It’s one of the most exciting events on the accounting calendar – Xerocon is here! Thousands of accountants and financial professionals are heading to ExCel London to find out what awaits them this year. From the pre-conference drinks right up to the closing speech by Gary Turner, Xerocon is sure to be packed with innovation, information and inspiration!
Whether it’s your first time or you’ve attended every single one, it’s always useful to do a bit of planning to get the most out of your conference. Read on to find the Fluidly ultimate guide to Xerocon.
Plan your day ahead of time
With over 70 exhibitors, and talks all day every day, there’s a lot to fit in! Too much to see it all – which is why it’s important to make a plan ahead of time. You can check out the agenda to see where and when everything will be taking place.
Think about what you want to get out of Xerocon before you go. You could start with the following questions:
- Are you looking for any particular service/product?
- Are you looking for information or advice on a particular problem you’re having?
- Is there anyone in a particular field that are you are keen to meet?
It’s useful to make a list of all the speakers you’d like to see and exhibitors (and their stand numbers) that you’d like to visit.
But you don’t need to militantly schedule your day. It’s busy at Xerocon and it can take longer than you think to get around different stands, particularly when you’re trying to find time in between talks. However, having an outline of what you’d like to achieve can help you to make sure you leave with more than just a free t-shirt.
What to bring
Once you get to any exhibition, there will always be something that you wish you had brought with you. Our go-to checklist is as follows:
- A phone charger
- Bottled water
- Notebook and pen (if you forget one, come visit us at stand B3 and we’ll sort you out!)
- Plenty of 4G/a WiFi password
- Your best networking chat!
- Comfortable shoes
- A friend/colleague (ideally someone who is both)
Must-see talks
There’s so many great speakers at Xerocon and plenty of good information and advice. Here are our top talks.
Wednesday 14th November
9.15am – Main Stage – Opening keynote – Gary Turner
Get things kicked off in style with the opening talk from Gary Turner himself.
10.25am – Main Stage – Technology and Humanity: the next 10 years – Gerd Leonhard, CEO, The Future Agency
The future is now – and in these days of MTD, the cloud and automation it can be difficult to get to grips with all the new technology available. Gerd Leonhard will talk about how technology and human intelligence can combine to get great results.
1.30pm – Gold Stage 1 – How APIs are changing the world – Richard Considine, Product Manager – Financial Products UK, Xero
APIs have become something of a buzzword and chances are that you use at least one in the running of your firm, whether you know it or not. This is a non-technical introduction to APIs and how they power modern accounting.
2:30pm – Main Stage – Innovation in business finance – Edward Berks, Director Platform Business, Xero
We can’t wait to hear from Ed Berks on the subject of small business banking – specifically how APIs and Open Banking are changing the game for SME finance. We’re particularly excited because Fluidly has recently become FCA regulated, which will allow us to use the Open Banking APIs on our mission to transform small business finance.
4:50pm – Main Stage – Xero Awards – Gary Turner and Steve Vamos
Find out who the superheroes of the year at the announcement of the Xerocon awards winners!
Thursday 15th November
11.40am – Gold stage 2 – Hear from Receipt Bank, loved by 6000+ firms worldwide – John Connolly, Chief Product Officer Receipt Bank
Our friends at Receipt Bank will be coming to the Gold Stage to talk about how you can make sure your accounting practice is always ahead of the curve.
12:20pm – Gold Stage – Optimising your clients cash flow – Andrew Muir, Strategic Partnerships, Ecosystem & Glen Foster, Director of Sales, Partner
There’s plenty of chat in the ecosystem at the moment about cashflow and how important it is as an advisory service. It’s no surprise – of SME failure over 80% is due to cashflow problems. Learn how to use apps to provide cashflow forecasting as an advisory service.
2.35pm – Gold Stage 1 – Why our clients deserve daily bookkeeping and how to deliver it profitably – Will Farnell, Farnell Clarke
We always love to hear from Will Farnell and his ideas on modern accountancy are always worth listening to. Go and see him!
3:15 – Main – Stage – Pushing yourself to the limit – Sir Chris Hoy, Olympic Champion and Inspirational speaker
Xerocon wouldn’t be Xerocon without at least one incredible inspirational talk. We’re really excited to hear from Sir Chris Hoy.
You can see the full list of speakers here
Stands to visit
Although there is a lot to be said for free notebooks (incidentally, come and check out ours, stand B3), there is more to visiting an exhibition that collecting free stuff.
Here’s some of the exhibitors that we think are doing awesome things:
Receipt Bank (stand 1)
Pleo (stand B35)
Starling Bank (stand S11)
Visit Fluidly!
We’re really excited to be exhibiting at Xerocon – we can’t wait to chat to you all about our auto-magical cashflow forecasting. We’ll be at stand B3.
You’ll be able to see live videos of the product on the day, and you’ll be able to schedule a personal live demo with one of the team for afterwards, where we will use your very own data set.
Can’t wait until Xerocon? Get in touch now to find out how we can help you to provide cashflow forecasting to your clients.
