SCL Back to Basics Conference 2019 – Rising Star Impressions

June 17, 2019

We were delighted to be able to offer a number of bursaries towards the cost of attending the SCL “Back to basics – the technology” Conference, held at Hogan Lovells on 20 May 2019.

We invited firms to nominate a tech law “rising star” to attend at a subsidised rate. These future leading lights of the tech law sector were asked to record their impressions of the Conference in any way that they chose. We had a fantastically varied and imaginative response and we’re pleased to share these with you.

Katrina Leach, Trainee Solicitor, Taylor Vinters LLP created a video with the help of colleague Alice Brunning, Associate, Taylor Vinters LLP. This was in homage to Neil Brown and Alex Bloor, who dismantled a laptop to show the inner workings for the Hardware session.

Catalina Dugard, Associate Legal Counsel with Wärtsilä created this slide capturing her key takeaways from the day.

Hannah Pettit, Trainee Solicitor, Ashfords LLP wrote us a poem!

All things tech and beautiful
A back to basics IT taster
Delivered by varying technology creators
Breaking it down: laptop, phone and a raspberry pi
Followed by software, coding and APIs
Imagine a kitchen, the chefs on one side
The waiting staff the other, to serve and provide
Picture an API as the hatch between
A common interface through which two components can team
Next we questioned the workings of a VPN
A tunnel of encryption to somewhere more zen
Increased scale and processing power
When you stack servers in a tower
This explains the move to storage in the cloud
So many new concepts, feeling really proud


Tseday Hailu, Contracts, Procurement & Information Lawyer at HB Public Law, Harrow Council, wrote an excellent summary report of the day.

First time participant’s impression of SCL Conference “Back to basics: the technology”

The conference delivered what the title promised: Back to Basics – the technology. It covered wide topics from software, networking to the internet. I was grateful for the choice of language and style of delivery. The presenters used accessible and humorous examples to explain the different concepts. There was even a dismantling of a computer and a mobile phone for an effective demonstration of the components. Some helpful tips on drafting software agreements were also thrown in. The highlight for me was the piece on cloud storage. 

At the beginning of the conference the moderator asked the participants to rate how confident each felt about their knowledge on a scale of 1-4, 5-7, and 8-10. I was not comfortable to rate my existing knowledge. At the end of the conference, I had no hesitation rating my level of confidence and the knowledge I acquired during the day. It was an extremely useful session. 

Whilst it was a basic level session, from speaking to some of the other participants with more experience and knowledge, it seemed there was something new that everyone gained from the conference. 

My only regret was the time constraint, which meant that the presentations in the second half of the conference were delivered very quickly. It would have been more beneficial if the duration of the conference was extended by about 2 hours and if the breaks were perhaps shorter. 

Many thanks to Hogan Lovells for hosting the Back to Basics Conference. Their generous support, and the support of all our host firms and fantastic contributors, means that we are able to invest in initiatives like ‘rising stars’ and continue to meet our charitable educational objectives.