Something Special Happened at the PracTax Conference

Written by Mollie Khine

Something special happened at the annual Practice Management and Tax Summit, put on by the team at CPA Ontario where over 200 Certified Professional Accountants gathered for a two day Conference event at Blue Mountain.

For those of you who have been to an accounting conference — or can use your imagination — you might be thinking tax talk sounds pretty boring. Think again!

Like most conferences, the goal for both the organizers and the attendees is to connect with other professionals in your field and learn something new about the latest industry happenings so you can bring back some business cards and new ideas to implement into your workflows. If you’re like me, walking into a big conference ballroom with round tables draped with white table clothes wearing my name badge and carrying my swag — I suddenly feel shy, even if this isn’t my nature. It can feel awkward to try and generate a conversation out of thin air to try and get to know someone. And then when you do swap cards, you send a nice follow up and and in many cases — the end.

We often spend time listening to the speakers, and jotting down notes — and wondering things like: Do other people struggle with this same issue? How do they manage all of these ever-evolving technology changes? How do they grow their client base and serve their existing clients all at the same time? What could I learn from the successes of those around me?

CPA Ontario took a visionary approach at this year’s conference, by investing in a purposeful and unique approach for their attendees to network in a fun, comfortable and more meaningful way by partnering with us at Convers(ate).

We kicked off the festivities by delivering an experiential facilitator training, where we met other Conference Speakers and Staff who had volunteered to serve in the role of Facilitator for the following night’s Convers(ate) Dinner. This created the opportunity to connect as a group and share some key tips to consider in order to create a fun and engaging conversation experience. How to best involve more introverted participants or dial-down those who are taking up more verbal space? How to probe for one layer deeper by asking good follow up questions? How do you make each person at the table feel valued and invited to share? How do you remove the hierarchical divisions that can sometimes feel present in mixed conference company? After equipping our team of facilitators with everything they needed to host a successful Convers(ate) dinner, we set out to talk with the attendees about the skill of asking better questions.

On the main stage, Taylor and I, delivered a talk over lunch about how to elevate your question-asking skills as a professional and just how important it is to do so. To quote one of the gentlemen in the room, “This is such an important skill I didn’t even realize I needed to learn.”

Later that evening all 200 of us rode the gondola up to the top of Blue Mountain to take in the view; the lightness in the air, foreshadowing the conversations to come.

We introduced the Convers(ate) format (inspired by the Jeffersonian Dinner), and kicked off an evening of 20 simultaneous discussions based on three custom topics that are so important to think about as a CPA — Quest for Knowledge, Change and Building Trust.

And that’s when the magic happened.

Strangers became friends. People shared stories about their business and the challenges they ran into. More senior individuals talked about how different it is to work with Millennials and the younger professionals at the table shared their thoughts in return. Without an attempt to impress or a goal of swapping business cards, we spoke as people about what it means to build trust, and what happens if it’s broken down, and why our own experiences shape our perspectives.

We learned from the wisdom in the room, and we laughed at just how funny it is that after attending conferences for years — we never really get to know people like this.

Business cards were swapped. But it was different this time. This time, it was to keep the conversations going… and to tell the others just how much you’re looking forward to seeing them at this event next year.

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We’d like to say a special thanks to the team at CPA Ontario. Thank you for believing in the power of meaningful conversation.