Earlier this month, accountants and bookkeepers industry wide celebrated as the most eagerly awaited event, Xerocon, came to Brisbane. Hannah, Jason and Nataliya joined more than 3,000 other industry professionals to celebrate and learn at the 10th annual event.
One of the first things the team noticed at this year’s event was the stripped back approach. Unlike previous years, there were no glitter cannons (although plenty of hype in other areas such as a “boardroom” skateboard pipe and interactive art piece by Mulga), but a big emphasis on community, health and wellness and the environment. There was, as predicted, an array of information provided at the event with keynote speakers, breakout speakers, product focused sessions and pop-up app partner stalls. This enabled the team to get the best information available to implement in the firm and pass onto clients.
One of the big announcements at this year’s Xerocon was Xero’s new partnership with Stripe, an auto pay services which will allow client using Xero to further automate the invoice to payment process. On average, Xero invoices using Stripe get paid 15 days faster than those without an auto pay service, meaning less debtor chasing and better movement for cash flow.
Another area that got a lot of traction at Xerocon was the understanding the benefits of technology in small business. As explained by Xero Australia’s Managing Director, Trent Innes, investing in information and communication technology (ICT) can have big benefits. Business who invest more than the average 1% of revenue in ICT are 68% more likely to be growing. This also looks like a 5.2% increase on employment and 3.5% larger revenue growth than those who do not invest.
However, it was not just the products and industry information that impressed.
“One of the speakers that really stood out for me,” Hannah, Walker Hill’s Marketing and Events Coordinator, said, “was Craig Hudson’s [the Managing Director of New Zealand and Pacific Islands] heart felt and raw speech about how he struggled with imposter syndrome and feeling lost when first moving to NZ. It was a very brave speech to give and a powerful way to start a conversation. It also really set up Xerocon as more than just a product conference and gave it a very holistic approach to discuss big issues.” Aside from many great tips and tricks coming for our clients, Nataliya, Walker Hill’s amazing bookkeeper, said that one of the most noteworthy items from the event came from speaker, Peter Baines. Peter spoke about the importance of leadership and gave a heartfelt talk on his leadership experiences in Thailand, recapping his experiences of leading Australian and International police a tragic tsunami. Not only did this talk highlight the importance of leadership itself, but of genuinely caring about the people you are leading. Walker Hill’s Practice Manger, Jason, got a lot of value and tips around staff training and educating from Xerocon. After the event, Jason is inspired to change up the way Walker Hill approaches internal training and upskilling of the team to include specific metrics for each team member. Jason also ca not wait to do some further education and reading that was recommended. His first read is going to be 10 Steps to Successful Mentoring by Wendy Axelrod which was suggested in one of the breakout sessions that he attended.With the excitement and lessons from Xerocon over for another year, Hannah, Nataliya and Jason look forward to implementing some of the new features, products and movements in the firm and for our clients.
