President
July 2011
Hello ASTC colleagues!
For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Tara Trask. As of July 1, I am the new President of this organization and I’m as excited as I’ve ever been in my four years in Leadership.
For those of you who attended the Conference, thank you for supporting your organization and I hope you found it informative and fun. I loved our conference this year. Many members told me that they loved the programing and that our 30th Anniversary was celebrated in grand style. If you missed out, keep a look out for materials and follow ups via the website and our ASTCNow Twitter account.
Dr. Phil opened the conference via video with a heartfelt welcome and some kind words about his time in the field. CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE CLIP. Many Medrano mesmerized us with his storytelling about trying difficult cases and was quite clear about the importance of trial consultants in his 60-0 win record. He also offered to help any ASTC members in drafting their press releases, a generous offer indeed! Read more about Manny Medrano. We heard from the best of the best about pre-trial publicity, how to handle trial stress, the latest in Supplemental Juror questionnaires and we saw a fantastic voir dire demonstration. Plus, we had a wonderful dialogue with 3 distinguished members of the Bench—and that was all just on Friday.
Our 30th Anniversary banquet was both a walk down memory lane and a look into our future with an unprecedented number of new attendees. I was so pleased to have so many first time attendees stop me to tell me how welcomed they felt. Hearing from Ron Matlon and Joyce Tsongas about the beginnings of the organization and listening to the award presentations was nothing short of inspiring!
Saturday kicked off with Michael Norton, our second keynote, illuminated us on the Art of Dodging questions and his presentation ended up being a wonderful interactive forum and one of the highlights of the conference to me because it demonstrated the breadth and depth of experience and background that makes our Society special. Michael really enjoyed the give and take and I think he went away with as many ideas as he imparted to us! The day continued to unfold with programs on online research, a debate of hot button issues, witness preparation and of course the Neshoba screening.
My recap doesn’t cover every program and it cannot begin to capture the enthusiasm and fun that seemed palpable at this year’s conference. Look for more content from the Conference and mark your calendars for next year in New Orleans!
More to come,
Tara Trask
President – American Society of Trial Consultants