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MGI North America conference

MGI North America held its annual meeting from May 19 to 21 in Seattle. Items up for discussion included marketing, trends in accounting technology, the future shape of the accountancy profession and the future direction of MGI itself.

I attended the meeting with my fellow director Harry Lipman. We went to the previous US conference in Washington last year, and various members of our firm have attended other events in Europe over the past year or so. There were really two main aims for our attendance this time – to learn what was going on in the accountancy profession in the US, and whether there were any areas of practice there that we could use here, and to strengthen the relationships we had already built up with US member firms on our last visit there, when we had made follow up visits and when some of them had visited Europe.

The sessions were generally very interesting, particularly the presentations given by Thierry on what’s happening within MGI as a group, and from Alison and Pam talking about the way they are addressing modern marketing issues, particularly the use of social media. We heard how the likes of LinkedIn and Facebook are not just networking tools but a way of reaching out to younger generations, and how these forms of communication are now serious players for professional firms, in cementing existing relationships and building new ones.

Harry and I gave a presentation on what worked well for us in terms of MGI membership and, where things haven’t worked, what we’ve done to put it right.

The hotel accommodation was first-class and a huge amount of work had been put in to make our stay a pleasant one. On the first night there was a cocktail party, we had a boat trip to a reservation run by Native Americans and on the last night, there was a very nice dinner in a restaurant overlooking the bay. The day after the conference, we had a  tour to the wineries around Seattle which was also a very enjoyable experience.

Seattle was a good conference from both a business and a social point of view, and it was a very worthwhile experience for us.

Melvyn Carter
Partner
Carter Backer Winter