Thousands of accounting professionals, industry experts, and small and medium business owners descended on the Metro Toronto Convention Centre for our Get Connected by QuickBooks conference on June 24, 2024. During the two-day event participants from around the world came to Toronto for curated educational sessions and great networking opportunities.
The importance of Get Connected by QuickBooks
For those who don’t know me, let me introduce myself. I have been the vice president of product development for QuickBooks Online at Intuit for almost 4 years. Before joining Intuit, I led product teams at Uber and Google. What brought me to Intuit is my passion for helping small businesses and self-employed people succeed.
Intuit’s customers are at the heart of everything we do, and the Get Connected events in Canada are designed to help them make connections, get inspired, and grow their business. As in years past, this year’s event featured a packed agenda with sessions on technology, marketing, and business operations. Each session provided valuable insights and practical advice attendees could use in their practices.
We shared that we’re fully focused on product excellence, quality, and performance, and emphasized our commitment to help customers solve financial problems with minimal effort on their part. This is something we refer to as a “world of done.” A perfect example of this kind of experience can be found with Intuit Assist. Intuit Assist is our financial assistant that’s powered by generative AI and designed to provide intelligent, personalized recommendations.
The QuickBooks ecosystem
The Get Connected events give us a forum to meet face-to-face with accountants and bookkeepers to learn more about their unique needs and find out what their customers are telling them. We also talk with our partners about the challenges they face when developing third-party solutions for QuickBooks Online customers.
Together, the QuickBooks ecosystem of accountants, bookkeepers, and developers helps each other, which in turn, helps customers succeed.
Accountants bring the expertise needed to effectively combine the use of QuickBooks and third-party solutions as pro users. With this expertise, they also act as a proxy for their clients by advising them on the right combination of tools to meet the needs of their business.
Developers of third-party solutions fill unique product gaps to make sure QuickBooks Online is making things even easier for our customers. I’ve seen apps that make data capture more efficient, improve workflows for specific vertical industries, and tackle jobs that QuickBooks doesn’t support yet.
Key takeaways from Get Connected Toronto
The sessions, panel discussions, networking, and parties during Get Connected by QuickBooks facilitate better partnerships and help us understand what our community thinks about QuickBooks and Intuit. I often review feedback through online channels, but the stories told during one-on-one and panel discussions provide the additional context and expressed passion that makes it easier to synthesize and share with others later.
For example, when I asked Tiffany Stewart, CPA, CMA, about feedback on our product performance, I could see the expression on her face when she replied, “You mean those green dots that keep spinning?” And I heard from another accountant who said, “OMG, that would be amazing” after learning about a new accounting automation we’re working on.
It’s motivational to be reminded how much folks care about the work we’re doing. There are plenty of other benefits from participating in Get Connected, including:
- Forging new relationships with people who have common interests in improving bookkeeping and accounting processes.
- Seeing firsthand how the community is helping each other leverage the QuickBooks ecosystem and platform.
- Listening to enthusiastic entrepreneurs and developers tell me about their new ideas for innovative solutions, many incorporating the use of GenAI.
This type of in-person sharing, learning, and iteration is special. It’s something that could have taken weeks or months to capture online.
The upshot
Ultimately, Get Connected by QuickBooks in Toronto was a success. People reconnected with each other and made new connections. We were able to share how we’ve incorporated customer feedback into QuickBooks, and we captured valuable feedback from our customers and partners that will drive future improvements to our products and APIs. I think the experience shows how the QuickBooks ecosystem is thriving, and that a two-day event like this fosters an accelerated and potent learning experience for everyone.
I invite every accountant, bookkeeper, and developer within the QuickBooks community to join us at future Get Connected Canada events to discover for themselves what a great opportunity they are for empowering everyone in the QuickBooks ecosystem to power prosperity around the world. We’re stronger together!