out of 10
This year's Accountex USA ended with Joe Woodard’s General Session enthralling “Rise of the Machines” presentation, which predicts how Artificial Intelligence will change the accounting, bookkeeping and advisory professions.
I’ve already written a few articles somewhat related to this, including one based on an interview with noted author, physicists and futurist, Dr. Michio Kaku.
Also helping to wrap up the show, our old friend, Charlie Russell, discussed the “Recent Developments in QuickBooks and Looking Ahead.”
Don't forget to make plans for next year's Accountex USA show, slated for Boston, Sept. 6-8, 2017. For registration information, click here.
But neither of these are the focus of this piece, which is intended to give you my impressions of this year's conference.
This year's conference, in contrast to past years (SleeterCon), was perhaps most dominated by the fact that Intuit wasn't really present. Despite the fact that they dominated the various software-related awards handed out, including “Best Accounting App” for QuickBooks Online.
And while Intuit, aka, QuickBooks, wasn't formally in attendance, there were countless attendees who are QuickBooks ProAdvisors. Also evident was the fact that they spent a lot of time looking, perhaps even more closely than ever before, the alternative solutions in the market, including Sage, Xero and yes, even Microsoft (Dynamics for 365).
While there were a lot of familiar players exhibiting in the app market, there also were several new products. Over the next few months, Insightful Accountant will feature a heaping-handful of these in formal product reviews. (It just takes time to review, demo, test and then write a meaningful summary, so know that they are coming.)
Here are a few Murph ratings from the show:
(On a scale of 1 to 10 (10 being the best)
- Opportunities to "network" – 9 (1)
- Caliber of speakers – 9
- Quality of speaker content – 9
- Relevancy of speaker content – 9
- Show floor – exhibitor quality – 9
- Show floor – exhibitor relevancy – 7 (2)
- Show floor – exhibitor traffic – 9 (3)
- Conference layout – 9 (4)
- Proximity of conference to key hotel facilities (front entrance, main elevators, etc.) – 7 (5)
Overall, I really enjoyed this conference. I had the opportunity to see a lot of friends, meet new ones, hear some excellent presentations, and visit with several new app vendors. Many thanks to the staff of Accountex and Diversified Communications for issuing me a guest press pass.
Footnotes:
- (1) Thanks to Kabbage and Canon for sponsoring the Monday evening and Tuesday evening receptions
- (2) At least two vendors not really related to the conference focus at all
- (3) Based upon my vendor's response to my question about how productive their exhibit time was
- (4) Immediate proximity of exhibit hall, main stage, meeting rooms, etc.
- (5) Way too far to walk, fortunately for me, I was able to bribe my way in to and out of the actual (otherwise restricted) conference center entrance when I came over from a different hotel, saving myself about a 1/2 mile of walking each way