Virgin Group Founder Sir Richard Branson to Deliver Keynote at BlackLine Annual User Conference 2014 in Chicago

LOS ANGELES, Oct. 13, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Global business legend and pop culture icon Sir Richard Branson, founder of The Virgin Group, will deliver the opening keynote at the BlackLine Annual User Conference 2014 slated for Sunday to Wednesday, Nov. 16 to 19, in Chicago.  In his presentation, entitled "Screw Business as Usual," Sir Branson is expected to draw on his business acumen spanning travel to telecommunications, health to financial services, and music to leisure, including building the world's first commercial "spaceline,"as well as on his personal adventures and interests including competitive sailing and kitesurfing. 

The following day Geoffrey Moore, renowned author of the iconic book "Crossing the Chasm:  Marketing and Selling High-Tech Products to Mainstream Customers," will share his insights on marketing technology products based on his experiences during the early start-up period in Silicon Valley.  A third keynote will be given by John E. Van Decker, vice president of research at leading information technology research and advisory company Gartner, and a world recognized expert on financial software systems and applications.  Mr. Van Decker will share his insights on the latest market trends and discuss how he sees leading-edge companies increasing efficiencies and mitigating compliance risk through process automation.

Accounting/finance managers and compliance executives around the world use the BlackLine Finance Controls and Automation Platform and its suite of applications to automate traditionally manual, labor-intensive and spreadsheet-driven accounting and finance processes.  BlackLine's 2014 User Conference will attract senior accounting and finance professionals from leading brand name companies across the globe for the 4-day event.  Additional BlackLine User Conference speakers will include senior finance executives from many BlackLine client companies and partner firms.  

At the BlackLine Annual User Conference, clients from around the world are given an opportunity to:

• Learn best practices from BlackLine's team of experts
• Hear how experienced users from other companies, and in specific industries, creatively use BlackLine
• Preview upcoming software enhancements
• Directly influence the product direction going forward

The BlackLine Annual User Conference 2014 is taking place from Sunday to Wednesday, Nov. 16 to 19, at the Sheraton Chicago Hotel and Towers.  For more information, contact BlackLine Vice President of Marketing Howard Goldstein at [email protected].

About BlackLine
BlackLine is the leader in Enhanced Finance Controls and Automation software and the only provider today offering a completely integrated cloud platform—built from a single code base—that supports the entire record-to-report process, as well as a host of other key accounting and financial processes.  BlackLine's Finance Controls and Automation Platform increases business efficiency and visibility, while ensuring the highest degree of balance sheet integrity. 

Delivered through a scalable and highly secure cloud model, BlackLine empowers more than 900 global companies to reduce the time and resources required to execute month-end closing with unparalleled accuracy, fueling confidence throughout the entire accounting cycle.  With more than 100,000 users in over 100 countries, BlackLine complements existing Corporate Performance Management (CPM), Governance Risk and Compliance (GRC) and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems. 

Although BlackLine is ERP-agnostic, the BlackLine Financial Close Suite for SAP® Solutions is an SAP-endorsed business solution – joining the ranks of fewer than 40 other software offerings globally that are endorsed by the enterprise application software leader.  BlackLine also is an SAP Gold Partner, Oracle Gold Partner and participates in the partner programs of NetSuite and several other ERP providers. 

Company headquarters are in Los Angeles, with offices in Atlanta, Chicago, London, Melbourne, New York City and Sydney.  For more information, please visit www.blackline.com.  

Media Contact:
Kimberly Uberti
Director of Corporate Communications
BlackLine Systems
[email protected]

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SOURCE BlackLine Systems