AICPA Accounting Firm Marketing Forum

EB Discount Rate Extended:  We are extending the EB discount rate to the start of the conference, January 15th.  Register now and save $75 off the regular registration rate!

With the current economic climate, businesses will look to accounting professionals for guidance. Will those businesses come to you for direction? Now is the time to strengthen your marketing efforts, expand your client base and offer this much needed guidance.

The AICPA’s Accounting Firm Marketing Forum is a pertinent event for those who wish to strengthen their firm’s marketing efforts.  Through interactive sessions and hands-on training, you will receive guidance to help you implement successful marketing tactics to strengthen strategic approaches to firm marketing.

Conference topics include:

• Branding – Making the Most of What You’ve Got
• What the Future Holds
• Top 10 Ways to Maximize Collateral
• Cutting-Edge Communication Tools
• Communicating Like a Pro
• And More!

It doesn’t matter if you work for a national accounting firm, a small firm, or a local accounting firm, the interactive sessions, panel discussions and real-life case studies will offer essential marketing tips and business know-how that you can adapt to your marketing efforts.

Because of the small classroom size, limited to 50 people, you will be able to interact with the expert presenters as well as your fellow attendees.  You will walk away with proven strategies and pertinent ideas on how to best market your CPA firm. Join us for this two-day forum and obtain new ideas for attaining your firm’s objectives!

Who Should Attend?
Managing Partners, Partners, Chief Marketing Officers, Marketing Directors, Communications Specialists, Business Development Professionals, Public Relations Professionals

Thursday, January 15, 2009 - Day One

8:30 am - 8:45 am - Welcome Remarks and Introductions
Walter Timoshenko, Chief Marketing Officer, Weiser LLP, New York, NY

8:45 am - 9:45 am - 01. What the Future Holds SKA
Arleen Thomas, Senior Vice President,
Member Competency and Development, AICPA, New York, NY

During the next two to three years, the profession will experience unprecedented changes unlike those seen in the last 80 years. This presentation will cover the impact of adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and XBRL. Regardless whether your firm audits or consults with publicly-traded companies, or is interested in further expanding your clients' ability to operate in a global marketplace, this session will provide practical advice.

9:45 am - 10:45 am - 02 What Works, What Doesn't C, MKT
Ed Russ, Partner & Chief Marketing & Sales Officer, Grant Thornton LLP, Chicago, IL

This session is a strategic overview of the client buying process. You'll see what your firm should expect in terms of communication value from marketing, and what you should expect from your partners as well. You'll learn the relative merits of various communication channels, what each channel can accomplish for you, and what your people can do to win more new clients.

• Where does "marketing" end (and "selling" begin) in the client buying process? Who should we expect to do what?
• What are the relative costs, reach and effectiveness of marketing and sales communication tools?
• Can I see some process benchmarks?
• How can marketing improve the odds? And what can the partners do as well?

10:45 am - 11:00 am - Break

11:00 am - 12:00 pm - 03 Getting Everyone on Board with Internal Communications C
David O'Brien, Partner, Ernst & Young LLP, New York, NY

Learn how to create a dialogue with audiences by credibly articulating what your brand represents to stakeholders both inside and outside the firm. Discover how to focus and stay on message through disciplined and strategic communications.

12:00 pm - 1:00 pm Lunch

1:00 pm - 2:00 pm - 04 Branding -- Making the Most of What You've Got MKT, P/HR
Jean Caragher, President, Capstone Marketing, Chesapeake, VA

Branding is often considered the "b" word, perceived as unnecessary and too expensive for most CPA firms. Attend this session and learn the truth about branding:

• How to express your firm's brand - its promise and personality - through marketing communications
• How branding can distinguish your firm from its competition
• How branding can increase your firm's visibility in the marketplace
• How branding can help you deliver more consistent messages to clients, contacts and staff
• The impact branding can have on your recruiting efforts

2:00 pm - 3:00 pm - 05 Top 10 Ways to Maximize Collateral! MKT
Mitch Reno, Principal, Chief Marketing and Sales Officer, The Rehmann Group, Saginaw, MI

From developing an effective brochure for your firm to leveraging integrated marketing and sales strategies to producing a strong ROI, this session is designed to help you reposition how you approach marketing communication tools.

• Take a look at some of the best creative efforts used by firms today
• Learn how different firms approach the creative process to produce winners
• Identify new ways to approach the creative process to differentiate your firm from the pack

3:00 pm - 3:15 pm - Break

3:15 pm - 4:15 pm - 06 Events -- Taking it to the Street SKA
Chris Perrino, Principal, Barnes Dennig & Co., Cincinnati, OH

"Closing deals by hosting seminars" - many firms hold seminars but ROI questions are a frequent concern. Seminars can be fertile ground for client and prospect relationship development and lead generation, too, when seminar content, promotion and topics are strategically managed. This session will present stories from the seminar trenches to illustrate key ways your firm can cement client loyalty and get more dollars in the door from prospects. Topics to be covered include:

• The concept of "give first" will guide you to standing-room-only attendance
• "Cold calling" becomes "showing the love" when a personal seminar invitation is the subject
• Position your firm as a subject matter expert without putting your people at the podium
• Cross-pollinating with referral sources can help your sales bloom

4:15 pm - 5:15 pm - 07 Cutting-Edge Communication Tools C, MKT
Joe Rotella, Chief Technical Officer, Delphia Consulting Inc., Columbus, OH

Are you LinkedIn? Do you have a place on MySpace? Have you broadcast yourself on YouTube? Learn to leverage the new social networks to generate leads and attract talent. Discover how SNSs (social network sites) can be important to your organization to:

• Promote your firm
• Support business development initiatives
• Maximize recruiting efforts
• Expand your professional network

5:15 pm - 6:15 pm - Networking and Cocktail Reception

Friday, January 16th - Day Two

8:30 am - 8:45 am - Welcome Remarks and Recap
Walter Timoshenko, Chief Marketing Officer, Weiser LLP, New York, NY

8:45 am - 9:45 am - 08 Making Personal Connections MKT
Andrea Nierenberg, President, The Nierenberg Group, New York, NY

Develop and build on the "personal touch" to enhance your business relationships. Know that it is critical to have and maintain positive and sincere relationships with your clients and spheres of influence.

• Enhance your ability to meet, engage and follow up with new and current connections
• Learn to "market" yourself and your firm as part of your everyday work
• Walk away with a set of relationship-building best practices to put into action immediately
• Enhance your communication style to get the competitive edge
• Learn a 5-step process to continually build on relationships every day

9:45 am - 10:45 am - 09 Crisis Communications: Success in the Internet Age CS, MKT
Richard Levick, Esq., President & CEO, Levick Strategic Communications LLC, Washington, DC

Today, with the expansion of digital media, businesses face unprecedented communications challenges, made all the more critical during crises and litigation. The power of the blogosphere, combined with global television coverage and a "traditional" media that increasingly takes its cues from online sources, make it nearly certain that executives will face a hostile media at some point. In this exciting session you will learn to:

• Maintain pace with the digital revolution in order to win in the "court of public opinion"
• Anticipate high-profile matters before they strike
• Establish collaboration between business, legal, and media teams
• Identify and avoid the most common mistakes in a crisis

10:45 am - 11:45 am - 10 Communicating Like a Pro C, MKT
Jim Cameron, President, Media Trainer, Darien, CT

Whether it's a new business pitch or an internal meeting, communicating effectively is a management must. Avoid the common mistakes of weak speakers and immunize your audiences from "death by PowerPoint." In this fast-paced workshop you'll learn:

• How to make your messages credible, memorable and compelling
• How to deliver those messages clearly and get the audience to act on them
• The importance of non-verbal body language in conveying your messages
• The biggest mistakes of poor communicators and how to avoid them

11:45 am - 12:45 pm - Lunch

12:45 pm - 1:45 pm - 11 Integrating Sales and Communication MKT
Russ Molinar, Director - Risk Advisory Services, Ernst & Young LLP, Cleveland, OH

Marketing can help define the core external messages for your firm, but how can you ensure that your partners and staff deliver those messages to clients and prospects? This session will focus on how to better integrate sales and service delivery efforts with your core positioning and communication messages. Specifically, this session will answer:

• How can your sales force - your partners and staff - reinforce your firm's positioning strategy?
• How can you better equip and enable your practitioners to convey your unique selling propositions to the marketplace?
• What can you do to better prepare your partners and staff to conduct effective client meetings?

1:45 pm - 2:30 pm - 12 Putting it all Together SKA
Sally Glick, Chief Marketing Officer, Sobel & Co., LLC, Livingston, NJ

In this final session, we will review the conference, from gaining internal support through improved communications to the use of an integrated plan for external communications. Whether your firm is targeting recruits, existing clients, centers of influence or new business, how and what you say will create your brand in the marketplace. Together we will discuss:

• How do you build your brand using the marketing tools that are available and affordable for your firm?
• How can you develop new business by building a brand and targeting your marketing efforts?
• What tactics can you adopt that will catapult your firm's standing in the business community to a leadership role?

This closing session will be the perfect way to cap-off a great two-day program.

2:30 pm - 3:00 pm - Closing Remarks PD Walter Timoshenko, Chief Marketing Officer, Weiser LLP, New York, NY

3:00 pm - Conference Adjourns

AICPA Boardroom
1211 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10009
(PLEASE NOTE: Photo ID is required for building security check-in)

Recommended Hotel Accommodations:  Please request the “AICPA Corporate Rate.”  Rates are subject to availability.

Sheraton Manhattan at Times Square
790 7th Avenue (at 51st Street)
New York, NY 10019
Hotel Phone: (212) 581-3300
Hotel Reservations: (800) 325-3535
Hotel room rate: $329 single/double

The Muse Hotel
130 West 46th Street
New York, NY 10036
Hotel Phone: (212) 485-2400
Hotel Reservations: (877) NYC-MUSE
Hotel room rate: $319 king/deluxe, $329 single/double

Sheraton New York Hotel & Towers
811 7th Avenue (at 53rd Street)
New York, NY 10019
Hotel Phone: (212) 581-1000
Hotel Reservations: (800) 325-3535
Hotel room rate: $329 single/double

Hilton Garden Inn Times Square
790 8th Avenue (at 48th Street)
New York, NY 10019
Hotel Phone: (212) 581-7000
Hotel Reservations: (877) 782-9444
Hotel room rate: 12% off Best Available Rate