Seth Fineberg Shares His Favorite Accounting Conferences for 2026

Tight deadlines, rising client expectations, and constant technology changes put year-round pressure on accountants. To stay competitive, professionals need more than regulatory updates. They need continuous learning, peer interaction, and insight into emerging industry trends.  

Accounting conferences provide practical learning, real-world insights, and opportunities to connect with peers facing similar challenges. The right events help accountants sharpen strategies, expand advisory skills, and prepare confidently for the future. 

Ace Cloud Hosting spoke with Seth Fineberg, founder of Accountants Forward and an accounting industry consultant, content strategist, and speaker. With over 30 years of experience observing the profession’s evolution, Seth has seen firsthand how firms are reshaping their services to stay relevant and responsive to client needs. 

In this insightful video, Seth highlights the top five accounting conferences in the U.S. worth attending this year and explains how these events can deliver real value for firm leaders, partners, and practitioners alike. 

Must-Attend Accounting Conferences by Seth Fineberg

Video Transcript

Hi again, Seth Fineberg here. It’s the end of the year. Or perhaps, beginning, for some of you watching this for the first time. Every year, I kind of like to put together a bit of a round-up, if you will, of all of the accounting events going on here in the United States. There are quite a few of them, very happily, quite a few of them.   

It’s great to see, really, since the pandemic, the rise of a lot of, I guess, more intimate events, things that are very more purpose driven, for, a lot of different aspects of your business and your work life and, I think a lot of the organizers and people, even on the outside of it, realize that it’s an investment of your time, you’re breaking out of your comfort zone.  

A lot of factors are at play for the idea of getting out to an accounting event. Now, it’s hard for me to really pick any of them, above all, because what might be right, in my view, might not be right for you. You need to find the ones that fit best for you. And it could even be something that’s very local, a meetup, something that your state society might be putting on, what have you.   

But on a national scale, it really is, the end of the day, you’re getting out, meeting other accountants, you’re connecting with other professionals just like you, who share a lot of the same views, a lot of the same issues. 

I guess the old saying goes, you go further together once you’re able to really break out of that comfort zone a bit and get to a live event and, really connect with some of your colleagues, I think you’ll realize, some of what you might be not only missing, but meeting in your professional life.   

So, again, while it’s difficult for me to break out, and, or even rank, some of the top accounting conferences, I am going to give you a list of, I would say five to strongly consider this year, even if it’s just one, all of these serve, a very unique purpose, I think, for accountants, again, in their focus and the types of professionals that go, opportunity to meet other vendors, pretty much everything, over, just a few short days.  

#1 Firm Growth Forum 

Okay. So the first one out of the gate for me has to be. And, I’m going to try to be as unbiased as I can. Firm Growth Forum Now, this is going into its fourth year. This is put on by the folks at Arizent and also, specifically, Accounting Today.  

Accounting Today has several events throughout the year. This is probably their biggest, but, you know, some of the others are growing as well. Now, I don’t want you to feel like, oh, well, this is going to be attended by thousands of people, I’m going to get lost. I won’t know what to do. This is actually a relatively or comparatively intimate event that usually attracts close to about 400, or so professionals, also mixed in with some of the vendors in the community.   

Now, as the title would suggest, Firm Growth Forum is very much geared towards accounting professionals who are in some kind of growth mode or mindset. Now, that doesn’t mean this is reserved for some of the largest firms out there. Quite the opposite. It’s anyone you know who is running a firm. Maybe you’re just a couple million, and you want to get to the next level or several million, or you’re even in the 50-plus range. 

Growth means a lot of different things to different leaders. You can grow in size. Of course, you can grow geographically. You’re looking for mergers, acquisitions, things like this, or you can grow by adding services. Everything in that realm is kind of on the menu at Firm Growth Forum.  

And, this year, I understand that they are going to be adding some more workshops. Really, people come away with a lot more practical ideas, and they’ll even kind of work to get you on your way. That takes place in San Diego on May 19th and 20th of this year.   

#2 Bridging the Gap

The Second one I’m going to recommend to you is also a comparatively intimate event, Bridging the Gap. You may have started to hear buzz about this event. It was created out of the need to have an event that was uniquely human in nature. 

It, focuses a lot on, on your own personal growth, as a leader or someone within a firm who is sort of looking for, you know, the, kind of the, take the next step, whether it’s within your firm or within the profession as a whole, you’re going to meet other like minded professionals there who have that in mind. It also tends to bridge the gap in firm size.   

You might be working at a pretty small firm or a small practitioner, and you could meet someone from maybe a comparatively larger firm, to your own, and sort of learn from them. They can learn from you, as an accounting professional; you’re all basically in the same field.  

And I think, as I said at the outset, there’s a lot to learn from each other. That one is likely going to be, probably July of this year, I would say July or August, probably late, late July, I would say, of this year, get to know bridging the gap, for anything that’s really going to be kind of deeply personal for you and going to help you on your own personal growth as a firm leader cannot be missed, cannot be overstated. 

#3 Scaling New Heights  

Third, what I’m going to recommend is a bit larger in size. Don’t mean to focus on, and on size so much, but, again, if this is for a lot of people who may, you know, I’ve heard names out there, maybe not getting out to as many conferences is, Scaling New Heights. Now that’s taking place in Orlando, Florida. It’s put on by the Woodard Group and has been, for quite some time. 

I myself have watched this event grow from a fairly intimate, 75 to 80 person event to one that is now, over a thousand or so, but moreover, it is growing into a true expo. So, if you are, in the bookkeeping or even tax field, what have you, this takes place, June, I believe, 14th to the 17th, in 2026, in Orlando, Florida.   

So, if you’re a firm that really is looking for the latest and greatest in tech or just sort of don’t know in a particular category, it is a great way to, as I like to say, kick the tires. You are going to have sort of the largest selection of accounting or accounting-related vendors, and service providers, in one room, where you can, kind of get a demo from them or start conversations or just get to know certain brands and certain categories.   

And of course, there’s lots of, you know, lots of learning, lots of sessions to potentially attend, and, of course, some of the social networking there is really at a very high level. So, Scaling New Heights definitely highly recommends that for the tech-minded. 

#4 Reframe

The fourth is a little different. It’s also another slightly, comparatively intimate event, but it’s one that I really have shown a high degree of respect for, and that’s the Reframe event.   

So, Reframe is kind of changed, its focus a little bit each year, but it’s one that is put on by. It’s going to be in the fall of this year that they don’t have the actual date just yet for 2026. Last year was in Coral Gables, Florida, put on by the Garcia brothers. That would be Carlos and Hector.   

Some of you might know them from being in the ProAdvisor world, or, you know, having, QuickBooks and related technologies as your base, Hector and his brother put on Reframe. 

I think, with the sole purpose of giving you, the practical the useful, the real kind of meet, if you will, for, you know, getting on top of technology, getting on top of the latest practices and best practices for, serving your clients, understanding tech better and tech changes and how these affect you as a, professional again, every year that kind of change the theme of just a little bit and, really kind of tend to dig in. 

#5 Digital CPA

Finally, honestly, if a few years ago, I would have definitely put this on a list of five to definitely, definitely a ten. But I’ve always attended; it wasn’t necessarily for everyone. But after attending this past year’s event, Digital CPA. 

Now there’s this event put on by CPA.com and AICPA collectively, at the end of every year always comes in early December. This year it will be out in now or rather in 2026 it will be out in San Diego, California. Look for details there.  

It’s a great way, I think, not only for firm leaders, but anyone who is even in a leadership-type role, whether it’s CAS or audit, or tax, you’re running a practice or a section of a practice, and you really want to kind of touch base with other folks in that arena. And really be on top of the latest trends impacting the profession, particularly with a technology that has always had a technology bent to it, because let’s face it, technology has permeated all business.   

But, it’s very rare that you can run a practice, these days, or a section, you know, practice area, without really understanding how technology impacts all of those decisions. So, whether it’s tax, audit, AI, professional management, anything in between, Digital CPA is definitely kind of the last word on that.   

So, those are my five that I’ve picked. Again, there are, really, a couple of dozen more that are out there on the market, and definitely watch for my list coming in probably late January sometime. I’d like to put together a fuller list, with links, especially, as you know, conferences. I’ll confirm their dates and things like that.  

I like to put those in there. Thank you so much for listening. And definitely get out to one of the five that I mentioned for sure. 

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