The IBM Global CEO study identified the number one skill needed by global CEOs as collaboration. Another just-released report from the American Management Association had collaboration among the top four skills. Both the CPA Vision 2011 Report and the more recent CPA Horizons 2025 Report had collaboration and synthesis in the top five competencies needed by CPAs for the future.
Harbrinder Kang, writing in the Forbes article “Why Personal Interaction Drives Innnovation and Collaboration,” identifies four key ingredients for successful collaboration:
- Build relationships and networks that lead to trust.
- Turn human interactions into results.
- Balance decision-making and consensus building.
- Evolve the culture for productive collaboration.
Imagine what can be accomplished if we can connect the minds of our 9,000-plus CPAs? What problems could we solve or innovations could we create?
It all starts at our MACPA Innovation Summit on May 17, where we will use social media and four new technologies – ThinkTank by Group Systems, Conferences.IO, Flybits (location aware services), and our own MACPA Groups – to connect the top thought leaders in the CPA profession, top technology providers, learning leaders, and our diverse membership in a safe environment to learn and explore innovation together.
In our pre-summit press conference last week, Jennifer Warawa of Sage North America said this: “This event is different from any other in the profession, so our approach to how we engage with the show and its participants is different. And that’s really what it’s all about — engagement. Sage is getting social with the help of MACPA and there are several initiatives planned to get everyone online and talking in the social channels, such as hosting Twitter 101 and 201 sessions for anyone who needs to be set up on the social networks, or who is interested in enhancing their skills.”
We are holding a special free social media quick start session (Tuesday, April 30, from noon to 1 p.m. EST) for our members to teach them how to use Twitter and social media to learn, connect and collaborate, using the Summit as an example (#MDSUMMIT13). We will be producing a comprehensive social media guide with all of the “handles” of our speakers and sponsors. And onsite use of our exciting new collabroative technologies to give our members the tools for ongoing collaboration and innovation in an intimate environment that also encourages critical face to face connections.
Where else can you be with 13 of the top thought leaders in the CPA profession, the leading national editors (AccountingWeb, Accounting Today, CPA Practice Advisor, Going Concern), the top executives from the leading software providers in our industry (Sage, CCH, CPA2Biz, Ziptr, Simplified Innovations plus 25 more), and the “Top Gun” instructors from the Business Learning Institute, all in an environment of collaboration and innovation?
Get more information here.
King must have written this for us when he says, “Collaboration allows us to act collectively, pooling resources and talents to solve problems far too big for any one of us to solve alone. And if human interaction is the vehicle for innovation, technology is the accelerator.”
Join us at our Innovation Summit on May 17 to connect, collaborate and innovate!