New Orleans’ famous French Quarter will never be the same… Last month, several members of the Mendelson Consulting team landed in the Big Easy to participate in the Scaling New Heights conference for QuickBooks consultants.
As in any conference, a highlight was the alliances made and renewed in the course of the four-day event. Another highlight was the honor of facilitating several breakout sessions. One particularly interesting and involved session was titled “Successful Software Implementations from A to Z”, where my associate Keith Fileccia and I led the two-part seminar (sponsored by ACCTivate Inventory Management Software), covering all the components of an implementation, from discovery to needs assessment, from workflow design and project management to change management, training, and ongoing support. Keith and I shared stories from our vast experience of selling, implementing, and supporting complex inventory & supply-chain system solutions.
Other sessions I was invited to facilitate were “Increasing QuickBooks File Performance and Stability”, “QuickBooks Networking Best Practices”, and “QuickBooks Enterprise Advanced Inventory Management.” I am fortunate to have had great audiences for each of the sessions I led. The true measure of an audience is not how well the listen or learn, but how well they participate. And participate they did – audience interaction led to a great learning experience for all, I am happy to say.
It was the first QuickBooks consultants’ conference for my associate Monica Roca-Quesada, our director of business development, and as such it was a blast for her. From the never ending vendor displays who all wanted to meet us (you will learn why in the section below) to the even more never ending line of colleague consultants and friends that know us from years of industry expertise, the conference was a whirlwind, of the enjoyable kind. I will let her chime in in a future article as to her conference experience.
From a professional standpoint, the highlight was being named among the “Top Ten ProAdvisors” and the “Top Integrations ProAdvisor” by the industry publication Insightful Accountant. Definitely one of my career highpoints. I am both honored and humbled to be voted by peers for our industry expertise. That is definitely the greatest kind of recognition. Being the recognized integration specialists, the conference was the perfect venue for us establishing and re-connecting with several vendor partners too.
From a personal standpoint, I was more than pleased to have my family with me during the conference. Not only did I get to share the professional accomplishments with them, but we were also able to have a little family time and enjoy a bit of what New Orleans has to offer. Can anyone say “coffee and beignets”?
…MARIO
