A Note from our Community Manager - June

TOP FIVE REASONS NOT TO ATTEND THE SLEETER GROUP’S NEXT GENERATION ACCOUNTING SOLUTIONS CONFERENCE… and why they shouldn’t matter

It would be really easy for us to tell you why you should come to The Sleeter Group’s Next Generation Accounting Solutions Conference, but it gets tiring spending days and nights coming up with positive marketing language.  So instead, we’re listing for you the top five reasons not to join us in Orlando in November … but why those reasons don’t hold water!  These thoughts might just give you a whole new way of looking at the investment in time and money it takes to come to a valuable event such as this!  Read on…

1) It’s too far away.
Well, Orlando isn’t the West Coast, but after a year in Arizona and three years in Las Vegas, we figured it was time to head back east.  East Coast folks will find Orlando extremely easy to get to – some may even choose to drive.  And it takes less than five hours by air to get to Orlando from the West Coast, even less for our friends who live in the middle of the country.  You can use airplane time as either productive work time, relaxing “me” time (watch the movie and have a nice bring-on-board picnic -- they don’t mind if you bring food through security), or take a much-needed nap!  Just book your flight early to get your airplane seat of choice.  And use your flight home to organize your notes, thinking about everything you’ve picked up during this mega-productive week of learning.

2) It’s too expensive.
For several reasons, we’ve been able to keep the pricing to this year’s conference pretty close to what it was last year (watch that August 31 early bird date!), plus we’ve negotiated some very inexpensive sleeping room rates (just $118 per night).  And with Orlando’s status as a major tourist and business destination in a bad economy, airfares have come way down.  Plus, you can tack on some leisure time either before or after the conference, and you can write off much, if not all, of the trip as a business expense (please consult your tax advisor, if you aren’t one!).  All of this adds up to one of the least expensive learning environments you can imagine.

3) I won’t learn anything.
I’ve been to a lot of conferences over the years, and the best advice I ever got is that even if you learn only one new thing, the conference is worthwhile — primarily because there are actually a lot more things that you will likely pick up that sit dormant in the back of your brain until you really need them.  And, you’re always networking at conferences – learning from each other — which is so valuable.  But this does not come without effort.  To facilitate this maximization of learning, set yourself a couple of rules to make the most out of the experience:

1. Be an active learner.  In sessions: take notes, ask questions, think about how you can put into practice what the speaker is saying, and stay afterwards to chat up the instructor if something wasn’t clear.  When visiting vendor booths, do the same thing: take notes, ask questions, collect business cards and literature (or URLs to research later), and write down the names of three clients who can use the solutions about which you are learning – and how you can help make it happen for them (think billable!).
2. Plan to make three new friends.  Everyone at a Sleeter Conference is a friendly person.  Many would say that the attendees, vendors, and Sleeter staff are like a family.  Everyone wants the best for their clients, as well as for their own continued success.  So plan that when you meet someone new, you will ask them three questions:  Where are you from?  How did you get into this line of work?  And what’s one thing you do in your practice to set yourself apart from others in your area?  When you are seated in a session room waiting for the session to begin, strike up a conversation with the person next to you, and use these questions as an icebreaker.  At meals and events, do the same thing.  Meet new people, and make it fun!

4) My clients will miss me.
Of course your clients will miss you!  That proves how valuable you are!  And who wouldn’t like to see that proof?!  But you can stay connected via your remote method of choice, be it your new iPhone, a Blackberry, or your standard old cell phone with or without Internet access.  We try to plan the conference away from tax and other accounting deadlines, to lessen the “being away” burden.  Perhaps you can find someone else in your office or a non-competing person in your area who can be “on call.”  Plus, your clients will appreciate what you’re doing to improve your competency.

5) I don’t receive a return on investment when I attend conferences.
My guess is that you feel this way because you haven’t attended a Sleeter conference.  Our attendees tell us time and again that they bring back immediately implementable solutions, based upon what they learned at the conference, that will either save them money (streamline processes, go remote, and more) or make them money (offer more services to existing clients, find new clients, partner or do work exchange with other types of firms in the area, and more).  We trust that you will find huge value in networking with colleagues, vendors, and The Sleeter Group team, as well as learn a vast amount of information in the education sessions (which, by the way, are CPE-eligible).

We certainly hope that your negative thoughts about taking time off in November to attend the Sleeter Group’s Next Generation Accounting Solutions Conference are slipping away.  Send to david_horwitz@sleeter.com any other thoughts you might have about overcoming objections to attending!  And we’ll see you there!

- David Horwitz

1 Comments

• Wayne S says:
  June 17, 2009 13:56

  David great job on this list. I went last year as an exhibitor and got to sit in on quite a few of the sessions. First off everything is really high quality. The keynote sessions (there were several) are probably worth the price of admission alone.

  Sometimes what you learn about a product is not all good. It's just as valuable to me to speak with other consultants (outside my group of people who I talk with regularly) to find out how business is going, which products are selling, which products aren't, what the best idea someone has come up with this year, what the worst idea they've had is.

  Where do I do all this yapping?

  Usually in the line for the buffet. And I make sure to sit with someone different every time and ask pretty similar questions. It lets me either verify my own ideas -- or often I wind up changing them based on new conversations.

  Also Intuit had a big booth last year and had a bunch of people. The trade show itself was chock full of exhibitors and it's a convenient way to see everything in one place.

  Is it expensive? Heck yeah.

  More expensive not to go though -- just my .02

  Wayne