Yes or No?
Line and Jack flew to Sydney to attend the Accounting & Business Expo 2025 in March, and they’ve jumped to get tickets to Xerocon 2025 in Brisbane in September. Why attend an industry conference or expo? Do they actually hold much value for your business?
To be honest, they can be a bit cringey to us when they try too hard to give number crunching street cred. Also, they’re not cheap, and we don’t have money to burn just swanning around with other bookkeepers and accountants. So, is it because nerds of a feather flock together? Is it the sunny climes that win us over?
In this post, Line reflects on why you might say yes to an industry conference or expo, using benefits reaped from the Accounting & Business Expo as examples.
Continued Professional Development
One practical reason for attending is to earn Continued Professional Development points, which are a legal requirement for all Tax & BAS Agents. Keeping our knowledge up to date is essential for our work.
At the Accounting & Business Expo, we heard about new developments in the field, as well as upcoming government compliance changes that will impact our work.
Joyce Ong of Tax Nuggets Academy presented Millennials & Gen Z: How To Train, Retrain and Keep Them Engaged. It gave us guidance in how to set up a top notch training program, which we’re implementing for our team.
Face-To-Face Connection
When you work in ‘the cloud’ with staff, clients and service providers all over the world, it’s grounding to meet in real life when you can. A face-to-face chat can also help to establish a sense of rapport that you might not build via an email thread. Travelling to a conference might result in that person going the extra mile for you when you need them.
Accounting and bookkeeping conferences are often sponsored by software companies. There were dozens of stalls with representatives from apps and programs we use, so it was a great opportunity to speak to our friends at Xbert, Ignition, Employment Hero and Dext, which are all essential to our business.
We also wandered around and talked to people we didn’t already know, and found out about a lot of new tools that might help us to continue enhancing our services. We saw demos of Easy Accounting App (a new alternative to Xero for sole traders and small companies), Fathom (for dashboards and reporting), EFTsure (for bank payment security) and ATOmate (for automation of ATO documents).
Inspiration
Thought leaders: The term might give you the ick but they’re basically people who are dedicating their working lives to researching, contemplating and disseminating ideas that can change the way cultures and industries operate. There’s no shortage of them in business. You could buy a whole shelf of books, endlessly listen to podcasts, or give yourself eye strain reading blogs. Alternatively, you can catch a few presentations carefully curated by your industry’s annual conference.
Adrian Beales and Jon Ryall of Frontline Accounting presented The Blueprint for Offshore Success and gave us a book called OFFSHORE OR DIE! It’s a ‘how to’ guide for working with a remote team - offshore or otherwise - which I’ve found super useful.
Hacia Atherton presented Leadership Through Positive Psychology. Hacia is dedicated to transforming traditional leadership practices into a new paradigm defined by vulnerability, compassion, and empathy.
My favorite presentation was Day 1 Month End Close by The Bean Counters. Tyler Caskey and Daniel Foo were so generous, sharing technological ideas on how to eliminate double handling when doing end of month procedures.
A discussion panel on AI was featured, as usual, but the message this time was: Although the world keeps saying accounting is a dying field due to the takeover of the robots, we all know that is not going to happen any time soon. Phew! It was also great to hear how other firms are using technology. I definitely feel like we’re ahead of the game.
Community
I see Counting Clouds as a bit special. We have a unique client base (only cool people right?), the best team, and we’re not like ‘other bookkeepers’. Well, GUESS WHAT?? Other bookkeepers have the same challenges that we do!
At conferences, I hear their stories and their points of view. I hear about their struggles, be it with software programs or staying authentic while running a sustainable business. I like this. I find it equalising. It gets me out of my own head and reminds me that I’m part of a community.
Time Out
By the second afternoon we’d had enough of the conference centre, and decided to get our steps in by walking to Art Gallery of NSW. An exhibition called The Rites of When by Angelica Mesiti had been recommended to me by a friend, and I loved it.
It was beautiful weather, so after walking around the gallery we headed down to Circular Quay (because as a Dane I always have to visit the Opera House when I’m in Sydney).
The change of scene, the gathering of hundreds of people who are into the same thing as you, the fresh ideas and promise of new developments: It does create a buzz. It powers up your inspiration battery. So, even though an industry conference might not be the party of the year, I’ll still turn up and see what happens!
If you'd like to chat about any of the above presenters or apps, or if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to email us at help@countingclouds.com.au
