September 2002

Annual Conference Links CPAs to Technology and CPE

More than 2,000 CPAs filtered through the sprawling convention halls of the New York Hilton Hotel in New York City to network with colleagues and exhibitors while earning continuing professional education (CPE) credit, during the New York CPA, Business and Technology Show and Conference in early August.

The annual conference—sponsored by the New York State Society of CPAs and the Foundation for Accounting Education—featured 110 exhibitors from business technology and service companies, along with a half dozen courses on trends in everything from audit software to basics of computer programming.

Conference organizers said that while attendance hadn’t increased over the previous year, moving the show to August from April—the month the conference was held in 2001—was considered an improvement because attendees were not just coming out of the busy tax season. CPAs said they appreciated the opportunity to visit exhibitors and to network with their peers.

“I’ve been going to the trade shows for the last five years,” Geetha Radhakrishnan, a CPA in Jamaica, N.Y., said. “The good thing about the trade show is that I get to meet other CPAs here and also get new ideas on accounting software that is now available.”

About 400 attendees took advantage of CPE sessions that covered the use of online systems to increase business productivity, future accounting technologies and updates on traditional software, among other topics. Many CPAs were happy to fulfill their CPE requirements before the state deadline on Aug. 31, and enjoyed the diversity of topics covered.

“I came this year because there was enough differentiation in the CPE to make it worthwhile to return to New York,” Joseph L. Rosenberg, a sole practitioner in Florham Park, N.J., said.

Many CPAs attended the show exclusively to attend product demonstrations.

“I don’t like the commute to New York, but I came here for the CaseWare seminar and show because I always go to them every year,” sole practitioner Stanley M. Goldschmidt of Newton, N.J., said.

Cycles and Trends

Exhibitors said they were meeting with more prospective customers and partners than in past years because of trends in technology and in the marketplace.

“This is absolutely much better than in the last few years,” Net@Work President Alex Solomon said. Solomon, whose company sells high-end accounting software as a value-added reseller for ACCPAC, said that he met with 150 prospective clients, whose interest he attributed to business cycles. Accounting firms that prepared for the Y2K transition are now looking to “ramp up” their systems. Companies in the accounting systems industry, meanwhile, have been consolidating, making for fewer competitors in that market segment, he said.

According to some other vendors, the Internet has emerged as an important trend among accountants who may see a bigger advantage in the scalability and mobility of Internet-based accounting solutions.

“In the 1960s there was the mainframe, in the 1970s there was time-sharing. In the 1980s there was the PC. Today’s revolution is still the Internet,” said Patrick Ryan, vice president of Web-based accounting system vendor Intacct.

Ryan said he and his colleagues met with “hundreds” of CPAs over the course of the conference, which he said was connected with a wider knowledge of the Internet throughout the profession.

“They’re finally becoming educated that all the data is available to them anytime, anywhere,” Ryan said. This year, CPAs showed a greater interest in online bill payments than in previous years, he added.

Other vendors new to the show were happy to have exhibited this year.

“We’re trying to hook up with professionals and bring them into our business,” Ken Norensberg, of Montauk Financial Group, said. Montauk works with professionals to establish their credentials and support their efforts to become independent broker/dealers, or to establish a business relationship between CPAs and existing broker/dealers.

“This is (something) I don’t think a lot of CPAs have thought about,” Norensberg said. “I’ve made contact with about 300 to 400 people…Maybe 25 percent of the CPAs I’ve encountered already have an affiliation with a broker/dealer.”

Norensberg said the great number of contacts he made guaranteed he would return next year.