IMGCAP(1)]These days, news travels at the speed of LinkedIn. But whether or not you were inundated with emails on the change, the best place to announce my arrival as the new technology editor is in this space that I will be happily helming.
I’m taking over for the recently departed Seth Fineberg, who has generously given me some insight into the role I’ll be assuming as editor-in-chief of AccountingTechnology.com and technology editor of Accounting Today.
I’ve had some experience, in my prior role as senior editor heading up the Accounting Tomorrow brand, with the innovators of the profession who represent a nice overlap between progressive practitioners and consultants and the technology crowd. But now I get the chance to drill deeper into a rapidly evolving market, led by some truly passionate and smart people.
So while Seth gave me some great background information, he also filled my inbox with new contacts, as those are the people with whom I will begin my initial education and continue to rely on (er, pester) to guide me through all the big news, changes and projections in accounting technology.
Also helpful, I must add, is my lineage. I come from a long line of tech geeks, reaching back to my electrical engineer great-grandfather and every subsequent generation attaining the same academic degree and continuing on to build buttons for NASA, attain patents for switch fabric architecture, and write books about networks in the cloud—right down to my recently-graduated brother now working as a quality engineer for a medical company.
My father has been jabbering at me long enough about the cloud that when he first mentioned it I had to remind him we lived in southern California—no need to talk about the weather. It basically doesn’t exist. And neither, back then, did serious conversations about the looming tech trend every business is now scrambling to adopt.
Since then, of course, I’ve seen the magical things he proselytized come to fruition, from virtual data storage to—I’m not ashamed to admit—the ability to watch television on-demand, anywhere, anytime, which at the time I dismissed as some kind of heavenly witchcraft.
Luckily, that fondness for television also served a professional purpose. After graduating from journalism school in L.A. (Fight On, Trojans!), I worked for a television trade magazine before making the big, scary move to New York and eventually landing at another trade publication, this time covering the relatively new function of corporate responsibility.
Through my time there, editing the magazine, website and helping compile our big, annual 100 Best Corporate Citizens list, I learned about the young process of sustainability and integrated reporting, which has carried over to covering the corporate responsibility-led trends in accounting and finance.
Now, I turn my attention to tech trends. In just the initial conversations I’ve had with my new contacts in the industry, I’m already buzzing with excitement about the themes that have emerged: cross-platform integration, niche applications, an increasing demand for human capital and talent management systems, and so much more.
The word “exploding,” was used more than once, which is obvious enough in reading—and now writing—every new story about a new round of financing, strategic alliance or recently appointed industry leader in the accounting technology space.
I look forward to hearing more of those words, the buzzy ones I’ve been familiar with, the esoteric ones unique to such a burgeoning market, and the simple “hello”s I look forward to imparting on all my new sources, contributors, educators, and soon—hopefully—friends in the industry. Feel free to contact me about news and submissions, as we’re always looking for new feature story ideas and expert columnists to round out our coverage.
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