CPAs on Second Life

CPA Island welcomes IGAF Worldwide!

Why would an international group of accounting firms want to be in Second Life?

Answer: Student recruitment, appeal to young professionals, host meetings, offer training & CPE, and networking. Sounds a lot like real life doesn't it?

That's is what IGAF Worldwide CFO, Anne Hampson told me recently as we discussed where they wanted to build their new offices on CPA Island.

I couldn't agree more and applaud their vision. With over 200 colleges & universities in the virtual world, we have been saying that the CPA Profession needs to be here to be relevant to the "gaming generation".

I am almost positive that this makes them the first CPA firm association to take this big step. Their offices are very impressive (picture above) and I recently ran into Anne and some IGAF team members as they came in-world to attend heir first "virtual staff meeting".

Look for Anne Hampson (SL - Anne Wellesley) and IGAF CEO, Kevin Mead (SL - KevinMead Fairport), on stage as we feature them at our session titled, CPAs & Second LIfe on Monday, June 15th at 1:00 pm (PT/SLT) as part of the AICPA Tech Plus Conference - in Las Vegas. We will also be offering a live event from Baltimore and on virtually on CPA Island (that is where these virtual worlds really make a difference). We will actually be reaching audiences in all three venues at the same time!

So, welcome IGAF Worldwide and we look forward to working with you!

See details at our post CPAs & Second Life featured at AICPA Tech plus Conference

CPAs needed in Second Life?

Wherever there is an economy, CPAs will be needed. Considering that the virtual economy is one of the fastest growing economies around, there was a lot of interest in CPAs at yesterday's panel discussion with Beyers Sellers of Metanomics. You can watch the replay on SL TV by clicking here.

Beyers Sellers is a RL (real life) accounting professor, Robert Bloomfield, PhD at Cornell University's Johnson School of Business and he teaches a class on virtual world economics and has started a very successful "virtual talk show" in Second Life. The show, Metanomics is broadcast weekly on the SL TV network. SL pathfinders, Arlene Ciroula (Chili Carson) and Byron Patrick (Bean Wollongong) of KAWG&F joined me (Rocky Maddaloni) on the panel focused on what CPAs are doing in Second Life and an interesting discussion on taxes in virtual worlds.

We had to overcome some initial sound issues but overall the event went very well. One of the neat things about Second Life is the "back chat" that allows participants to "chat" during the show nd even have private conversations. The backchat was alive and well during this show and a lot of discussion and anxiety about the possibilities of taxing virtual cash. Another point Beyers made was that the lawyers are all over Second Life and the CPAs much less visible. The chart on the right is from our session with Linden CFO, John Zdanowski during the CFO Rising conference we also held virtually on CPA Island. It shows the growing economy and usage of Second Life and its economy. With over 50,000 businesses and over $100 million trading hands, there isw no question it is real. John will be doing another session on June 18th as part of the Maryland Business & Accounting Expo at the Baltimore Convention Center.

What do you think, why aren't more CPAs here? What do you think about taxing virtual transactions?

Is Second Life for Real?

When IT professionals and Training professionals begin to take virtual worlds seriously, it is time to pay attention.

CIO magazine ran an article titled, "This is Not a Game: Virtual Worlds Coming to Your Business, Forrester Predicts."  Within a few weeks, the American Society of Training & Development ran an article titled, "Second Life Produces Real Training Results." During the same period, we (MACPA) ran a real life / virtual (second life) presentation which you can read about in my prior post Accounting Education in Second life for details. I am excited about the possibilities of this "new" medium and believe real training can happen here for CPAs. You can read a recap of this at Professor Hornik's blog as well - he actually conducted a tour of his Second Life classroom via his avatar Robins Hermano.

The CIO article cites a Forrester Research report that says "within five years virtual worlds will be as important for work as the Web is today." It goes onto to advise "information and knowledge management professionals should begin to investigate and experiment with virtual worlds" today.

That is exactly why we have created CPA Island in Second Life.

How to visit us in Second Life:

Go to Second Life and create an account, login and create your avatar

Login to Second Life and join the SLACPA group (Second Life Association of CPAs)

Then search for "CPA Island" on the land menu and teleport to our island!

KAWG&F opens office on CPA Island

Above, Chili Carson gives a tour of KAWG&F new offices on CPA Island in Second Life. This was blogged from me (Rocky Maddaloni) from within Second Life during a presentation to CPA firms at the leading Edge conference in Chicago and at the AICPA IT Conference in Las Vegas. We sent the announcement out using te Second LIfe Association of CPAs group - SLACPA in Second LIfe.