Surviving #QBConnect

Posted on November 4, 2018 by MrsAustinNexus

It’s hard to believe that this will be QuickBooks Connect #5! I’m excited to say that I’ve attended each & every one of them, and they have all been filled with moments of inspiration, entertainment, celebration, and memories that will last for many more years to come! As I pack my bags & head to The Bay (yes, I know the way to San Jose) this year, I thought I’d share just a few of my #ProTips on making the most of your time…

Caffeinate/ Hydrate!

The week will be grueling! You’ll start early, end late, and be on the go nonstop. I make at least one, usually two trips to Philz Coffee each day, just to survive. You’ll also see me chugging water as fast and often as I can (for those who don’t like buying $5 waters at the hotels, there’s a Safeway within easy walking distance of the convention center).

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Bring your Dancing Shoes (and a lot of them)!

You’ll be on your feet ALL. DAY. LONG. I highly recommend bringing a few pairs of shoes to change into on different days, because if you’re like me, your boots were NOT made for walking!

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Be Yourself

Unless you can be a unicorn…then be a unicorn (and drink plenty of #UnicornLibations). QuickBooks Connect is such a great opportunity to meet with partners, small businesses, developers, and colleagues from around the globe. I’ve heard story after story over the years about new strategic relationships starting at QBC and blossoming into great partnerships. Don’t let this chance slip by. Make the most of it & make as many new connections as you can by being authentically you.

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Don’t get Star Struck

We’ve seen Oprah, Martha Stewart, Michael Phelps, and some amazingly inspirational celebrities & entrepreneurs at QB Connect over the years. I think the best lesson I’ve learned is not to go into the event assuming you know what the message will be – if you keep an open mind, you might find that it will be blown when you least expect it.

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And remember, at the end of the day, we’re all the A-List here at QB Connect – they’ve rolled out the QuickBooks green carpet for us all!

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Make time for Friends

Perhaps my very favorite thing about QB Connect is the guest list. It’s the biggest event I attend each year, and sometimes it’s the only chance to give real-life hugs to some of my favorite customers, partners, and friends. Don’t be so busy rushing from session to session that you forget to take a few minutes to enjoy being together. This community is amazing, and each of us play a part in making it better each day.

Get Your BeautyFunction Sleep

For me, I have to make choices. I can stay out late & pretend that I’m the life of the Avalara & TSheets Party, or I can get to bed, get up early for my cardio session, and actually be semi-functional each day. If you can manage both, more power to you, but for the rest of us, my advice: Take a few photos, then tweet them the next morning & nobody will know what time you snuck off to bed!

Soak it All In

I know I’m biased, but Intuit throws a greatparty! We’re here to work hard, learn hard, but play hard too. Keep that in mind as you go about your business this week. As my great-grandmother used to say, “The happiest people on earth are those who make play out of work”.

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One of my favorite memories of QB Connect was getting to lead a Power Panel session last year with an all-star line up. I had to pinch myself just a bit to make sure I was actually working & not dreaming!

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Learn from Smart People

People ask why QB Connect is always in San Jose. Well, with Intuit HQ just up the way in Mountain View, it allows us to send some amazing resources to the event to listen, learn, and interact with some of our most valued customers & partners. If I can help you get connected to anyone on your list – please let me know! My job this week is to make sure you get the absolute most out of your time with us!

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Be Scrappy

A note to my fellow Intuit Teammates: We’re the hosts here, so take the opportunity to roll up your sleeves & jump into the mix (especially if that means getting out of your comfort zone!). This week will be a success if we deliver awesome to our thousands of guests, and that may mean going the extra mile to do so. Let’s be sure we do whatever it takes to show QBC 2018 that Intuit cares (whether that means retrieving partners’ luggage, or settling for the way back seat in the jam-packed SUV – hey, just be sure you’re in good company back there!).

Don’t expect to be productive on Friday…

I suggest keeping your obligations (outside of nap taking) to a minimum when you get back from San Jose. Mark my words: You. Will. Be. Dead. Tired. Prescription for Post #QBConnect recovery: LOTS of R&R!

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Leave Them Wanting More

Finally, I couldn’t put this together without the reminder that this is Brad’s last QB Connect as Intuit’s beloved CEO. I have been privileged to serve at Intuit under this amazing leader for the past 5 years, and I consider that one of my top professional honors. As our fearless leader welcomes us all to his house this last time for QBC 2018, let’s all follow suit with his sentiment and remember to give it our all, and ensure that each & every person who walks through those convention center doors can’t wait to come back next year for more!

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#FriendsThatLift

Posted on November 9, 2015 by MrsAustinNexus

This past week was a whirlwind trip to #QBConnect…an amazing time with so many awesome people. I knew before I left that I would blog about the trip, but it wasn’t until Wednesday night that I realized it wouldn’t be a real QBC 2015 blog without it including Kelly Bistriceanu (Kelly B to some of us). So we got together & jotted down our thoughts on how we got through the last crazy week. Without further adieu, here you have, a View From OUR Shoes…

We’ve both been on the road nonstop for weeks, and constantly doing “the best we can” to stick to our programs – eat right, sleep enough, workout as much as possible. But anyone who travels like we do knows how difficult this can be during conferences.

We’ve traveled together enough to know that it’s entirely possible to implement the buddy system for the greater good. Instead of slacking off together, sleeping in & sneaking back to our room with dessert, we’ve often held each other accountable and gotten up before the sun to get in our morning workouts, and have made many impromptu Trader Joe’s/ Whole Foods pit stops to ensure we’re sticking to our healthy eating plan. Heck, even when we’re not together we still manage to spur each other on.

It’s always possible, it just requires a little planning & a lot of commitment. Our #QBConnect plan of attack actually started weeks ago, as we emailed & texted each other, strategizing about shelf-stable portable meal ideas to take with us in the car for our 10+ hour journey to San Jose. We even spent our weekend in Palm Springs in the gym getting pumped up for the big show…

We were prepared to succeed and we stuck together to make it happen. #QBConnectOrBust didn’t have to bust our program.

Looking back on the past year, working out & eating right are just two examples of the Kelly & Kim strategy to building a solid partnership. It is our work worlds that have brought us together, after all, and we’ve taken full advantage of that whenever possible. From mutual introductions to industry contacts, to co-presenting at national accounting firms, to driving across the country to meet with more firms, to Friday night email conversations, to weekend strategy calls in airports while traveling to our next event, the partnership we’ve built has evolved from professional colleagues to “work friends”, and ultimately friends – no strings attached.

As hectic as life on the road can be, having someone who’s there to lift you up (or wake you up), bring you coffee (or pre-workout), give you a hug (or share a backseat of an SUV for almost 11 hours), and cheer you on to the finish line (or crawl over it right next to you), can be the most amazing gift. In a world where so many people try to keep personal-life/ work-life in two distinct boxes, for us there’s really no separation of the two. Now that we’ve helped each other survive & thrive when it’s needed most, we’ll always be #FriendsThatLift.

About Kelly…

Kelly Bistriceanu is the Accountant Program Director at TSheets Time Tracking. An avid competitive runner, fitness competitor and group exercise instructor, Kelly thrives personally and professionally by ensuring her passion for fitness integrates seamlessly into her road warrior life style. When not traveling the globe, helping accounting professionals become successful TSheets PROs, Kelly and her husband Daniel call beautiful Boise, Idaho home base. Follow Kelly’s #TSheetsWorldTour adventures on twitter and Instagram @KellyTSheets.

6 Ways We’ll Know if #QBConnectOrBust is a Success

Posted on October 28, 2015 by MrsAustinNexus

That’s right – we’re doing it again! Why fly when you can spend the entire day driving to QuickBooks Connect! As you can imagine, a lot can happen when you put 6 people in a Ford Expedition for 445.5 miles, but here are 6 ways that we’ll know the trip was worth our effort!

If we get there & Wally World is open

If we avoid the need to intentionally drive the car off a cliff while holding hands and humming aloud Hans Zimmer’s “Thunderbird”

If we don’t have to leave Richard’s luggage on the roadside to make room for our dead uncle in the trunk area

If nobody strips down to their tighty-whities and succumbs to the invisible fire after crashing into a ravine alongside Interstate 5 near the Grapevine

If we don’t find out in Bakersfield that there’s a bomb in the car that will go off if Brian lets the car go below 50mph

If we arrive in San Jose safely in our rental car and not a Las Vegas PD squad car with a tiger in the back seat

Be sure to follow all of us for #QBConnectOrBust updates! We’ll be tweeting from the road as we make our way to #QBConnect on Sunday, November 1.

Kim Austin | The Hostess with the Mostest | @Kimtuitive

Brian Austin | The Transporter | @AustinNexus

Kelly Bistriceanu | The Party Starter | @KellyTSheets

Gail Perry | The Documentarian | @GaPerry

Jan Haugo | The Troublemaker | @JazFu n

Richard Roppa-Roberts | Curmudgeon | @NeverCallMeRich

16 Things I Learned on #QBConnectOrBust

Posted on November 9, 2014 by MrsAustinNexus

I’m in the car on my way to #Solutions14. Of course, there are no @Intuitaccts challenges, only two of us in the car, and it’s just about 4 hours to Vegas instead of 443 miles to San Jose…but before I close the book on #QBConnect as the last big conference, I had to recap what I learned during this journey.

Hotel room keys typically work best when trying to enter the correct room (right, Jan?)
There is exactly a right amount of cream that Kelly should put in her coffee – and Brian can tell her when “that’s enough”
When Richard warns you that you’ll likely want to throw him out of the car during the drive – keep in mind, he might be so right it happens before you leave the parking lot
3 people can spend 4 hours putting together a 12+ hour playlist, and the most notable song of the trip may still have been sung to the tune of “Wheels on the Bus” accompanied by a kazoo
After 4 hours, not even one of those 3 people will think to test the audio connection in the vehicle to ensure it is actually equipped to play from an MP3 player
When you need tech support – you’re extra thankful you invited a millennial along for the ride, Madeline to the rescue!
When half of the passengers in a car were born in 1983 or later, the question “Do You Know the Way to San Jose” will invoke Siri and Google maps for reference material (now we all know to ask Gail)
Kazoos are not as easy to play as you may think
It’s completely possible to convert 3 QuickBooks Desktop files to QuickBooks Online from the backseat of a car filled with 6 #QBConnect Attendees (in fact, a few of them might even help out a little) somewhere between Valencia and Fresno
Writing “Honk if you love QuickBooks Online” on the back of a Ford Expedition gives the driver an excuse to cut off traffic whenever necessary to elicit additional honks/ “likes”
It’s entirely possible to stretch a 6 hour 41 minute drive to 10 hours by stopping at 3 Starbucks, 2 McDonalds, 1 In-N-Out Burger, and a gas station (plus the emergency AV cord recon)
Posing with David Leary’s head on a stick can double your social impressions
The aftermath of 6 business professionals in an SUV for 10 hours resembles a typical college dorm room on a Sunday morning – one word: HazMat
A great way to redeem yourself after almost being thrown out of the car 5 minutes into the trip is reminding Brian to check the gas gage at 4 miles till empty (can you say Thelma & Louise?)
The best way to assure you’ll leave #QBConnect more exhausted than any other conference is to arrive there already wiped out from a day in the car
If you ever want to get to know, love, and appreciate 6 of your “favorite industry colleagues”…call them up and invite them to take a ride to San Jose. You’ll remember it for a long long time – Do I have any takers for #QBConnectOrBust 2015?

View From My Shoes

Tag Archives: QuickBooks Connect

Surviving #QBConnect

16 Things I Learned on #QBConnectOrBust