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My first Xerocon experience

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My first Xerocon experience
By Admin

While Sophie assured me that Xerocon was ‘cool’, I have to admit that I had my reservations before last Thursday. Being a conference of over 1000 Accountants, I was envisioning talk of debits and credits, crunching numbers and the latest tax loopholes - which was not exactly within the realm of what I would generally describe as being ‘cool.’

Xerocon was a chance for us to showcase Figured 2.0 and connect with our early adopter Accountants (special shout out to the hour long chat with Brett from FarmIT and Martin from Business Results Group regarding Figured 2.0 at the Marvel Grill on Thursday night), but the event proved to offer much more than I expected.

Not only have I never received so many hugs from Accountants before, but I was also blown away by the energy of everyone present, the whole feel of the event awe inspiring - it made me want to spend the weekend learning to code and watching TED talks on how big data is going to change the world we live in (start with Lillian Grace’s).

Yep, that’s right I’m talking about an accounting conference.

I can’t pinpoint exactly what it is that made Xerocon such a uniquely inspiring event, but if I had to caution a guess I would say it was the people.

Every person present all had a certain sense of enthusiasm and contagious drive, now that I’m back in the office it seems strange to write down, but it made you feel like anything was possible and as we enter the age of technology, exciting things are about to happen. It made me feel proud to be part of a business that is challenging the way we as farmers and rural accountants work together and how technology can be a driver of this change.

I also found Xerocon was an awesome opportunity to listen to some pretty amazing speakers, most of whom are experts in their field, sharing insights into how they think and what they are predicting the future to hold. (Also on another note, I plan to include the word ‘dynamic’ in all of my work - cheers for the tip Graham Lowe.)

The highlight for me being Ben Richmond from Xero and our very own Sophie Stanley speak about how technology is shaping the future of farming. Their passion for farming and improving financials in the industry being clearly evident, with exciting inroads being made into industry benchmarking and increasing budgeting rates amongst farmers.

So, two days, roughly 30 free ASB coffees and one (very exciting!) award later, I have to agree with Sophie - Xerocon was ‘cool.’

For those of you who haven’t been yet, pencil it in the diary for next year as a dynamic event not to be missed.