By Adam Batchelor, vice president – learning and development

This summer, the PICPA held its newly combined Not-for-Profit and Government Accounting Conference. As thrilling as the launch of this newly combined conference was, we were doubly excited because the conference included the first use of our new Theater Experience webcast platform. Through this technology, online participants could choose from all the same concurrent sessions as in-person participants. Feedback was overwhelmingly positive, and we are looking forward to using the Theater Experience to broadcast every session at the Valuation and Forensic Accounting Conference on Nov. 18, 2019. The enhancements in webcast technology allow us to create agendas with more choices and empower learners to find the path that suits their particular needs.

As you may have seen in a previous blog, we also recently launched a partnership with the AICPA through which we offer certificate programs to PICPA members. One participant has already completed and received a Not-for-Profit II certificate, and many more are in progress. The program allows participants to study on their own time, at their own pace, and once it is completed, the certificate holders can demonstrate their earned expertise through a digital badge for display on social media and online correspondence. The certificate programs are a great opportunity to build competence in a cutting-edge field while completing up to 40 CPE credits.

The pace of change in CPE and learning will continue to increase. The National Association of State Boards of Accountancy recently released draft regulations that should give providers more freedom to innovate in content and delivery. We are working hard to ensure that the content we distribute in all of our programs meets the future needs of CPAs. In addition to improving the learner experience for our live CPE programs, we are exploring what’s possible for self-study CPE. Our team is working on new platforms for video-on-demand learning that will make online CPE user friendly, engaging, and meaningful.

If you have ideas for how we can enhance CPE programming, I would love to hear from you. We want to know what you need and expect from learning and how the PICPA can continue to be your CPE provider of choice. Send me a note at abatchelor@picpa.org.

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