This is the 2nd in my article series on the Sponsors at this year's Scaling New Heights.
The Exhibit Hall with over 100 sponsors provides as much of a learning experience, in my opinion, as many of the conference sessions. You can meet with vendors face-to-face to get an in-depth look at their products and solutions which range from the Intuit Product line to business analysis tools, from financing alternatives to communications channels, from promotional opportunities to outsourcing mechanisms.
The exhibits provide a wealth of ‘swag’ that can be consumed during the conference or taken home to use or enjoy long after the conference is over. Just as important will be the contacts and opportunities your build, those relationships can not only help you meet the needs of your clients but grow your own practice as well. Most of the conference sponsors have some form of a 'prize' that you can potentially win, but only if you stop-by their booth.
Intuit creates business and financial management solutions that simplify the business of life for small businesses, consumers and accounting professionals. Their flagship products and services include QuickBooks®, Quicken® and TurboTax®, which make it easier to manage small businesses and payroll processing, personal finance, and tax preparation and filing. Mint.com provides a fresh, easy and intelligent way for people to manage their money, while Demandforce® offers marketing and communication tools for small businesses. ProSeries® and Lacerte® are Intuit's leading tax preparation offerings for professional accountants. QuickBase® is an easily customized jobs functional database tool that integrates with QuickBooks.
Intuit Product Managers will showcase the newest edition to the QuickBooks Online Product Line Up and demonstrate an end-to-end workflow between accountants and small businesses. While you can be certain that Intuit team members will be available during expo hours to discuss almost every aspect of their entire product line, you can be assured that the focus will be on QuickBooks Online and the re-imagined from the ‘ground-up’ QuickBooks Online Accountant and QuickBooks ProAdvisor Programs.
During the conference you have the opportunity to participate in some sessions featuring Intuit staffers including Product Managers and Developers, as well as track these people down for a one-on-one in the booth and out of it. It's more than worth your time to 'get to know' these people. Here are just a few of the faces to be sure to look for during the conference:
Dan Wernikoff, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Intuit Small Business Financial Solutions Group
Dan joined Intuit in March, 2003, and today he is senior vice president and general manager of Intuit’s Small Business Financial Solutions Group. In this role, he leads a new global division created in 2013 focused on making Intuit the global operating system for small business. Its products and services include QuickBooks, QuickBooks Online, Payments and the Intuit Partner platform. He previously served as senior vice president and general manager of Intuit’s Financial Management Solutions business unit. In this role, he led all QuickBooks teams – Desktop, online, and mobile – across all segments, from QuickBooks Simple Start up to QuickBooks Enterprise Edition, as well as the financial supplies and partner platform businesses. Together, these solutions serve approximately 4 million small businesses. Dan earned his master’s degree in business administration from the University of Pittsburgh and a bachelor’s degree in finance from Miami University of Ohio.
Jim McGinnis is vice president for Intuit’s Accountant and Advisor Group.
Jim has led accountant teams since he joined Intuit in 2010 as vice president of marketing. His extensive marketing, general management and global experience will be invaluable as the Accountant and Advisor Group continues to serve as a center of excellence for Intuit’s worldwide efforts with accountants. Jim received his B.A. from Duke University and his MBA from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management.
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Luis Sanchez, Director, Worldwide QuickBooks ProAdvisor Program
Luis has worked at Intuit for the past three years and currently leads Intuit’s QuickBooks ProAdvisor Program. He is on the front lines of innovation that affects accounting professionals every day, and his expertise has further strengthened the program’s value for its vocal and very influential members. Luis holds a B.A. in Economics from Harvard University and a Masters in Business Administration from Harvard Business School, Luis has more than 15 years of experience in financial services and consumer products.
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Jacint Tumacder, is a Senior Product Manager for QuickBooks
Jacint has worked on QuickBooks since day 1 when he joined Intuit in 1992 as a tech support rep on the initial team that supported the very first version of QuickBooks. He then leveraged what he learned from helping over 13,000 small businesses and accountants with their QuickBooks support questions to drive numerous product fixes and enhancements. For the last 4 years Jacint focused on QuickBooks Accountant and QuickBooks Online Accountant. Today he drives QuickBooks Point of Sale powered by Revel Systems.
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Laura Dansingani, Sr. Product Manager, QuickBooks Enterprise
Laura is a Sr. Product Manager and product team leader for QuickBooks Enterprise. She has been with Intuit for 2 years and worked on a variety of small business offerings including QuickBooks Enterprise, Revel Point of Sale, Intuit Data Protect, and Salesforce for QuickBooks.
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Kevin Kirn is the Product Management Leader for QuickBooks Online
Kevin’s passion for helping small businesses and their advisors brought him to Intuit 5 years ago with the charter to reinvent QuickBooks Online. 2 years ago during the first Intuit VIP Summit, Kevin's team literally took an idea from the group and in less than 24 hours had put the idea into practice as an alpha/beta demonstration version of the feature. Not long thereafter the feature was up-n-running as a regular functional enhancement to QuickBooks Online. Kevin is keenly dedicated to making QuickBooks Online better, every day!
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Matt Gotchy, Group Product Manager for Intuit Full Service Payroll
Matt Gotchy is a Group Product Manager for Intuit Full Service Payroll, Worker’s Comp Payment Service and Labor Law Posters. He has been with Intuit’s Employee Management Solutions for 12 years and is based in Mountain View, California.
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Joseph Lasee, Senior Product Manager, QuickBooks Enterprise
Joseph Lasee is a Senior Product Manager with QuickBooks Enterprise. He has been with Intuit for 9 years and is based in Mountain View, CA.
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I can’t cover all of the vendors in a single article, so look for several more features about the vendors who you will find at this year’s Scaling New Heights over the coming days.