Last week AccountingDepartment.com co-Founders Bill Gerber and Dennis Najjar, CPA were privileged to attend a brand new industry conference, QB Connect, hosted by Intuit near their headquarters in Silicon Valley. Showcasing such luminaries as Marc Andreessen, Martha Stewart, Arianna Huffington, Intuit Founder Scott Cook, Debbie Sterling, Earvin "Magic" Johnson and Les McKeown, Bill and Dennis enjoyed three jam-packed days of events, networking and education. 
Together with our contemporaries, we engaged with some of the most prominent forward-thinkers in the industry, discussing the future of accounting technology, bookkeeping and controller services and the evolution of the industry—especially what it means for small business owners. A lot was accomplished and we have quite a bit to share with you—so here is the recap from our trip to QB Connect 2014.
Day One – Pre-Conference, aka Dennis Explains It All
Often, upon flying from the east coast to the west coast, the first day of any conference can be a bit laid back—but not for us! Dennis went straight from plane to panel as he joined fellow experts in a seminar to discuss automating and streamlining workflows. Serving as one of 4 expert panelists, Dennis explained how AccountingDepartment.com leverages automation and technology integrations to connect QuickBooks to other platforms and streamline data flow, analysis, review and approval. Utilizing integrations for everything from expense management to time tracking, automating and streamlining workflows is the future of accounting services.
Day Two – Main Conference, aka Bill, Dennis and The Main Event
The second day was the main event, including an impressive line up of speakers and illuminating advice for service providers and small business owner clients alike. Magic Johnson provided great insight into what it was like to learn business, including how he swallowed his pride and showed up at the door of every great business mind he knew to pick their brains and glean from their knowledge. And isn’t that always the way—learning from others is a great way to improve the collective abilities of entrepreneurs and business owners.
We also visited many of our industry friends and partners in the exhibit hall, including many of the programs and applications our clients currently use. Some of the exhibited we visited with were Tallie, TSheets, Unanet, Salespad and Bill.com. If you haven’t heard of them or wish to know them better, we definitely encourage doing so!
Day Three – Post Conference, aka Bill and Dennis Take On San Jose!
The third day was a reservation-only, sold out event dedicated to expanding and improving client service skills by including attendees in a hands-on, half-day demo aimed at providing a memorable, pleasant experience to passersby in downtown San Jose. The goal was to teach skills to think outside the box, put the client experience first and develop unique concepts to provide a full service experience. So of course Bill and Dennis did what they did best—they went out and succeeded!
Have you ever played hopscotch walking down a random sidewalk? On Thursday, October 23rd, quite a few people lucky enough to be caught in the crosshairs of Dennis and Bill’s Intuit demo experience got to do just that. They created a unique experience and delighted random strangers in a successful attempt to find ways to provide excellent service.
Then, as all things must, the conference came to an end. After a very successful 3 days in San Jose, CA, Bill and Dennis returned home to share with us what they had learned. Armed with incredible insights and experiences to improve both their business leadership as well as the direction of our services for clients, AccountingDepartment.com is even more prepared to provide the top-notch services our clients expect day in and day out. This means you can look forward to future expert insights and communications to help your accounting processes and business successes in addition to having us as a resource for your every need. We look forward to future journeys with you.
