Alumni Newsletter Fall 2019

The Virginia Accounting & Auditing Conference Celebrates 50 Years of Serving the Accounting Profession

The Virginia Accounting and Auditing Conference will celebrate its 50 th anniversary with the 2020 conferences. The A&A conference had its beginning as a conversation between several members of the Virginia Society of CPAs who desired to start an accounting and auditing conference in conjunction with one of the state universities. The result of the deliberations was the first Virginia Accounting and Auditing Conference held at the Donaldson Brown Center for Continuing Education on Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University’s campus. The first conference was held on October 24, 25 and 26, 1971. The conference was a partnership between the VSCPA and Virginia Tech’s Accounting Department from the beginning. The original purpose of the conference was to provide an educational medium for practicing CPAs to stay current on issues facing the accounting profession to allow them to better serve their clients. Over the years, the conference has strived to continue to provide relevant educational opportunities to the accounting profession in Virginia. The conference was expanded to two locations in 1978; it was presented at its home base in Blacksburg and a second location in Virginia Beach. The conference moved from Blacksburg to the Hotel Roanoke in 1995. Currently the conference is held in three locations to make it easily accessible to practitioners: Roanoke, Falls Church and Virginia Beach. Attendance has grown over the years with the total attendance at the three locations approaching

1,000 on several occasions. CPAs from a variety of backgrounds attend the conferences. Practitioners in public practice, private accounting, government and non-profit and educators. The presentations are varied and cover current topics to have material that appeals to everyone. Not only does the conference provide a nice variety of topics presented by speakers from all over the country, but there are great opportunities for networking and meeting other CPAs from around the state. Carman Faison, senior manager with Mitchell Wiggins, summarized her experience: “The A&A conference is such a wonderful gathering of CPAs from across the Commonwealth. Those in our firm look forward to this every year to catch up with other CPAs. The combination of education and social time allows for great discussions. The relationships that I’ve been able to build with other professionals from this conference is invaluable.” The 50 th Annual Virginia Accounting and Auditing Conference will be held at the Hotel Roanoke on September 21-22, 2020, Falls Church Marriott Fairview Park in Falls Church on September 24-25, 2020 as well as The Founders Inn in Virginia Beach on November 19-20, 2020. Registration will be through www.vscpa. com/events. Any questions concerning the conference can be directed to the faculty chair of the conference, Lynn Almond, at lalmond@vt.edu.

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