Getting the Most Out of Your Conference Experience

Welcome to Accountants LawPod, where accounting professionals and law firms converge, hosted by Linda Artesani, Sarah Prevost, and Steven Libhart.

Hello, how are you guys?

Hi, Sarah.

Sarah, it's been a long day.

It's been a long day, and it's only a certain time of the day— midday for me, afternoon for you.

But I know, I see 5 o'clock on my horizon.

I know, she's, she's out, and I Like, go for it, right?

It feels like 5 o'clock for you. Been up there early. But yeah.

Yeah, yeah. Well, we have a pretty good topic today, to be honest with you. I'm excited to get into it. It's getting the most out of your conference experience, which I would love to know because, Steve, I know that Linda and I are conference-goers.

Conference junkies.

Yeah, yeah. There's been some particular ones that you've done in the past that you've really enjoyed and you've talked highly about. Is there anything that you look at kind of when you're looking at a conference, the schedule's coming out, it's been out, but as far as like which ones to pick, or are there any particular ones that have like sparked your interest, or is there anything that you particularly look for, um, in a conference?

Well, the first thought that comes to my mind, and not— it's not a selfish comment, but I call it, you know, radio station WIFM, what's in it for me? Is the conference Is the conference going to be something that you're going to benefit from? Because after all, why are you going? You know, so you really need to look at that. Don't go because your best friend, your best buddy in the industry said, you know, this is so cool. You really need to look at what it's going to do for you, um, and get, get your objectives in line. Why do I want to go? Who do I want to meet? Um, how do I want to organize that? Do I, you know, am I, am I packing right and taking the right things with me like business cards, a battery pack, a, you know, notebook, whatever. But the, the type of the conference, you know, what do you need for your business right now in this moment in time this year? You know, is it one that you've attended before that, you know, could you go to another one that might give you more information in a different vein?

So, you know, um, that's a good, uh, kind of quick tip thing on like as you kind of analyze I, in looking back while you were talking, I don't know if Linda was feeling this way. I was thinking to that first one I did, which happened ironically to be this exact same one that Linda did, her first one. And we just didn't know each other at the time. And I remember somewhat selfishly saying, I'm gonna do this. And then my mom so kindly was like, I'm gonna do this with you.

Oh, so she went to your first one with you?

You went with me. We— it was a riot for her and I. We had— it was just her and I at the time. We had so much fun together. But it— I remember feeling that way. It's to your point. I did this for me. I didn't do it for anyone else.

That's a big step.

And I, I'm— I, I don't think we were in Seth's group at the time, Linda, but I do remember combing and poring over so many of the classes and probably doing all the wrong things. Like, Linda's brought this up before. where we just like book ourselves so tight. You almost felt like you had to be 5 people because there's 5 classes offered.

You can't attend everyone. That's setting yourself up.

And then run from one. I literally ran from one to the next because I had my list and I had it all plotted out. But I was like, Sarah, I went by myself. And that was a big deal because I'd never really taken a trip by myself before other than maybe going up to Rhode Island by myself. And to do like a business trip, I'd never done that. And then I had to cross the country. You know, I'm leaving the East Coast to go to the West Coast. Never factored in the time zone difference. And then when I got there, I mean, literally by 6 o'clock, I was ready to go to bed because I go to bed at 9, and then I'm up at 3 in the morning because I get up at 6. And I was like, oh, I can do all this work. And then I repeated those days and then headed back home. Never— I never went to one of the parties. I never went to any, any of the events that you go to at, like, this is Intuit Connect, which was—

Yeah. Yeah.

But Sarah and I did figure out that we were in the same row, in the same— because we talked about it and we're like, I was there. And I said, I sat in the front row. I make sure that I sit in the front row, even no matter where I go. If I'm going to church or something like that, I'm always in the front row. I don't care where I am. I always— people, no one wants to be in the front row, even in taking my exercise class. Front row. Yeah. And it was kind of funny. She said she was right there. We could have been right next to each other, didn't know it.

Well, Peter Cullen, he's the first— one of the first people I met in that session, and he was sitting there. And you were on the other side of him, you said, and I was on the other side, which was hilarious because we were in the front row on opposite ends and he was right behind. We were describing a very pivotal moment. But I, I just feel that when we have looked, to your point, Steve, your tip, when we have looked at it at, at this tenure now, we've been doing this for a while. We have been combing through what is aligning with our goals. Sometimes it's nice to go because it's fun.

Right.

But after you do them for a while, you know, you want to change up.

I think, I think too, like, it's an evolution how we've gone to these conferences. Like, we were that small business owner just starting. Well, we weren't starting out, but we, we were small and we maybe didn't have employees or just had one employee. And we were going to this conference to better our businesses and better ourselves and find a new direction. And at that point, I was looking to start to specialize my firm and learning about that and learning pricing was big that year. And then we, you know, that was that year. And then the next, the next, next year I went totally different. Like, I went, I ended up going out ahead. I went with Matthew. We went out there and he came up with this idea. Let's just interview everybody like we were somebody. And that's what we did. And then all of a sudden I became somebody because I was like, who's it? I mean, when you stand around a microphone, okay, hey, hey, can we talk about, talk to you about this? This is exactly what we did. And people thought we were somebody. So we did that that year. And then I went to some of the Canadian Intuit Connects. Now I'm out there more, totally different purpose, trying to grow a Facebook group and for a different purpose. And then fast forward to working with you. Now I'm going again for education, but now we're in a special place of a bigger firm and growing our firm. And we started to go, and then all of a sudden it became, oh, you guys are doing so great, you want to teach? And then we became teachers at these events. And then now we sit back.

It's an honor.

Then, oh, absolutely. And then talking to Steve, and Steve's like, do you ever go to the lawyer ones? Like, no, why would we go to those? And now all of a sudden we're interested in going to the lawyer ones because, you know, and we all, we've all talked together up on the stage, but it's funny how it evolved to a different space where you were the student, then the teacher, and now we would go for education. But then now we sit back and say, how much are we going to invest? Because they're not cheap to go to.

Yeah.

Price tag to go. They're all over $1,000 for, for good reason. There's a lot behind it. But then also, you need to see when you're investing that much, you want to see the lineup of what's up there. Is there anything there? And at some point, some of the conferences, we've looked at them and I'm like, we could teach all that, Sarah. Why, why would we go to that? We're not partiers, so you can cross that off the list, you know. I mean, I think I've converted you into go-to-bed-early person now. Just leave.

Yeah, I mean, I, I, I love to socialize. So socializing has always been— I think it's, uh, we've had friends in the circuit that have always said, I just like to go to these just so I can see you all, which is very true.

Learn a lot from— we sat and talked to what's-his-name, and that was a fascinating conversation. And then we sat and talked to some of the vendors and learned about I love doing that. Like, even the first couple of years that we were running around with microphones, I can remember learning about every— we did— remember they did the App Showdown? And we went into that room.

Oh, no.

All the people were competing to be the best app for QuickBooks. And we would interview every one of the people there and find out the story behind how— why they developed their software. And they were all passionate about it and put their hearts into it. That was really fun to do.

Deepen the relationship too. That I think as a tip to add to your list, Steve, of things is you meet the vendors that you work with, but you may not otherwise have face time with because it might be a chat or whatever it is. And so you get in front of probably some pretty cool people, which we have in our experience.

But they know us personally now.

Yeah. And it's, it's exactly a lot. Yeah, it means a lot. But, you know, I, in going back to the content too, it's very, it's very interesting because there's so much out there offered just in the accounting space. And you can spend your pretty much your, what is it, May to December, all you do is conference travels. Like you literally could just do that and it does.

Some of our friends do.

Somewhat exhausting.

Yeah, we have friends that—

It's a lot of travel. It's a lot of travel. And, you know, if you budget— I like to budget in the, in the fall for the next year. And I like to look at—

Happen in the same month too. Like, they're all right.

We have, um, in October there's a ton, right?

Oh my gosh, they all, they all jam them into October. It's crazy. I like to look at my elevator speech. Every year and review it.

Yeah.

And pull that down when I'm working on the budget and then look at the business and say, what do I need to improve on? What, where could I go? Where could I go? What could I do? And start planning for next year's conference. Like, I've never been to a Clio conference. It's time for me to go.

Oh yeah.

You know?

Yeah, yeah.

That sort of thing. They all serve a different purpose. And if you look at 'em as not just some fun event, which they can be a lot of fun and you can meet a lot of people and see your friends and all those sorts of things, But what are you going to do with it? You know, are you going to post on social media afterwards? Are you going to write a blog? Are you going to reach out to people that you've been afraid to talk to because you think that they're 10 steps ahead of you when they really aren't? You know, those sorts of things.

What can you take staff, right?

Yeah. And you, you do, like, I, we, I have in the past. I mean, when I was in that learning stage, I would get in the airplane or I would take a ton of notes and then I get in the airplane and rewrite them all to get them in my head, feel overwhelmed, feel exhausted, and then try to implement steps. So you, for, you know, to get the most out of your conference, you want to get as many notes. I would tell you not to take as many courses as I took, trying to jam them all in. As much as you want to, really, you gotta kind of don't make it that crazy for yourself. And then also take the notes, go with a purpose. I think that's the other thing. You want to balance the networking because I can tell you, like, this past year's Connect, Sarah, I think We had, um, one of the best, just a side, we were having our mocktails and we just had a side conversation at one of the bars. And it was, I found that to be probably the pinnacle of our trip into Vegas was having that conversation with another business owner about what they're doing. And they were a few steps ahead of us and where they were going and things that they had learned from. And we kind of shared ideas. And I think that that was—

It's a safe space to do that.

That one was— that has held— it is a safe space, and that has held so dear to me because that individual, as a person, means so much to myself. And having met Linda, and there's been some positive changes in his life. But I've always felt that when you sit down with someone like that, it felt like a very honorable space to be in, almost like you wanted to get all the words out so fast because you didn't want to lose the opportunity. Yeah, it's a great vibe. That's where I feel that, Linda, I mean, we've shared this privately, um, and we shared it with you, Steve. It's like these little micro network moments that occur before a meeting, during, during a session.

Lots of aha moments.

Yeah. And you come out and you're kind of like, now for the existing that we've been to repetitively, it, it is nice to take the pause and reevaluate. The beauty of it is when we take the pause from, from being on the circuit, it's giving Linda and I a moment to evaluate, like, where is the importance? Who maybe who on the team needs to go in place of us? Because we've learned— not that we've learned our capacity. I'm always learning every day. But maybe there's types of conferences that are better suited for people on the team. And now with AI, there's so much being offered. I'm like, I don't even know where to start. Like, there's so much content out there that's just tailored to that.

Great, great point. And, you know, it doesn't have to necessarily be a conference in your niche, in your niche, because there's so much out there that, that there's so many things to learn and to experience and that are new and stepping out of the box that we're in a little bit. You know, I'm itching to go to a legal conference. I want to go to a legal conference. I want to do that with you two. I think the 3 of us would be really—

We might be going in May.

We might be going in May, yes. But yeah, with AI, I'm just itching now to get out and learn some more AI things and connect with people. And because it's like this monster, it's— I'm blaming you, Linda, because when it first— when we first started talking about it a year or 2 ago, whenever it was, I was like, oh my God, no, no, no, no. And you just kept pushing and pushing.

Yeah.

And now I'm like, Linda would be proud of me. I just discovered this or that or whatever.

I love it.

I love learning about it. really fascinated by it on one side, and then my other side is like, I don't wanna get too over crazy with it because if you get really crazy and you don't want, you know, you have to play with it though. You don't wanna be that person not testing it because really we talked about it in the Law Lab and now we have this once a week thing that we're doing and once a month thing in the Law Lab talking about AI. And it's, it's something that you wanna start to implement and you'll, you see it in like every software is trying to add it.

Yeah.

Some have done that successfully, some not so much. And it's just like, you know, I remember thinking, oh, we can, can it do this? Can it do that? And then when you see what it can do and what it does well and what it doesn't, you really want to stay on top of it because it's changing super fast.

But, well, to right there to what we were talking about, I think that there's a legal AI conference out there we should all be going to.

Yeah, probably.

Yeah.

We have our friend Jay. We just—

yeah.

Well, brilliant. Yeah.

Sorry, I had to turn off a bunch of apps because I could see my internet was starting to do it. But I do feel like In those verticals, Steve, to your point. And I think this is where Linda and I, we're also looking to invest in our team. So doing our own thing for the team.

Right.

To be supportive of that. And I kind of want to, I want to feather in some learning platform moment on that because I want to support where does the growth need to be. I mean, we have a wonderful group of people that we would love to see grow. And I feel that it would be really important to have this opportunity for them to have a— it's scary. So not everyone's a concert or conference goer, right? Like concertgoers, almost what I said.

The conferences though, Sarah, they have a blast when they go. You know what's the best part about it is that, yeah, they're all so close. The girls that we have working for us are so close-knit. And when they get to see each other in person, it just—

yeah, yeah.

It feels so tightly and the family, it really is.

Well, I remember the one conference we all 3 spoke at. Yes, because you were so gracious to include us with your family of people. And oh my God, we felt like we were at Grandma's house the entire weekend. I mean, it was just this big love fest and everyone was so nice. And to your point, Linda, they were feeding off that conference. There was so much excitement in your team there. And, and with the one person I brought, they were— we were just all, all excited and bonding together and going—

Steve, that's all that mattered. You got me having heat in the kitchen. Airbnb that we had. It was so cold in the Portland people.

I remember that.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Open the doors.

I don't know how to make the nest work.

And I'm like, I forgot about that. I'm always making— I'm always adjusting the nest at my house.

But, uh, but it was— that was fun. That was good that we all got together. I think that was the experience that we were all together in one big house. Yeah.

Well, we divided classes. Different people went to different classes at the conference.

Talked about them. So we got to You got the experience.

I will say it is really hard to go to a conference without my mom and her sister.

I like it, Sarah, to be honest with you.

I don't like it either. I've always enjoyed it.

Yeah. They've been— They didn't wanna go, but, and, and we can't, like, yeah. You know, even if Sarah and I just wanna trot off together, we have to take Tierra because she keeps us in line and lets us know where we're supposed to go and what we're supposed to do. We're very reliant on her.

We are blessed. I will say I'm grateful that I've gone to the space in my life where I'm like, I used to not be like that, and I'm like, whatever, you just tell me. I'm fine if I don't have to think about it and you can. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Um, but there is—

because it always does.

Yeah, there is a program out there I want to highlight, a program that's really dear to our heart. It's our friends that have been— I was at the first Appy Camp when this idea kind of came into formation, and, um, it is the Cornerstone Accounting Cornerstone Foundation that Really supports— it's a nonprofit that supports, uh, individuals who have never gone to a conference or want the support to go to a conference.

Seriously?

Yes. Oh my gosh. So it also helps, like, you have to submit— there's a whole submission thing. They'll help pay for, um, a conference ticket. Um, I'm not sure about the rest of it, but there's, you know, airfare, hotel accommodations too. That's possibly included depending on what I think it is. I think the sponsorship is—

cost them anything.

Yeah.

What's really cool about what they do is they bring multiple people and they keep them together so they actually experience the conference. Unlike us going by ourselves, they bring them and they give them, like, t-shirts so you know who they are and everybody. Really great what they do.

I would like more information about that.

Oh, of course. Yeah. So it's a brainchild of several people. I don't want to just put it on one, but I know Kate, our friend Kate, is the main kind of person that thought it. And then our friend Don Brolin and a few others, I believe Nayo is a part of it. There's a few, there's Megan. Anyways, they put them all together. We can include these in our show notes. But the part that's really, I think, really key, Steve, and you probably can attest to this, if we didn't have these little mastermind groups that we participate in, that's also a huge part of an opportunity to meet with people. I know that Richard Roper has his roundtable and he has different groups and And that's a very connected, very widespread group of people, very welcoming group of people. There's our mastermind group for the legal niche that we host, the Accountants Law Lab. Our friend Seth David has one. There's multiples. There's a lot out there. And so that's really supportive because you can actually get into these groups. And then when you're attending a conference, if you're traveling alone, you actually have a group of people that you can—

Right.

Be involved.

Well, you know, at the conference we were at a couple of years ago, there were people from the Law Lab there.

Yeah.

And I was able to have lunch with a few of them. It was like we finally got to meet and hug each other and share ideas and take subjects that are discussed in the Law Lab and go deeper. You know, there's so much— there's so— it's, it's education.

Yeah, it's education.

It's a gift to yourself.

It's the in-person too, because it's, um, you know, you don't get to be in person enough nowadays with all the remote stuff. And the fact that you get to— we have some good conversations with people we don't even know, but they're at the table for lunch.

Yes.

So that's part of it. I can tell you that for getting the most out of your conference experience, make sure you bring sneakers because if you wear high heels, your feet are going to kill. There's a lot of walking involved.

I'll keep that in mind.

She's saying it out loud for herself too, by the way.

Especially if you have somebody to carry your shoes for you.

Yeah, don't feel like you have to dress to the nines to go to a conference. You know, get the flavor of what type of conference.

Actually, I think you should dress to the nines to stand out.

Well, I think you should dress up, but be comfortable.

Yes, you can do that. You can do that.

Yeah.

Yes. I see some people and I'm like, were you going to the beach?

Yeah. Don't go in your blue jeans and suit.

You're a representative of your firm, right?

Correct.

Most of the people even on stage today wear the jeans. You can always tell the 50-year-old plus on stage because they'll have like a business suit on. And then anybody below 50 is dressed kind of cutting edge, I guess you'd call it.

Dress professional, but dress comfortably because you are on the move.

I'm like on the line right now, so I'm like, What line am I in right now? Oh, Sarah, you dress up. Who are you kidding? You're always dressed up special. This, the 7 days of conference, there's 7 different pairs of glasses.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

I don't know how many years we've been, we've been together now. It's been, it's been a few already. And when I finally met you in person, I can remember it right at first. I just sat there at the airport. It was at the airport. I just kept looking at you two going like, well, there they are.

They're real. And there he is.

Well, and it's fun. And then when you do meet people, you get to see them, especially if you go to the same conferences. So if you go to Intuit Connect, you're gonna see a lot of the same people. If you go to Scaling New Heights, it's a great group of people. And I actually have to say that with Scaling, they always had a pretty high level of, level of content there. And also when you went there, they used to have the party and everybody, oh, you know, the party, the party, party. And they took the party away. And I feel like that when they did that, that was actually better because then it was just everybody kind of hung out at the bar and talked and it was, I don't know, we didn't have to worry about dancing and what you make your own. You'd have to get a theme and get a special outfit and all that. It was just everybody kind of hung out and I really liked that. And Intuit didn't do it. No, they do the party.

No, they did the event.

I remember all of us buying our special shoes for the Connect party. Yeah, do you remember that?

Yeah, well, the, you know, with Xero, there is, um, kind of similar format. And then there's probably, I bet you Sage Intacct has something that they do.

I know Robbie went to that. Yeah.

And so I think when you're looking though, like a CPA one, well, there's, there's quite a bit out there. I mean, there's different ones for digital.

Does Xero do one?

They have their conf— every other year is their conference.

And, um, is it still Australia or is it—

for all— for this year it'll be Australia in September, which I would Absolutely love to go. But honestly, I, I do look at through the lens of all of these places that we can participate in, but really it centers around the community. And I think ultimately it's the respectfulness. Linda and I have always said, if we're going to ask for someone's time, we would like to pay you for that time. Or if we're going to engage, we'd like to pay you for those services. And I often see And it's fine. People say, oh, can I pick your brain? I'm like, yeah, you can, but then within, you know, respect. So I feel like there's a whole respect level for some people. But I feel like if you're going to invest in yourself and you haven't done this before, this is the time to do it. The calendars are out there. I feel like Keeper does one, Financial Sense does one, some of the accounting articles. What's the one Murph does that he, he's got? Doesn't he have a calendar? Calendar or like a list of all the different conferences? Yeah.

Insightful. Does he do it for Insightful Accounting?

I, I, okay, that might be where, yeah. But you know, you can look at those. There, some are very costly, but the price level, the price point, and then the content. I don't know if every piece has the content out there, but it's really important. But if you haven't done one, the content yet, because it's In the future. But in the future, yeah.

I think you wanna look at that first.

Yeah.

To make sure that it's something you want to go to and there's something on the calendar. And then, and then you just have to make your direction where you want to go.

Yeah.

And what your experience is going to be, the purpose. Are you purposely going to network with other people? Are you purposely going for education? Are you gonna be teaching? I mean, all of those are factors in. And I think that's where you have to figure out what you wanna do and, and then make the most of it. I think they're good to do. I think they're good to get outta your room and go meet with other people. I think that's part of it.

Yeah, definitely have a big open mind. You can come home from the worst conference on earth and learn something. You can go to the best one on earth and learn something. I mean, it's all in how you approach it and how you plan it ahead of time.

And I still remember how exhilarated I was coming home from the first conference.

For the first one, I remember. And I know this is true. When we talk about it, we like to give ourselves some time afterwards because when you come back, yeah, you've got all your clients, right, that need you. And so through the years, we've learned of what's considered dedicated time. So putting it out there that you are at a conference and you're educating yourself, that is— we, we see this in our—

No, I'm glad you brought that tip up.

Yeah.

Yeah, we really need to give ourselves some space. And I, I've never given myself enough space, and, and Linda knows this, is Sometimes when I get back, it's already— I'm already hitting the ground. But then I like to absorb what I've learned. So I like to go back and really— and I try to— I literally— it sounds funny, but sometimes I use whatever little notepad is they give me. That's how I bookend it in my brain. Oh, that's what you gave me that year. That's where my notes are. It just helps me keep it together. So I feel like conferences would actually do best if they had branded little, even slim paper notebooks, because that's how people think about it is That moment of time. And so anyways, that's my little 2 wishes.

Well, even when I went to Reframe last year, it was my first year doing it. They gave us paper and a pen and told us not to use computers because your brain remembers what you learn writing. And they gave us a lot of books to take home to read, which I really appreciated. And I've already gone through all the ones that I brought home with me. And they were good short reads, but they were good. And that's a specialized conference. It's for a different purpose. So you can go to the smaller ones like Steve was saying before. Oh, it doesn't have to be the big fancy ones. You can go to the smaller ones. You might get more out of something that's smaller, that's 200 people, like a Bridging the Gap or something like that, because it's more intimate.

Yeah.

And it might be in a venue where you're going to meet people in the same space that you are right now.

Absolutely.

Yeah, that was a good topic.

I like it. All right, let's go. Let's get some airplane tickets booked and go.

That was a lot of talking about conferences. I'm drinking some water.

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Thank you, everybody.

Thank you. We'll see y'all next week.

We'll see you guys later.

Bye-bye.