The title of “grand-daddy” of user conferences in our profession goes to Thomson Reuters -- hands down. This conference has been held annually for 28 years. Originally called the Creative Solutions (CSI) User Conference, the name recently changed to match that of its owner company.

But, new name or not, the conference still has what it takes to attract a crowd and send them away enthused and invigorated. This week I attended and spoke at this conference for the 22nd consecutive year (yup, I missed a few at the the beginning), and for the 22nd consecutive time saw a whole raft of satisfied users at a conference that seems to always raise the bar in planning, organization and most importantly --- content.

I was particularly impressed with Jon Baron’s keynote this year. His presentations have historically been very information dense and not particularly “inspirational.” This year was different, as we saw more personality and humanity and only a few highlights of new products and enhancements. I liked the softer Baron and it was evident that the crowd did, too.

The coming releases Baron announced included an UltraTax feature that will indicate the contributors and dependent forms for any specific form. In other words, a selected Schedule C would show Form 4562 as a contributor and Schedules SE and Forms 1040 and 2210 as dependents. Attendees I talked with were very excited about this new feature and saw it as a big benefit in training young staffers.   

I presented a couple of workshops there, but my personal  highlight was (again) the evening roundtables. I sat in a room of well over 400 attendees scattered at dozens of separate tables earnestly discussing everything from tax planning, to wireless networking, to practice management best practices, to social networking. All from 8 to 10 p.m. following a full day of classes. Amazing dedication.

So -- another year of “well done” to the TR crowd. I hope they invite me back for their 29th!