conference speaker and audience
Conference season is in full swing, and for small firms, the math on doing it all is unforgiving. Registration, travel, hotels, and several days away from clients add up quickly. But how do you get over the FOMO and still take advantage of all the benefits? Whether you are heading to Scaling New Heights in Orlando, AICPA Engage, Intuit Connect, or more, the real question is not whether to go but how to come home with more than a tote bag and a stack of business cards. With a little planning, these events can return far more than they cost.
Start with training, because that is what most of us pay for. The temptation is to wander into whatever session has an open seat, but the attendees who get the most value build a personal agenda before they arrive. Pick the two or three problems your firm is actually trying to solve this year, whether that is staffing, advisory expansion, or migrating off a legacy software platform, and let those questions drive every choice on your schedule. Sit toward the front, ask questions, and walk away with the speaker’s contact information rather than just a copy of the slides. A presenter who answers your follow-up question is worth more than any handout.
The tax walking tour at Scaling New Heights is a perfect example of training that does double duty, which is exactly why we are joining it this year. Instead of sitting through another lecture, you move through the event with a guide who connects real workflow problems to the tools and people that address them. Not to mention this cuts down the intimidation of the vendor floor. You see solutions in context, you ask questions on your feet, and you cover ground you would never find on your own by getting tour-only, vendor cliff notes. If your conference offers anything structured like this, treat it as a priority rather than an afterthought.
Then there is the rest of the exhibit hall, where conferences quietly pay for themselves. Vendors reserve their sharpest pricing for the show floor, and that often means locked in conference rates, waived implementation fees, extra user seats, or bundled onboarding that disappears the moment you get home. Come prepared with a short list of the products you are genuinely evaluating so you can have substantive conversations instead of collecting pens. When a deal interests you, ask for the show special in writing along with the deadline to claim it. Resist signing on the first morning. Let the competing vendors know you are still looking, and let them sharpen their offers across the week.
Networking is the piece most practitioners underrate, yet the hallway conversations and dinners frequently outlast everything that happened on stage. The colleagues you meet have often already solved the exact problem keeping you up at night, from pricing an advisory engagement to standardizing a messy bookkeeping workflow to serving a tricky niche like restaurants, construction, or retail. Set a modest, achievable goal of three real conversations each day, the kind where you actually exchange how you run your practice rather than just trading firm names. Use meals and receptions deliberately, and do not hide with people you already know. Then follow up within a day or two, while the context is still fresh, with a short note that references something specific you discussed.
Finally, protect the value after you return. Block an hour on your calendar the week you get back to turn scribbled notes into a short list of decisions, vendor deadlines, and people to reconnect with.
A conference does not pay off because you attended. It pays off because you acted on what you learned while it was still warm.
Don’t forget to find Insightful Accountant next week in Orlando!
Dr. Christine Gervais is a licensed CPA, using her skills to help businesses grow and achieve their fullest potential. Christine has a Master’s degree in accounting from Southern New Hampshire University in addition to holding her CPA license for over a decade. Notably, Christine is a nationally recognized speaker providing education to other CPAs on how to best serve clients as well as instruction on a wide variety of topics for business owners on how to maximize success. Christine prides herself on the value she can bring to clients with her extensive tax knowledge and provides strategic, forward-thinking financial strategies to help clients grow. When not behind her desk, you can find Christine spending quality time with her daughter and stepson or tending to the family’s excessively loved farm animals.
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