Calendar of Events

Thursday, March 11, 2010
AAM Chicago Chapter
Topic: 25 Things I Wish Someone Would Have Told Me When I Started in Accounting Marketing
Speaker: Art Kuesel, PDI

Program Description: Whether you have been an accounting marketer for one day or two decades, it’s painfully apparent that you’re not in Kansas anymore. The norms at a CPA firm are often vastly different from what you have experienced in the general business world. The partners actively walk the halls, place a high value on collaboration and discussion of marketing initiatives, and it sure feels like they expect “more” from their people. There usually is never a shortage of strategy and great ideas, but there is always a shortage of implementation and action—not to mention the constant focus on billable hours, measurement, and ROI. We’ll arm you with tons of great information that can help you succeed the moment you get back to your firm. As a special bonus for AAM Chicago members, we will feature advice from some of the Midwest’s most seasoned and successful CPA firm marketing directors. They will share things they learned early on in their accounting marketing careers, which have been critical to their success. In total, you’ll walk away with 25 great ideas to reenergize your personal efforts while times are tough, or advice and counsel that will set you off in the right direction from day one.

Registration – $50 for AAM, LMA and ICPAS Members, $65 for Non-Members (Note – if you are an LMA or ICPAS member please contact Kimberly Libucki at klibucki@ahint.com to register)

Registration is now closed for this session.

Questions: Georgina Giannelli, President, AAM Chicago
312.729.8132 or georgina.gianneli@bakertilly.com

Thank you to our sponsor:

Meeting Location:
Petterino's
150 North Dearborn Street
Chicago, IL
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Thursday, March 18, 2010
MD/DC/DE Chapter
Topic: Stop Begging and Start Budgeting! The Mechanics Behind Creating and Revising Marketing Budgets
Speaker: Dawn Wagenaar
Principal of Ingenuity Marketing Group and former marketing director in a mid-sized accounting firm, this presentation will have you eager to open up an Excel spreadsheet and plan your marketing destiny.
Marketing by Numbers: How to Prove Your Needs with a Budget
Stop Begging, Start Budgeting: How to Control Your Marketing Domain
In this presentation you will learn how savvy marketing directors get what they need and then some by laying out a sound marketing budget and guarding it like a Doberman. Time and again, directors who create and follow a budget are more likely to control marketing initiatives by the firm, justify expenditures and prove the value of their department. If you have never created a budget or want to better manage the budget you have, you will learn:
• How to earmark expenditures
• How to manage (or deny) marketing requests from the top
• How to track and report results
• How to maintain or increase your budget and/or staff

Click here to register - Deadline to register is 3/17/10 – 12:00PM

Sponsored By Ingenuity

If anyone has questions please contact Andrew Rose at arose@nlgroup.com.
Meeting Location: Teleconference
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Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Philadelphia Chapter
Topic: Business Development: It's All About Building Relationships
Speaker: Ed Wallace, Sam Monastra, Joe Purcell and Blythe Seese

In response to the request by many of our members for information on the topic of business development, the Philadelphia Chapter has arranged for an exclusive session on this very specific topic.

The program will offer insight from Ed Wallace, Chief Relationship Manager and founder of The Relationship Capital Group and be followed by a Q&A session with some of the area’s top notch business developers for CPA firms. Attendees will be encouraged to ask questions of their own to members of the panel and/or our speaker so don’t be shy!

Registration: $25 for Members; $35 for Non-Members (Registration will close at 12:00 p.m. on Monday, March 22, 2010.)
Click here to register

Meeting Location: Kreischer Miller, 100 Witmer Road, Suite 350, Horsham, PA 19044
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Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Atlanta Chapter
Topic: AAM Atlanta Presents our March Meeting with Special Guest Speaker, Gale Crosley
Speaker: Gale Crosley – Crosley & Company
Gale Crosley, CPA helps CPA firms implement a high-quality, high-growth environment. She works with managing partners and other firm leaders to implement methodologies designed to generate revenue from every aspect of the practice. She brings her clients the benefit of over 35 years of experience. Her unique mix of strategic and operational roles include positions with Arthur Andersen, PricewaterhouseCoopers and a local Atlanta firm. She combines a CPA background with experience in the fast moving technology sector, including IBM and MCI, and as Executive Vice President of a $250 million consulting firm. Gale has managed teams who have brought dozens of new services to market and closed multi-million-dollar opportunities. She is uniquely qualified to guide CPA firms who want to structure their organizations for high revenue growth.

Who Moved My Market? - Significant shifts in market conditions often render current offerings obsolete, while providing an opportunity to design and provide new offerings to new buyers. However, the challenges of realizing your market has shifted, identifying new “market holes,” and successfully launching new offerings are significant. How do you find new market opportunities? How do you get new services and niches off the ground? How do you ensure that more mature services and industry niches continue to contribute optimal margin? This topic centers on the process of bringing new offerings to market, as well as innovating your entire portfolio.

Program Schedule (based on member feedback, we are holding this meeting at breakfast to make it easier for you to attend):
8:00 a.m. – Check in, networking and breakfast
8:30 a.m. – Program begins promptly
9:30 a.m. – Q&A
9:45 a.m. – Adjourn

Register:
Email bonnie@bbrmarketing.com by March 19*

Price:
$20, AAM national members
$30, non-AAM national members

Accepted Forms of Payment:
Cash
Checks (payable to AAM-Atlanta)

*no shows will be billed

Also, join our new AAM-Atlanta LinkedIn Group by going here.

Meeting Location:
Windham Brannon
1355 Peachtree Street, Suite 200
Atlanta, GA 30309
404.898.2000 phone
click here for more information...

Thursday, March 25, 2010
AAM High
Topic: Developing Your Firm’s Marketing Function
Speaker: Tamera Loerzel and Jennifer Wilson, ConvergenceCoaching

Description: Do you wonder when you should add a marketing or business development professional to your team? And, when you do, what their key responsibilities and compensation should be? In this session, we’ll explore the different marketing and business development roles within professional services firms and when you should consider adding team members or expanding your current marketing and business development group, including what their objectives and roles should be. And, we’ll explore best practices for developing the marketing and business development function within your practice.

Leave this session with some practical ideas that you can easily implement no matter what size your marketing and business development function is!

Click here to register

Cost: $59 members; $109 nonmembers

Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Minnesota Chapter
Topic: Accelerate Success with Professional Assessments
Speaker: M.E.G. Roy
Meeting Location: Minnesota Society of CPAs
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Wednesday, April 21, 2010
luncheon program
Topic: TBD
Meeting Location: Downtown Denver TBD
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Wednesday, April 28, 2010
AAM Chicago Chapter
Topic: Digital Marketing
Speaker: Burkey Belser and Joe Walsh, Greenfield/Belser Ltd.

Program Description: The four traditional advertising media channels—print, television, radio and outdoor—have met their collective match in the fifth—the digital channel. Media consumption has changed dramatically before and after the Great Recession—and buyer behavior will not return to the past when the Recession ends. Learn to understand the elements of a Web presence that goes beyond a great Web site. Attendees will get the inside scoop about why and how to use the digital channel from one of the most experienced brand design firms in the professional services industry.

Meeting Location:
Petterino's
150 North Dearborn Street
Chicago, IL
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Saturday, May 01, 2010
networking mixer
Topic: TBD
Meeting Location: Denver Tech Center TBD
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Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Minnesota Chapter
Topic: 7 Keys to Successful CPA Management
Speaker: Jean Caragher
Meeting Location: Minnesota Society of CPAs
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Wednesday, June 16, 2010
luncheon program
Topic: TBD
Meeting Location: Downtown Denver TBD
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Tuesday, June 22, 2010 - Friday, June 25, 2010
Minnesota Chapter
Topic: No local meeting
AAM National Conference: Washington DC
Building Strong Foundations for Firm Success
Meeting Location: Washington, DC
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Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Minnesota Chapter
Topic: AAM Summit Recap: (3) Member Presenters (3) Topics
Meeting Location: Minnesota Society of CPAs
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Thursday, July 15, 2010
AAM Chicago Chapter
Topic: Connecting the Dots between Marketing and Lead Generation
Speaker: Sally Glick, Sobel & Co.

Program Description: Marketers are accountable for demonstrating results. This session is designed to help marketers understand how they can connect the firm’s branding and marketing communication tools to impact business development. This session will add value because it will provide practical suggestions to marketers that will enable them to enhance their role and create a measurable outcome across different circumstances. When a firm hosts a seminar, the question the partners often raise is, “How do we know it was a success?” You can measure attendance, but you also can take it one step further with some additional effort and turn the attendance list into a hot prospect list. During the session, we will review the top ten marketing tactics that can be converted into sales tools.

Meeting Location:
Petterino's
150 North Dearborn Street
Chicago, IL
click here for more information...

Sunday, August 01, 2010
Minnesota Chapter
Topic: Vacation: Personal Growth
Meeting Location: Minnesota Society of CPAs
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Wednesday, August 18, 2010
luncheon program
Topic: TBD
Meeting Location: Location Denver Tech Center TBD
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Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Minnesota Chapter
Topic: Book Review
Speaker: Wendy Nemitz
Meeting Location: Minnesota Society of CPAs
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Wednesday, September 22, 2010
AAM Chicago Chapter
Topic: Developing and Implementing a Strategic Referral Strategy
Speaker: Tom Ogden, Corbett, Duncan & Hubly, P.C.

Program Description: Referrals are the largest, most reliable, and most cost-effective source of new clients for professional services firms; however, many firms still fail to tap the growth potential in referrals simply because they do not have a defined process for doing so. The fastest growing firms are more likely than the average firm to grow through referrals. Results of recent studies show that top performing firms are growing twice as quickly from client referrals as are average firms. One of the most important components of a solid marketing and business development strategy needs to begin with a game plan for referrals—especially from existing clients. The presentation will benefit the members by giving them a framework and tips on how to include this important aspect into the strategic marketing and business development plan.

Meeting Location:
Petterino's
150 North Dearborn Street
Chicago, IL
click here for more information...

Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Minnesota Chapter
Topic: TBD
Meeting Location: Minnesota Society of CPAs
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Wednesday, October 20, 2010
luncheon program
Topic: TBD
Meeting Location: Location Downtown Denver TBD
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Tuesday, November 09, 2010
Minnesota Chapter
Topic: Partner Accountability
Speaker: August Aquila
Meeting Location: Minnesota Society of CPAs
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Thursday, November 11, 2010
AAM Chicago Chapter
Topic: Understanding Why Clients Retain You
Speaker: Lee H. Eisenstaedt, L. Harris & Associates, LLC

Program Description: Client retention has proven to be the #1 issue for all accounting firms. While many firms conduct client satisfaction surveys, these surveys do not lead to an understanding of why clients choose a firm in the first place and then elect to maintain a long-term relationship with them. Understanding what’s driving client retention and loyalty and then turning those insights into actions will result in sustainable increases in revenues, profits, and partner compensation. This presentation will introduce participants to a proven process for discovering the drivers of client loyalty, what they can expect to learn from such a process, the pushback they are likely to encounter when implementing it, and the keys to successfully making it part of a firm’s culture. Examples from the real world will bring the “theory” to “life” and demonstrate how this process can separate a firm from its competition, and in the process, increase partner compensation.

Meeting Location:
Petterino's
150 North Dearborn Street
Chicago, IL

Wednesday, December 01, 2010
Minnesota Chapter
Topic: Proposals
Speaker: Joint LMA Meeting
Meeting Location: Minnesota Society of CPAs
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Wednesday, December 15, 2010
AAM Chicago Chapter
Topic: The 5 Myths and Truths for Cross-Selling Success
Speaker: Deb Knupp, Akina Corporation

Program Description: Cross-Selling is a great theory in concept that is often met with a harsh reality of “going nowhere” and marketing departments banging their heads against the wall. Akina will shed light on the top 5 Myths that keep accounting firms in the dark about how to leverage an existing client base as a firm-wide asset and the 5 Truths that will provide sanity and real opportunities to realize results. This presentation will give marketers WHAT to teach accountants and HOW to coach accountants in ways that make cross-selling a viable activity to grow firm revenue. At the completion of the program, the participants will be able to understand the realities to make cross-selling work and how to create client relationship building activities that create a win for the firm and satisfy the interests of the individual accountant.

Meeting Location:
Harry Caray's
33 West Kinzie Street
Chicago, IL 60602
click here for more information...