No matter where you logged in from, thank you to all SCACPA members and presenters who banded together to turn the May 14-15 Virtual Spring Splash into a CPE success story.

More than 200 of you registered for the full two-day, two tracks of learning experience, and that number goes past 400 when we count how many of you attended individual sessions.

To deliver a side-by-side Tax track and A&A track required us for the first time in SCACPA history to deliver content on simultaneous classrooms, and – some early hiccups aside – we adjusted on the fly and made the experience work for everyone.

“While I genuinely enjoy and do miss my interaction with Spring Splash participants, I’m proud that our team pivoted quickly to offer you this online event,” SCACPA CEO Chris Jenkins said. “Unique times call for creative solutions, and our aim was to bring you an exceptional and problem-free online learning experience.

“I hope that we will back to normal by November, and I’ll have an opportunity to once again interact with each of you at Fall Fest.”

SCACPA is dedicated to delivering benefits to you in new ways in our current environment, and for now that means pivoting to livestream for the best member experience for you. We are trying new things, and there will be bumps in the road until we get it right. We rely on hearing your concerns so we know what works best for you, so please drop us a line at communications@scacpa.org.

Here is some feedback we heard from Virtual Spring Splash attendees:

“I enjoyed the ‘Tax Planning with R&D Credits’ webinar that I finished. The quality of content and webinar was very good, as was the audio and video. Easy to use.”

Harvey Heise, CPA, Chief Financial Officer, Buckeye Fire Equipment, Kings Mountain, North Carolina

“Chris, I am writing to let you know how much I appreciate the hard work that went into turning Spring Splash into virtual CPE for us. It can’t have been quick and easy to have made all this happen, especially with all the other disruptions brought to us by COVID.

“The four sessions I attended were the best SCACPA CPE I have ever attended, if not some of the best CPE from any source I’ve ever attended. The sessions were informative and useful, something at my age and experience level I don’t often find.

“Please share my gratitude with all the staff and let them know their hard work was worth it and appreciated.”

Walda Wildman, CPA, Walda C. Wildman LLC, Columbia

“Hey Chris. The webinars I attended Friday were EXCELLENT, particularly the partnership one. It was so good and practical. I look forward to more great CPE. I also want to tell you how much I appreciate the open forum chat room. It has been helpful. Thanks again for a job well done!”

Nancy R. Waring, CPA, Waring & Associates, CPAs PA, Florence

A Special Thanks to Our Presenters

In order to bring you the full livestream Virtual Spring Splash required that our presenters video recorded their presentation weeks in advance. The presenters were then available to monitor the chat room discussion of their sessions in the SCACPA Classrooms as they were broadcast.

Here are some reflections from our presenters about the experience, along with some things they learned along the way:

Bruce Nunnally, CPA

Instructor for the A&A sessions, “Financial Statement Analysis: Communicating Results” and “Common Deficiencies in EBP Audits and the New EBP Report”

“Thanks for having me as part of Spring Splash. I found the process to be very smooth. I was very pleased with SCACPA’s assistance. Alexandria Pierce and Jeff Jenkins were helpful and organized in getting my two recordings produced.

“I understand there were technical challenges on your end at the outset Thursday morning, but that was good in a way, because it sounds like your system was overloaded due to a large participation. As that happened, I noted in the chat rooms that anytime a participant was having a technical issue, one of your folks responded very quickly.

“From my two presentations, I found areas where I need to improve. I have participated in one virtual training session with the AICPA, and I have a couple more scheduled. I need to initiate more chat during the presentation rather than wait for a question. I’ve done virtual sessions for the FICPA and for the AICPA, and I’ve almost never had a question from a participant. Thanks to Virtual Spring Splash, I now have ideas on how to generate get more interaction in the future. Thanks again, Bruce.”

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Jason Pritchard, CPA, Partner, GreerWalker CPAs and Advisors

Instructor for the Tax session, “South Carolina Tax Changes – How Recent Changes Will Impact Your Tax Filings and Your Business”

“I’d be happy to share some thoughts. This was the first time I had delivered a pre-recorded CPE/training session using Zoom. Getting to interact with the SCACPA team on things like acoustics and video quality were interesting to see first-hand.

“In a live session, I normally use questions to create interactions with the audience. Monitoring the chatroom during the playback was also great. It was exciting to see over 300 SCACPA members in the chatroom. It also gave me a chance to interact directly with members who had specific questions of interest while not interrupting the video discussion for others.

“My topic happened to be on current events in SC, and we saw a handful of legislative and administrative changes in between the date I recorded the session and when the group saw it. The chat function allowed me to add updates and share links to the most recent guidance.

“While I miss seeing everyone at SCACPA’s live sessions, I think this event was well-planned, and I hope the viewers got a lot of good information.”

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Jennifer Louis, President, Emergent Solutions Group LLC

Instructor for the A&A sessions “Best Practices in Presentation and Disclosure for Nonprofits” and “Analytical Procedures: A Practical Approach.”

“I was happy to work with SCACPA to help put this virtual conference together. It took a lot of patience, flexibility and coordination on everyone’s part to make the dramatic shift to the virtual world – and I am happy to hear that it was a success.

“I hope it was enriching for all involved, but also a learning experience for how to adapt continuing education programs to best meet the needs of CPAs in our future together.”

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Melisa Galasso, CPA, founder and CEO of Galasso Learning Solutions and the Genuine Learning Blog, and SCACPA’s advisor on A&A topics

Instructor for A&A sessions of “Agreed Upon Procedures and Engagements,” “Auditing Accounting Estimates,” “Audit and Attestation Standards Update” and “What’s Going On at the FASB Update”

“Having the opportunity to tape the courses for Spring Splash ahead of time really helped ensure that there were minimal distractions. During one taping, my lawn service arrived and I had to pause so that there wouldn’t be mowing sounds in the background. Another time, UPS delivered a package and my dog decided the courier was trying to steal my child and barked incessantly. The ability to edit the content and give a clean version to attendees was really important to me.

“I’ve always enjoyed the questions in the chat room because it shows the engagement of the attendees. While nothing is quite like being in person with attendees, I’m glad SCACPA was able to provide the much-needed content real time!”

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David R. Peters, CPA, founder and owner of Peters Tax Preparation & Consulting, a financial advisor for Peters Financial LLC in Rock Hill, and SCACPA’s advisor on Business and Industry topics

Instructor for Tax sessions of “Partnership and LLC Income Tax Accounting Issues: Contributions and Distributions of Property, Transfers of Partnership Interests” and “Who Is a Dependent and Why Does It Matter?”

“In my typical in-person classes where I’m the presenter, I tend to ask lots of questions to the participants in the room. While recording my Virtual Spring Splash presentations, I was essentially talking to myself and anticipating what CPAs would want to discuss. I was glad to get to the day of the presentation to successfully interact with attendees in the chat room. It goes to show our profession is blessed to have highly knowledgeable professionals across South Carolina.”

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Thomas D. Pietras, CPA

Instructor for the A&A session, “Compilations and Reviews and FS Preparation-Common Peer Review Issues.”

“Other than Thursday morning’s technical difficulty when my class was starting, it was soon resolved and my experience was good. Not as good as being live with an audience, but under the circumstances, good. The recording of my session went smoothly and better than I expected.

“The chat experience during the session was good, though it took me a bit to figure out that a SCAPA staff member was there to handle non-content-related questions.”

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Edward Renn, JD

Instructor for the Tax session, “Opportunity Zones: IRC Sec. 1400Z Two Years On”

“Preparing materials is always a learning experience, and the new final QOZ regulations are substantial, but the recording of my piece went very smoothly and was handled professionally. My chat room experience was also positive.

“I would have loved to have spent a couple of days in Spartanburg, but I hope everyone had a good learning experience while staying safe. Best regards, Ed.”

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John Hanning, Principal, KBKG, Tax Credits, Incentives & Cost Recovery

Instructor for Tax session, “Cost Segregation and Bonus Depreciation Update”

“With the CARES Act just released, the timing could not have been more perfect, allowing us to demonstrate our understanding of the new tax provisions and provide thoughtful insight during our session. The virtual event was undoubtedly worth KBKG’s time and effort, since CPAs are our target market. We had a great experience with all who were involved in putting together this modified convention. It would be a pleasure to participate in any future events with SCACPA.”

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Brad Burnett, Tax attorney and instructor

Co-instructor with Lynn Nichols, CPA, for the Tax session, “COVID-19 to Cash: Working With Relief Program and Loss Rules”

“It was a pleasure working with Lynn Nichols in preparing the course and team teaching for the first time. Not only does he exude wisdom of the years, he is adventurous and fun to work with.”

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And Virtual Spring Splash is just the beginning. Throughout May and June, we will feature an incredible selection of CPE, including our planned in-person Spring Splash tracks of Government, Nonprofit, Ethics and Variety. Go beyond Virtual Spring Splash with these additional livestream selections, as we bring you 43 online courses for 86 hours of learning.

SCACPA is committed to delivering livestream CPE to you at your location for as long as this situation lasts. Thank you for joining us, and thank you for all you do to serve individuals and businesses in South Carolina.