Consero Takes Aim at Bored C-Suiters With Its ’Anti-Conferences’

Matt Haltom, deputy general counsel for Sally Beauty Holdings, a Denton (Tex.) distributor of beauty supplies, has gone to plenty of legal conferences during his 15-year career. His pet peeve: the boring, lecture-style formats that limit attendees from getting past the small-talk with speakers or audience members to meat-and-potatoes discussions. So he was receptive when an executive from conference organizer Consero Group cold-called him with an offer to join 70 of his peers at a Boca Raton (Fla.) resort for a forum structured around small-group discussions on hot topics in corporate law (think disclosure requirements and employee social media policies). One sweetener: Haltom would only have to pay for travel and accommodations.

Haltom, 39, attended the three-day event last December and says he’d be willing to consider paying an admission fee next time. (Consero says it’s trying to keep the fee relatively low but will charge an average of $1,500 if it fails to land enough sponsors, which pay $20,000 on average.) “They did what they said they were going to do, which was to provide interaction with other in-house counsel on topics that were timely and of interest,” Haltom says.