The first two days at NASBA’s National CPE Expo have been outstanding. The event itself is first-rate all the way around and you can tell that hundreds of hours went into preparing for the inaugural CPE Expo.

Facilities:
The Henry B Gonzalez Convention Center is located right on the San Antonio Riverwalk. So, when your CPE session has a break and you step outside, you’re right by the water. This isn’t your typical stuffy convention center.

Food:
Conference attendees get breakfast and lunch served to them and I thought the food was quite good. It’s not your typical bagel and cereal continental breakfast…it’s an actual hot meal with fruit and whatever else you would typically want. The lunches are on the lighter side with a salad and sandwich or wrap.

Exhibits:
The exhibit hall was well attended by the typical names that you could think of in the CPE business and there were a lot of accounting product-related exhibits as well. On Monday, NASBA hosted a happy hour when the exhibit hall was first opened to attendees. I had an opportunity to meet a lot of people around the industry.

Sessions:
The selection of CPE courses was broad and I was able to pick some that are relevant to my career, which is somewhat hard to do since I really don’t work in accounting anymore.

My two favorite sessions were the Federal Tax Update and the class on the major differences between IFRS and GAAP. I liked the Federal Tax Update class because the instructor was engaging and walked around the room and interacted with the class. He didn’t stand a lectern and go through power point slides. He didn’t even use a power point presentation. The class was given a binder with the outline of his lecture and he walked us through today’s current events and how they affect taxpayers.

The class on IFRS vs GAAP was educational and head-spinning all at once. The instructor has consulted businesses on IFRS in over 30 countries and she definitely seemed to be the right person for the course. IFRS is principles-based and GAAP is rules-based. The US has a big learning curve ahead of it if IFRS is adopted.

I am taking a CPE class on IFRS implementation next.

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I am in San Antonio, Texas attending the NASBA National CPE Expo. The event takes place Monday, September 21 – Wednesday, September 23 at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center near the San Antonio Riverwalk.

Since I passed the CPA Exam in October 2008, I need 50 prorated hours of Accounting CPE by next June.

The conference starts Monday morning and the two Monday sessions I plan on attending are:

“Federal Tax Update Part 1 (Individuals)” and “Overview of Most Common Taxpayer and Tax Preparer Penalties“.

I am will be covering the event via Twitter as well. You can read more about that by visiting NASBA’s press release here.

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I will be attending NASBA’s National CPE Expo in San Antonio, TX from September 21 – 23. After passing the CPA Exam in 2008, I have until June 2010 to fulfill my prorated accounting continuing education requirements to keep my CPA license current. The three-day event will net me 22 hours of CPE.

There are some very interesting courses offered at the Expo, but in particular I’m looking forward to the 8 hour session that breaks down the comparison between IFRS and GAAP.

I assume that most of another71.com readers are CPA candidates and don’t yet have to worry about CPE, but if anyone is attending the Expo, e-mail me at jeff@another71.com and we can meet for a cold beverage.

Read more about NASBA’s National CPE Expo.

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