

“We realised that it was not going to be possible to hold an in-person event and, after a time of reflection, we also realised it was not possible to copy and paste this into a virtual event but that it would have to be rethought.”

First off, the technology had to be perfect followed by a great line-up of speakers and other content.

“The word we kept coming back to was access,” says Andrea. This meant creating an event that still enabled networking opportunities, great content and, now, because of its virtual nature, some of the best legal innovation speakers in the world.

This year’s lineup includes Caryn Sandler – Partner and Chief Knowledge and Innovation Officer at Gilbert and Tobin in Sydney who will open the event, Australian commercial lawyer Verity White and legal creative Tess Manuela.

There will also be a line-up of top African partners and representatives from major corporations on the speaker list.

Andrea says Eventful People have run a few virtual festivals in the last little while and they are becoming extremely popular as delegates appreciate the access to top speakers, workshops and networking opportunities in an easily accessible and affordable format.

To find out more about the Legal and Innovation Festival listen to the podcast on SoundCloud, Spotify or Apple.

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