The Advanced Guide to ClioCon 2026

ClioCon 2026 is happening October 26–27 at the Hynes Convention Center in Boston. It's one of the largest legal technology conferences of the year with 10 session tracks and a keynote from Wharton AI researcher Ethan Mollick. 

Whether you're still deciding if it's worth the trip or you've already booked your flight, you'll get significantly more out of the experience by being intentional about what you do before, during, and after the event.

What ClioCon 2026 Is (and Why Boston Again)

ClioCon 2026 is Clio's 14th annual legal technology conference, running October 26-27 at the Hynes Convention Center in Boston's Back Bay. Early registration opens October 25 at 3:00 p.m. The theme is "Go Beyond Limits."

The first confirmed keynote speaker is Ethan Mollick, a Wharton School professor named to TIME's Most Influential People in Artificial Intelligence list and author of Co-Intelligence. His research focuses on how AI changes the way people work. Expect practical guidance on partnering with AI tools rather than fearing them. 

Additional keynote speakers will be announced in the coming months.

If you want to get more from the keynote, read Co-Intelligence beforehand. It reframes the conversation from "will AI replace me?" to "what can I do with AI that I couldn't do before?"

ClioCon was hosted in Boston last year as well, and drew 2,700 in-person and 2,600 virtual attendees with 91 sponsors. The organizers cited that momentum and Boston's mix of legal heritage and tech ecosystem as the reason for returning.

The Hynes Convention Center is centrally located in Back Bay - walkable, surrounded by hotels, and easy to reach from Logan Airport.

Build Your Budget Before You Build Your Case

A realistic ClioCon budget runs approximately $2,800-$3,500 per person, all-in. Here's where the money goes:

Team discounts kick in automatically at checkout when you purchase four or more passes.

Prices increase as the event approaches, so registering early is the single easiest way to reduce your cost.

Make the Case to Your Firm

Clio provides a customizable justification letter on their website. But a letter template only gets you so far. The real argument comes down to three concrete returns:

• CLE/CPD credits. ClioCon sessions are eligible for up to six hours of continuing education credits. That's professional development your firm would otherwise need to source and pay for separately.

• Compressed vendor evaluation. Walking the sponsor hall with a shortlist of tool categories lets you compare solutions face-to-face in two days - work that otherwise takes weeks of scheduling demos, sitting through sales pitches, and coordinating internal feedback. ClioCon 2025 had 91 sponsors. The 2026 roster is still growing, with Ajax, Scorpion, Lawmatics, 4LegalLeads, Case Status, Hona, Studio 3, and VXT Phone already confirmed.

• Retention. Clio's own Legal Trends Report found that nearly 1 in 5 lawyers left their firm in the past 12 months. Investing in professional development is one of the few retention levers that also directly improves firm operations.

The opportunity cost of two days away from billable work is real. But the cost of not evaluating tools your competitors are already using is harder to quantify.

Choose Your Sessions by Role and Goal

ClioCon 2026 has 10 dedicated tracks. The detailed session agenda hasn't been published yet, but the track structure is confirmed and each track has a clear audience. Without a plan, you'll drift between rooms and miss the sessions that matter most to your firm.

Here's how to prioritize by role:

• If you run the firm (managing partner, firm owner) - start with Business of Law for pricing strategy, profitability metrics, and KPIs. Add one or two sessions from Mid-to-Large Firms or Solo & Small Firms depending on your size, and at least one Tech & Innovation session to stay current on AI adoption. The keynotes are also worth protecting on your schedule, even if the topic feels tangential. Past speakers include Seth Godin, Arianna Huffington, and Mel Robbins.

• If you manage operations (firm admin, legal ops, office manager) - prioritize Clio Advanced and Clio Spotlight for workflow optimization. Pair those with Tech & Innovation for evaluating new tools. Plan your sponsor hall visit like a research trip: make a list of five to seven tool categories (billing, CRM, intake, document management, AI timekeeping) and ask every vendor the same three questions so you can compare answers later.

• If you practice law (associate, partner, solo practitioner) - focus on Culture and Clients for client experience and retention insights, your size-appropriate track (Solo & Small or Mid-to-Large), and at least one Clio Foundations or Clio Advanced session to improve your daily workflows in the platform.

Maximize Your CLE/CPD Credits

Eligible sessions will be marked in the published agenda. Here's how the process works:

• Register early on Day 1. Check in at the CLE/CPD desk and track which eligible sessions you attend throughout the conference.

• Expect your affidavit about a week after the event from mcle@americanbar.org. Credits take four to eight weeks to be approved by each jurisdiction.

• Virtual attendees must attend live and answer polls - on-demand viewing does not qualify for credit.

Plan your CLE sessions first, then fill around them with everything else. Trying to backfill credits at the end of Day 2 is how people end up in sessions they don't care about.

Work the Hallways as Hard as the Sessions

The sessions are the curriculum. The hallways, evening events, and sponsor hall are where decisions actually get made.

Evening Events

Two events anchor the evenings:

• Clio After Dark - Day 1 (October 26) at MGM Music Hall at Fenway. Included with your conference pass - just wear your wristband and show up. 21+ only.

• The Wrap Party - Day 2 (October 27) at Time Out Market Boston, a 29,000-square-foot food hall with curated tasting plates, cocktails, a live DJ, and shuttle service to official hotels. You go booth to booth grabbing tasting plates from different vendors - last year's tacos and barbecue were genuinely excellent - plus cocktails, a live DJ, and an outdoor fire area with blankets and shawls if the night gets chilly. Requires a separate ticket and sells out every year. Buy early if you want in.

Some of the most honest conversations about what's working (and what isn't) at other firms happen at these events, not in session rooms. Set a target of three to five meaningful conversations per day. "Meaningful" means you exchanged a specific idea or contact, not just a handshake.

Sponsor Hall Strategy

Don't wander. Walk in with your shortlist of tool categories, ask specific questions, and take photos of anything you want to remember - you won't recall booth details two weeks from now.

If AI timekeeping is on your evaluation list, pay attention to how each tool handles your specific practice management integration. Ajax offers a deep, two-way sync with Clio - entries flow directly into your existing billing workflow rather than creating a separate system to manage. The depth of that integration matters more than the length of a vendor's feature list.

Book a demo before the conference so you arrive with informed questions rather than starting from scratch at a booth.

Take Notes That Lead to Action

Write down action items, not inspiration. "Implement automated billing reminders by Q1" is useful. "Billing is important" is not. For every session, capture one thing to stop doing, one thing to start doing, and one thing to investigate further.

Turn the Conference Into Firm-Wide Value After You Land

The 48 hours after ClioCon are more valuable than the two days at the conference. Here's the difference between firms that get ROI from conferences and firms that don't:

• Debrief within 48 hours. Schedule a 30-minute team meeting before you leave for Boston - put it on the calendar now. Share your top three takeaways, the tools you evaluated, and the one workflow change you want to implement first. If multiple people from your firm attended different tracks, this meeting multiplies the value of every ticket.

• Follow up on connections within one week. Send LinkedIn requests or short emails that reference something specific from your conversation. Generic "great to meet you" messages get ignored.

• Implement one change immediately. Pick the single highest-impact takeaway and act on it in your first week back. One implemented change beats ten good intentions sitting in a conference notebook.

• Watch what you missed. Competing tracks mean you missed half the content. The on-demand library lets you catch up - though on-demand viewing doesn't count for CLE credit.

• Measure the impact. Revisit the goals you set before the conference. Did you find the tool you were evaluating? Did you earn your target CLE hours? Can you quantify the revenue impact of any change you made? This is what turns "ClioCon was great" into "ClioCon delivered $X in value" - and makes next year's trip an easy approval.

Plan Your Boston Logistics Early

Hotel blocks and Wrap Party tickets sell out. Book both as soon as you register.

Book through the official portal after registering - calling the hotels directly won't get you the ClioCon rate.

Getting there: Boston Logan International Airport (BOS) is 15-20 minutes from Back Bay.

• Taxi/rideshare: 15-25 minutes depending on traffic

• MBTA Blue Line → Green Line: Blue Line from airport to Government Center, transfer to Green Line (B, C, or D) to Hynes Convention Center. Budget 30-40 minutes.

• Airline discounts: Clio is partnering with airlines for attendee pricing - details will be posted on cliocon.com.

Key dates:

Final Thoughts

The gap between attending a conference and getting value from a conference is a plan. Set your goals before you go. Choose sessions by role and priority, not by wandering. Work the evening events and sponsor hall as intentionally as the breakout rooms. And implement one thing in your first week back.

Registration is open at cliocon.com. Current pricing is $999 - it only goes up from here. 

If you're evaluatingAI timekeeping tools,book a demo with Ajax before the conference and come prepared