Maryland Association of CPAs Features Innovative Technologies and Social Media to Increase Engagement and Collaboration at Innovation Summit

Towson, MD (PRWEB) May 15, 2013

The Summit theme of Innovation, Connection, and Collaboration is designed to showcase innovation in the CPA Profession and features almost 20 of the top thought leaders in the Profession, top technology vendors and leading innovations in Accounting Standards, XBRL, Healthcare and more. All in an event designed to spark serendipity and innovation.

A recent IBM Global CEO study identified collaboration as the number-one trait CEOs are seeking in their employees, with 75 percent of CEOs calling it critical. The CPA Horizons 2025 Report by the American Institute of CPAs also identified collaboration in the top five skills needed by CPAs in the future. MACPA Chair Anoop Mehta said, “We are very excited to be able to use these technologies to enhance and accelerate collaboration among summit attendees, sponsors and speakers. These relationships will be instrumental in keeping our members ahead of the rapid pace of change we find ourselves in.”

Here is how these exciting technologies will be used at the Innovation Summit.

ThinkTank by Group Systems (http://www.groupsystems.com) is a powerful crowdsourcing, crowd-computing, and group decision support platform that wows participants, significantly accelerating and enhancing outcomes, creating a profound collective experience for participants. It will be used in a special session (on May 16th) with Learning Leaders across the CPA Profession titled, “Turning Training and Learning into Business Results” by the Business Learning Institute’s Richard Flanagan, author of The Six Disciplines of Breakthrough Learning and Bob Dean, CPA, CLO, Founder of Dean Learning & Talent Advisors

Flybits (http://flybits.com) is an exciting location-aware technology that connects people to places called “zones”. It is the way we are distributing conference materials to participants at the Innovation Summit. It’s an incredible technology that delivers specialized content to your mobile device based on where you are at any moment. Want some fun? See what pops up when you visit a vendor’s booth (aka “Flybits zone”). Zone’s will be created for the MACPA and our Platinum Sponsors, CPA2Biz (http://www.cpa.com), Sage (http://na.sage.com), CCH (http://www.cch.com), Ziptr (http://www.ziptr.com), and Simplified Innovations (http://simplifiedinnovations.com).

Conferences.io (http://www.conferences.io) is an innovative web-based audience participation application used to increase engagement and make learning more collaborative. Special polling and social Q&A features allow for constant participation during and after events and will be used in several sessions at the Summit.

MACPA Groups (http://cpa.tc/roups) is our newest tool to help MACPA members connect and collaborate and share the “wisdom of the crowd”. The Federal Tax group was recently used to crowd-source MACPA’s testimony for the House Ways & Means Committee about the “tax season from hell.”

Social Media will be used extensively at the Summit as a connection and learning tool. Special pre-summit webcasts were held with our members (Social Media Quick Start) and with sponsors (How to Tip the Adoption Curve) to teach them specifics around ”how to crush a conference”. A special Social Media Guide has been created to connect people to our sponsors and speakers. Follow the conference at hashtag #MDSUMMIT13.

Jennifer Warawa, Sage’s vice president of partner programs and channel sales, said in a recent press release, “This event is different from any other in the profession, so our approach to how we engage with the show and its participants is different. Sage is getting social with the help of MACPA and there are several initiatives planned to get everyone online and talking in the social channels.

MACPA CEO, Tom Hood, CPA,CITP, CGMA said, “we are now at a point where the collaboration curve can help us jump the experience curve. We are excited to see how these innovative technologies can help our members amplify their connections at our Summit and increase their ability to collaborate for years to come.”

About the Maryland Association of CPAs: The MACPA exists to help CPAs connect with each other in strategic ways, to be the organization to protect our members’ interests, and to help them achieve greater success. We provide the resources and services that CPAs need to excel in their profession. Since 1901, the MACPA has been a national leader as a premier professional organization in the CPA Profession. Tom Hood, our CEO, was recently named as one of the Top 25 Thought Leaders in Public Accounting by CPA Practice Advisor and a one of the Top 100 Most Influential People in the CPA Profession by Accounting Today Magazine (eighth time in 2012). We’re honored that the Baltimore Business Journal and Washington Business Journal have named the MACPA as one of the top 5 largest networking organizations in Baltimore and D.C. for each of the past five years.

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