Taxware Summit 04 Highlights

Transaction tax experts from across the country converged on the Colonnade Hotel in Boston during the second week of October for the Taxware Summit 04. There, they heard presentations from Taxware's management, content experts, and developers...from Taxware customers and business partners...and from a variety of knowledgeable guest speakers including:

Loren Chumley, Tennessee Department of Revenue
Wade Downey, Downey, Smith, & Fier
Ernie Dronenburg, Deloitte
Andrew Eskin, Piper Rudnick, LLP
Bruce Johnson, Utah Tax Commission
Stephen Kranz, Council on State Taxation (COST)
Scott Peterson, South Dakota Department of Revenue
Scott Walters, PricewaterhouseCoopers

Following is a brief review of the Summit through pictures and video.

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Taxware customers, partners, staff, and guest speakers flew in from all parts of the country.
The well-attended general session featured the premiere of the company's new "We are Taxware" corporate video. It's ten minutes long and provides a concise overview of Taxware and its role in the marketplace.
Taxware Corporate Video

Click on the image to download and play a Windows Media File of Taxware's new corporate video, "We are Taxware."
The Summit featured presentations from Taxware's senior management team and mapped out the company's product and corporate strategy. One of the most exciting announcements was the formation of a new Enterprise Solutions Group, which will afford Taxware the ability to provide an "end to end" solution for its customers.
Dave Treinen, President of First Data Government Solutions (FDGS) and the top executive at Taxware, talked at length about the many FDC resources that Taxware has at its disposal - and how they benefit Taxware customers.
Vice President of Government Affairs Charles Collins explained how Taxware is at the forefront of the Streamlined Sales Tax Initiative (SSTI) - and how Taxware will be one of the first Certified Service Providers (CSP) out of the gate in 2005.
Taxware's own staff led nearly twenty different sessions at this two-day event, covering topics ranging from "The Importance of Adapters in Implementing Tax Systems" to "Taxation of Internet Sales." The sessions were highly interactive, with customers and guests frequently posing questions and citing real world examples of the transaction tax challenges that they face.
Richard Ainsworth, Senior Tax Counsel, led a number of sessions at the Summit including a discussion on the tax implications of drop shipments.
What are the implications of building a tax system from scratch? That was the question that International Research Lead Camilo Martinez answered during a session on post-Saddam Iraq.
Charles Maniace, Tax Counsel, led a session on the growing appeal of Sales Tax Holidays - something that nearly a dozen states are now doing every year.
Todd Nelson, Technical Support Manager, JoAnn Gard, Senior Technical Support Engineer, and Mark Ingersoll, Senior Technical Support Engineer, talked in detail about the latest release of Taxware's Sales and Use Tax product.
A number of leading Taxware customers made presentations or participated in panel discussions at the Summit including Countrywide, Intel, The Sherwin-Williams Company, and Pep Boys.
Michael Figueroa, Vice President of Tax Compliance Systems, and Kimberly Lebid, Senior Tax Accountant, Countrywide, spoke about the company's recent decision to go with Taxware Enterprise.
Jan Callaghan, Product Line Manager for Global Indirect Taxation, and Gus Rivera, U.S. Sales Tax Manager, Intel, long time users of Taxware's Sales and Use Tax product, talked about the strategy to move the company to Taxware Enterprise.
The Summit also featured nearly a dozen Taxware business partners. They either participated in the partners exposition, ran advertisements in the printed Taxware Summit Guide, or made formal presentations during the program.
This year's event included a motivational speech from Mike Eruzione, Captain of the 1980 U.S. Olympic Hockey Team, which, against all odds, defeated the top-ranked Soviet team more than twenty years ago. Eruzione spoke of the importance of teamwork and striving for excellence.
Olympic Hockey Star Mike Eruzione displays the Taxware jersey designed specifically for this event.
Following his presentation, Eruzione gave autographs to Taxware Summit attendees.