It's not just a conference, it's a community

Many of us work at traditional firms and are the key players in the client accounting service area. It can be a challenging position at times as we don’t have a big internal network. Having an extended family in our professional lives has so many advantages. We are able to discuss client issues, software selection, staffing needs and business development challenges. At times our relationships expand beyond our work lives and we learn about each other’s families and personal interests. Developing these meaningful relationships keep us connected and provides resources throughout the year. As we face new challenges or want to revisit relevant topics, we have each other to lean on.

As the years pass, many of us look forward to seeing colleagues and friends at the annual Digital CPA Conference. The camaraderie amongst the participants and vendors is so evident and it continues to develop from year to year. Attendees discuss everything from practice development to practice management. We share ideas in both formal settings like the round table discussions and training sessions and also hold individual conversations at lunch and social hours. We discuss changes to our practice since we last spoke or share experiences with new colleagues. Discussions about the latest software and how we are using these new tools in our practice is always a hot topic. Having the software vendors present leads to more in depth and informative conversations, as well.

CPA.com organizes the annual Digital CPA Conference. The conference is planned almost a year in advance including the theme, the selection of courses, keynote speakers, instructors and social events. In addition to the CPA.com team, an advisory board is selected to assist in the planning process. Each year the conference is filled with great courses, motivating speakers and most importantly effective networking. As a result of this year’s conference, I set a few main goals for the FWRD practice here at Wiss. I am working with our marketing team to enhance our proposals to include more specifics about our services and to help set clearer expectations for clients. In addition, we are enhancing our technology package by adding a document fetching and OCR enabled software which members of the community are having great success with. Finally, we plan to standardize our assessment process to help gain efficiencies and increase response time during the proposal and onboarding phases.

I look forward to interacting with this amazing community throughout the year and eagerly await DCPA17, as I know it will be another fantastic event. My suggestion, if you don’t have a community to rely on and learn from then set a goal to find that group of professionals in 2017.

Carolyn is the leader of the FWRD practice. Carolyn's strong abilities to understand each FWRD client's needs provides immeasurable benefits to the business owners as they grow. FWRD clients say that Carolyn's advisory services and strong relationships with them ensures the highest standards of service and results for their business.

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