Thank you! They say that these are the two most important words in any language, and we are saying them from the heart.

We put the finishing touches on the first-ever Maryland Business and Accounting Expo less than a week ago. We could not have done it without all of the support and teamwork of our premium sponsors (Intuit, Richard J. Princinsky, Microsoft Dynamics, PNC Bank, CCH, Ober Kaler, Oracle and our own Business Learning Institute), more than 100 quality exhibitors, 75 speakers, our show partners, Fusion Productions and, of course, our entire MACPA staff team.

Feedback from our members has been amazing — most urging us to do it again next year. We are already working on our after-action review (also a favorite of one of our speaker /authors, Ron Baker; read more here), a staff-wide debriefing and learning exercise to examine all of the comments and feedback from all sources. We already have learned some things we should do differently and acknowledge that this was our first time.

The other thing that we did not communicate well was that this was not your ordinary “trade show.” It was designed with a purpose: to help Maryland businesses and organizations learn how to innovate and grow in a challenging and changing environment. How many trade shows feature three thought leaders / authors / speakers like we had?

All of our workshops and even sponsors / exhibitors were contacted around that theme. We also took a “long-tail” approach to target every type of business, organization and CPA practice, from small businesses on Main Street to our public companies, from sole practitioners serving small business to our international CPA firms consulting with multinational companies. It may have been overly ambitious and we may have overscheduled some sessions, but overall we achieved our mission.

Thank you to the top 19 CPA firms in Maryland (our Partners in the Profession) who supported our Swearing-in Ceremony for newly licensed CPAs. It was truly an event appropriate to the significance and accomplishment of those new CPAs.

Thank you to all of our members who attended town hall meetings over the past year and inspired us to provide one venue to educate members on all of the critical trends and issues facing CPAs and what they can do about them to thrive and prosper in this rapidly changing environment.

• See a list of all our sponsors and exhibitors here.
• Read a recap of the two days and get copies of materials here.
• See pictures from the Expo here, here and here.
• Don’t miss our breakthrough ideas and thought leader recaps here.

So if you missed our surveys or feedback forms, just hit “Comments” below and let us know what you are thinking. What could we do better? What did you like? What do you wish for next year?