The COVID-19 Pandemic brought a lot of changes to my world – my whirlwind travel schedule abruptly came to a screeching halt, I got much better at teaching virtually (over a hundred virtual seminars and conferences), I started keeping bees, and my friend and mentor Randy Johnston and I started a podcast called “The Technology Lab” for CPA Practice Advisor. This post will provide some background on The Technology Lab and will also categorize some of the past episodes.
Why Did You Do A Podcast?
One of the first questions many people asked is, “why did you do a podcast?” The answer is actually pretty simple – the accounting community needs credible expert advice on software selection. Randy and I spend a lot of time together on the road, and we were speaking at dinner one night after a conference about how practitioners can learn more about software for their firms. We were both struck by how few credible reviews were created, and the low wordcount on those reviews made it difficult to learn the major things you want to learn when making a purchase decision – what the product is designed to do, what it costs, where it integrates, how it works, and the good, the bad, and (most importantly) the ugly.
What’s The Podcast Format?
The podcast is a 10-20 minute discussion between Randy and me about a single topic. That topic is commonly a software product/solution, but it can also be an interview, a discussion of important trends, or what we learned at a conference or other event. We try to keep things at the practical level – while we may mention technical topics like encryption or blockchain, but we know our audience neither wants nor needs to have a detailed review of the different algorithms/methodologies used to provide either of these technical topics. As my friend Gary Boomer is wont to say, “You don’t have to know how to build a watch in order to be able to tell time,” and our goal is to help you learn some of what you need to know about products and trends in accounting technology.