by Margaret Herriges, IOM | MSCPA Communications Director

Many of you know I get a little excited when it comes to the convention and this year . . . I’m beyond excited for the 103rd Annual Conference at Fairmont. Let me explain why.

We have really changed things up this year! By your request, many of the sessions are one hour instead of two hour. The first set of concurrent offerings will look like this:

Thursday, June 23, 11:00 – Noon

• Option 1:  Young Professionals Track–Catapult Your Career by Paul Moya (Part 1 of 2)
• Option 2: Ethics–Its History & Application in Today’s Business World by Jimmy Williams (Part 1 of 2)
• Option 3:  Social Media for CPAs by Barry MacQuarrie (1 hour)

At noon we’ll celebrate Gary Staudinger, 2016 George D. Anderson Distinguished Service Award Recipient, and then we’ll have our second set of concurrent classes.

Thursday, June 23, 1:00 – 2:00pm

• Option 1: Young Professionals Track–Catapult Your Career by Paul Moya (Part 2 of 2)
• Option 2: Ethics by Jimmy Williams (Part 2 of 2)
• Option 3: 50 Apps in 50 Minutes by Barry MacQuarrie (1 hour)

You’ll be able to take one hour or two hours–it’s up to you –just remember to take both sessions of the Ethics class if you need your two hours.

On top of this we are doing fun new things with our Business Meeting. Yes, we know, business meetings can be dull, but hopefully you notice our efforts to try to make it more interesting. We’ve turned this year’s Business Meeting into a game of sorts and we’ve even scheduled happy hour to start a little earlier to help keep things interesting.

On Friday, concurrent sessions are all in two hour blocks again but we are doing an encore performance of the Ethics class so if you want to take other classes on Thursday, you can still get your ethics credits.

Friday, June 24, 8:30 – 10:30am

• Option 1: Young Professionals Track–Crucial Conversations by Donna Salter
• Option 2: Ethics: Its History & Application in Today’s business World by Jimmy Williams
• Option 3: Unflappable You: Women in Leadership by Future Sync

From there we’ll move into a one-hour general session, The Honest Leader, and conclude with lunch and a professional issues update by Tommye Barie, AICPA recent past chair. She loved coming to Montana last year and we are incredibly lucky to get her back again this year!

“Awesomeness” will be a short series of blogs designed to help you understand and get excited about the changes we’ve made to the 103rd Annual Conference. There are so many fun things to share with you! If you have any questions when you register, or anytime before the Conference, I’m happy to answer them. You can post them below in the comments section or you can call me at 800.272.0307 or email me at margaret@mscpa.org.

It’s a Great Time to be a CPA! Come join us at Fairmont, June 23 & 24.