Intuit Accountants News Central
From My Kitchen Table: Intuit’s® Virtual Conf Offered Great Training
Earlier this week, I spent most of the day utterly absorbed in a huge QuickBooks® conference, boning up on my skills and bumping into my buddies. I went with Christine Bogard, another ProAdvisor® who’s been in the program “forever.” I thought it would be good to get to know her better. We’d seen each other at trainings over the years, but we never really talked until we met at a QuickBooks’ meetup. When I heard her intro at the meetup, I thought, “I have clients who need a CPA like her,” so I sent her an e-mail and asked if she wanted to share notes at the big two-day annual What’s New in 2012 from Intuit conference.
She said “yes” and we decided we’d meet during the first break, right after the first session. The session was amazingly good because it had two of Intuit’s top-shelf speakers. It was fun to hear them bouncing ideas off each other, showing us the latest features and adding their own time-saving, practical uses for them. I was pretty excited by the end and looked forward to sharing notes with Christine.
Did I mention there were more than 500 other QuickBooks’ consultants at this conference? So, you’d think it would be a little hard to find her and start chatting, right?
Not really! This was the annual two-day Intuit® Virtual Conference, and I was attending from my kitchen table. A little sun graced the flower beds outside, the hummingbirds danced at the feeder (I am not kidding; this is why it is SO hard for me to leave my kitchen table), and I found Christine instantly in the “Who’s Here” box.
“How are you doing Christine?,” I chatted.
“Pretty cool format,” she said. “How do we get the CPE?”
“Let’s head over to the Networking Lounge; someone there will know.”
(Editor’s Note: Click here for link to obtaining CPE for the Virtual Conference.)
I can tell Christine is excited and I understand why. I, too, was pretty amazed my first year at the annual “What’s New” Virtual Conference. It’s like walking into a big conference at a hotel or stadium with lots going on, but when you are ready to check out a training, room or booth, you are instantly transported there. Pop in and say “hi” to someone, then pop back out. As soon as you enter a room, you instantly know how many other people are there, who they are and you can see everything they’ve been talking about.
We found everyone in the Networking Lounge asking the same question Christine had, so we hung out for a few minutes until the question was answered. Then, I got distracted when another QuickBooks consultant from my meetup sent me a chat, “How is it going with the local training that our meetup is putting together?” Our group is so nice. I let her know that we’ve got almost 70 people registered, so we’re doing great. It will be good to see her there, I say, face to face, but it was nice bumping into her from my kitchen table, too. It’s hard to say which is best.
The only hard part going to the Virtual Conference was tearing myself away from it. I attended MB Raimondi and Laura Madiera’s “What’s New” in the morning, and wasn’t planning on going to the follow-up course just for ProAdvisors, but I popped in – and it was so good that I stayed.
You’d think I’d had enough of “What’s New” by then, but superstar teacher Michelle Long was teaching in the afternoon! Surely I would absorb something from going to her session, too, and I’d bump into more friends from my meetup, so there was plenty of sound rationale for staying through the afternoon … all from the comfort of my kitchen table.
Editor’s Note: Intuit has two more Virtual Conferences scheduled before the end of the year:
- The Future of Accounting & Tax is Online – Nov. 15-16, 2011
- Intuit Tax & Workflow Annual Update for Tax Year 2011, Dec. 6-7, 2011
More than 2,000 ProAdvisors, accountants and other members of the QuickBooks’ community attended the October Virtual Conference. Don’t miss out – Click here for more information and to register for the next two sessions.
You can also visit Shelly's Website
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