Workiva Conference Amplifies User Experience

Workiva held its annual Amplify user conference September 9 through 12 in Dallas. This year’s event brought together more than 1,900 Workiva software users and professionals from the accounting, finance and compliance sectors. Below are some of the conference highlights.

A full menu of informative education tracks included Accounting and Finance, Connected Data, Connected Reporting, Financial Services, Networking and Best Practices, SEC Reporting, and SOX, Audit, and Risk Management. Attendees were lined up out the door for the highly popular “Hands-On” classes. These allowed Wdesk users to participate on individual laptops and follow along with topics of interest taught by Workiva subject-matter experts. Several of the user sessions also included panels with industry thought leaders. As a Wdesk User, one of the session types that I found most valuable included small breakout groups where internal audit professionals from all different companies and industries shared best practices on how to incorporate Workiva into their daily processes.

Attending the event as a Wdesk partner-provider was especially beneficial, as we had the opportunity to meet with the product development team. In this special session arranged for us as a strategic partner, we were able to get a sneak peak of new software developments and updates. This was also a great forum to share our ideas and best practices for day-to-day software use related to SOX, internal audit, and consulting projects.

Workiva’s conferences are known for their impressive keynote speakers, and this year was no different. The keynote was Sal Khan, founder of Khan Academy, a Silicon Valley-based nonprofit with a mission of providing free, online world-class education for anyone, anywhere. Sal shared inspirational stories about how he formed his company and began to gradually deliver on his mission statement to students locally in California and, ultimately, all over the world. His stories about reaching students in Mongolia, as well as other areas in the world, where, sadly, girls are still prohibited from attending school, were uplifting and motivating to all who attended.

The conference ended on a high, fun note with Amplify Live, which included a carnival with food and games, a fortune teller, arcade, and rock concert performance by the X Ambassadors. We are already looking forward to next year’s Amplify!