When I heard Hector Garcia say he would host a "Creative Business Models for Accountants" conference, I knew I had to be there.
I've known Hector for a long time and know the quality of his educational classes.
Having been in business for over 23 years, finding meaningful educational content that can challenge my thought process isn't easy.
Hector's conference was like no other. It seemed less like a conference and more like a hands-on workshop. Miami, Florida, is a great place to hold a conference/workshop this past October.
Fortunately, I could acquire my ticket at the early bird (25% discount) price of $750.00 because the event was limited to 100 attendees.
Speaker-coaches for the event included Ron Baker, Chris Do, Doug Sleeter, Ed Kless, Vanessa Vasquez, and Hector's brother, Carlos Garcia. Believe it or not, Carlos is even more of a natural speaker than Hector. He is also a great Sales expert and Business Coach.
I already knew many presenters, except Chris Do, a Personal Branding Coach. Chris was amazing. Ron Baker discussed his 'subscription base business model,' and the others helped facilitate the round discussion exercises.
The event featured six major sponsors: Anchor, Digits, Tax Dome, Relay, Makers Hub, and Right Tool, who were partly responsible for the 'bag of swag' event participants received along with their workbooks.
Just walking in, you immediately realized this wasn't a typical 'conference'; the room had been set up with numerous round tables where we sat with people we didn't already know. Pens, sticky pads, and a whiteboard were supplied to make each table's workbook exercises highly interactive.
Indeed, this wasn't a traditional conference of listening to speakers for hours. It was a series of problem-solving exercises. This event reminded me of Intuit's "Design for Delight" sessions using hands-on problem-solving.
Our exercises involved defining a company product as well as the target audience for purposes of sales. We also were asked who wasn't within the sales target audience. We then entered the information from table members into ChatGPT to develop three packages and pricing. Each table's problem-solving exercise was related to a different company.
The concept of Hector's 'Creative Business Model for Accountants' workshop is to give the participants the tools they need to help creatively change their business models using technology.
I like that all the speakers/coaches were accessible during the group table exercises, and the vendors participated similarly. It made it easy to brainstorm over each exercise and to think differently about the problems using technology and artificial intelligence to help resolve them.
The 2-1/2 day event allowed the limited number of attendees to have meaningful conversations and get to know new people. You can access this YouTube to give you a glimpse into the conference.
Hector recently announced a one-day mini-conference being held in New York City at the offices of ADP (1 Penn Plaza, New York) on Wednesday 04/17/24 (8-5 pm). This mini-conference will be limited to 40 individuals.
Hector will also sponsor a new conference workshop titled Reframe, held at the Diplomat Hotel in Hollywood, Florida, on October 24-26, 2024. This event will focus on influential conversations, mastering word choice, enhancing communications skills, personal and firm branding, and navigating challenging conversations. It will be limited to 200 attendees and will likely sell out quickly.
I'm intrigued to see how Hector's new workshop will be conducted. I hope to see you there.
About our Top 100 ProAdvisor Author:
Laurie L. O'Neil, accomplished Trainer, Coach, and Entrepreneur, started her bookkeeping firm Innovative Financial Services, LLC in 2021 after recognizing that small business owners were not getting the guidance they needed to make effective business decisions to run their companies. Laurie sought to educate and train business owners and bookkeepers. Training focused on bookkeeping processes, procedures, and the QuickBooks program. Business owners could then understand their businesses' financials and become more successful. Her expertise and support make her an invaluable asset to many business owners.
Innovative Financial Services, LLC provides complete QuickBooks support, set-up, training, consulting, clean-up services, and recruiting. They provide monthly bookkeeping solutions, helping owners without accounting systems get financials and helping larger organizations streamline their accounting procedures, keep their bookkeepers in line, and obtain more expertise.
In the past, Laurie was Vice President of The Bookkeeper's Referral Network, Inc. Laurie strived to instill standardization in the bookkeeping industry itself by providing coaching for freelance bookkeepers. She taught other freelance bookkeepers by providing educational workshops and lectures on operational challenges and on how to grow a bookkeeping practice, on offering value pricing to clients to grow a successful practice, and on how to work their practice with the mantra "Work ON your business instead of IN it."
Laurie is a past Recipient of Hartford Business Journal's "40 Under Forty" Award. Laurie has been recognized as an Insightful Accountant Top 100 QuickBooks ProAdvisor, has led the Hartford (area) Woodard Group, is a Member of the Intuit Accountant Trainer/Writer Network, and served on Intuit's 2021 QuickBooks Desktop Plus Accountant Council and Advisor Council.
Laurie can be reached at, Innovative Financial Services, LLC, or on Twitter: https://twitter.com/LaurieONeil, Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/infinancialservices, Linked-in: https://www.linkedin.com/in/laurieoneil, or Google+: https://plus.google.com/+Infinancialservices/about