Legal Marketing & PR

My first foray into Second Life was to collaborate on the first ever accounting video filmed entirely in SL. 

It was a blast visiting CPA Island to work with the fun and talented blogging and virtual training folks from Maryland Society of CPAs (producers and hosts), Steven Zelin and Edith Orenstein (singers/musicians) and a handful of top accounting industry bloggers (cast and crew). The full list, in no particular order, includes:

• Dee Day, MACPA conference manager
• Mike Tobias, MACPA network administrator
• Dave Albrecht, Concordia College, author of blog: The Summa 
• Colleen Cunningham, global managing director, finance and accounting, Resources Global Professionals, Resources Global Finance and Accounting Blog 
• Edith Orenstein, FEI Financial Reporting Blog 
• Gail Perry, managing editor, AccountingWEB 
• Bill Sheridan & Tom Hood, CPA Success (MACPA) 
• Tom Selling, author of The Accounting Onion 
• Darla Sycamore, IFRS News and Views 
• Mark Jankowski, co-founder and president, Shapiro Negotiations Institute
• Steven Zelin, "The Singing CPA"

Mine was just a bit part (I'm kinda shy, actually--I'm the blond on the right) but it was cool being a part of this production, and learning how to get around SL a bit. 

I am an absolute convert appreciating the platform's ability to effectively engage a virtual audience in meetings and webinars! Kudos to MACPA for building what they've built!

This accounting-related song parody "If I Were An Auditor" was written by Edith Orenstein to the tune of Bobby Darin's romantic 1966 hit "If I Were a Carpenter." She and Steven Zelin, better known as The Singing CPA, did the vocals for the video. Steven, whom I've featured on this blog before, has recorded four CDs of accounting parodies and children's music.

The result is a four-minute video that debuted today on the Financial Executives International Blog.

Why the silliness? 

Edith enjoyed the opportunity to pursue her passion for music, collaborate with other accounting bloggers, and promote FEI's blog at the same time, "...to perhaps cross-expose our [blog] audiences to each other and bring in some new viewers to learn about what our blogs and organizations have to offer." 

Per AccountingWEB:

The video was produced by the MACPA's Second Life team, chief among them network administrator Mike Tobias, conference manager Dee Day (who portrayed the bride in the video, opposite Shapiro Negotiations Institute's Mark Jankowski in the role of the groom) and CEO Tom Hood. 

"It was just another example of the power of social media and virtual worlds to build and strengthen real relationships," Hood told AccountingWeb. "... It was chance to do something really fun amid all of the angst over the economy -- a bright spot, if you will." 

Watch the video here. 

Read the lyrics. 

View photos from the virtual recording session.