Adapting Our Continuing Professional Education to the Virtual World
As the business community continues to adapt to the COVID-19 pandemic, we’ve invested a lot of time and research into determining the best way to serve our members and non-members during this time.
Which begs the question many of you have asked over the last few months, “How will MTAP be moving forward with our educational events for the remainder of 2020?”
Like many of you, this pandemic has opened our eyes to the possibilities of an increasingly virtual world. Especially when it comes to our ability to continue offering superior education to Michigan’s tax and accounting professionals.
We wanted to ensure any educational opportunities we offered for the remainder of 2020 were packed with as much value as possible, while putting the safety of our attendees first.
That is why we’re shifting exclusively to virtual education in 2020.
This shift brings new opportunities to deliver the personalized experience you’ve come to expect in a live, in-person seminar.
Here are just a few things we’re doing to make this a meaningful and impactful experience for you:
You’ll use the same registration process you’ve utilized in prior years to ensure your “virtual seat” is secured and customer support is familiar.
We don’t want this to be a technology headache for you, so we’ve designed the log-in and participation process to be as easy and user-friendly as possible!
Our confirmation reminder that comes a week before the event will include a link to a “practice webinar” where you’ll log-in, enter the room and test your audio and video connection for compatibility. If your set-up isn’t compatible, you’ll learn it far before the event, giving you time to correct it so your event experience is free from disruption.Each webinar is segmented into 50-minute presentation blocks followed by 5-minute Q&A and 5-minute breaks before starting the next session.
Our event speakers will also be hanging out in the chat box to answer any questions you may have as well.
The only significant change is the requirement that each registrant provides an email address that will be used to log in and be tracked for time when answering polling questions that confirm participation.
We can still process multi-firm registrations from a firm, but since the system only allows for one registrant per transaction, we’re asking firms with multiple registrants to call us at 517-641-7505 so we can transact for them in a fraction of the time (please have emails for each registrant on hand at the time you call).
To further insure a easy, seamless webinar experience, check out our FAQ page detailing how you can easily participate in a GEAR UP virtual event!
To test your system for webinar compatibility, click here.
So, how much will it cost?
The biggest change in going virtual will be the price . . . and that brings great savings for you!
Our members have normally paid $339 for a 16-hour in-person GEAR UP 1040. The new, discounted price will be $299 for both an Active and Associate member.
The Business Entities Seminar was normally $189 and now its $164, or a $25 savings per registrant . If you have more questions concerning your investment, don’t hesitate to reach out and ask questions here.
What about networking with other practitioners and vendors?
We realize our live events have offered an excellent opportunity for you to network with other members, non-members, and outside vendors.
Vendors will still be participating in our virtual education and we’re currently working with them to ensure their presence is beneficial to them and our attendees.
Fostering community is what we’re about at MTAP, and it’s not ideal or fun for us not to connect with our members in-person. However, we’re 100% committed to offering as many opportunities as we can to provide networking opportunities online.
This was a big reason we launched our members-only Facebook Group. Inside the group, MTAP members can ask questions, request recommendations, and engage in discussion with one another. We highly encourage all of our members to join and be a part of this interactive community!
When you’re faced with change you have two choices: embrace it or resist it.
This has been a difficult and challenging time for many of us. However, we have truly embraced this pandemic as an opportunity to completely revamp the way in which we show up online.
Why? Because it’s important to us to support main street’s tax and accounting professionals wherever they are, no matter the season.
We appreciate your grace as we launch our virtual education, and welcome your feedback on ways we can make this a more valuable experience for you as we move forward.
To register for an upcoming seminar simply head to this page on our website or call us at 517-641-7505.