After seven years it seems strange to be back at the CAAA Annual Conference. Readers of my former blog careditorsteve know the reason for my long absence.

The Craft of Accounting Research (CAAA) seems to be in good hands with the next generation, Hai Lu and Khim Kelly ( both former co-authors of mine).

The Canadian accounting profession is playing with things called enabling competencies (a.k.a. Soft skills, JADE, EQ)) but the most recent update of the competency map almost ignores the big data revolution and data analytics. Well I guess we can all be kind and understanding as the profession implodes due to lack of relevance. The minor changes to the key technical competencies last year to twerk towards some analytics knowledge and the focus on enabling competencies this year are most worrisome. Fiddle and Rome come to mind.

Nonetheless it was great to start to reconnect with a large cross-section of Canadian academia! But tomorrow the rubber meets the road and I will get my first read in a decade on the quality of research produced in Canada!