Xerocon 2022 Experience

I’m writing this the week following Xerocon 2022 in Sydney, Australia.  

I have family in New South Wales – including my mother – so it was a good opportunity for me to head over the ditch after a few years of not being able to do so. 

2022 was the first Xerocon in 3 years thanks to Covid and was my second Xerocon, the first one being 4 years ago in Brisbane, BC (before Covid).  

That first one blew my mind, just the sheer scale of it. 

Like, I walked into the exhibition hall and saw a basketball court with real life basketball players on the court.  

There was a massive ball pit. 

There was also a massive stage and we had fabulous speakers including Mark Manson, who I really love.  

So, I kind of knew what to expect for this one. And in some respects, it was as I expected. Still massive. There was a table tennis table and an indoor soccer field this year. Still some really great speakers.  

The mornings 

The mornings was good. We were in a packed auditorium listening to Kemi Nekvapil and Adam Goodes on Day 1, and Yve Blake and Connor McLeod on Day 2. All very good speakers. Kemi Nekvapil spoke about balance, and hers was probably the highlight of the event for me. 

There was a lot of recognition of and focus on diversity throughout the conference, and the conference was opened with moving videos acknowledging respect for indigenous Australians and the land, and then for Māori and the New Zealand lands.

It was really nice, gave me goosebumps actually, in a good way. 

Breakouts

I have to be honest and say that I was slightly disappointed after lunch, both days, but particularly day 1. In fact, I left early. 

I found the exhibition hall to be quite dimly lit and noisy (there was a DJ playing all the time) and there were a lot of people. I struggled with that.  

I didn’t even try to approach most exhibitors as a result. They were busy and it was noisy and I felt that conversation would have been difficult.

Additionally, I know what many of the software exhibitors do, and rationalized that if I wanted to see a demo of any products that were of interest to me, that I could do it far more comfortably from my own office. 

One of my core coaching tenants is “what is the best use of your time right now?’  

I went outside to get some sunshine on Day 1 and decided that there was nothing more of interest to me inside and that the best use of my time would be to buy an ice cream in a sugar cone, wander around Darling Harbour enjoying the sun, and go for a ride on the Ferris wheel. So that's what I did.

There was one breakout session that, in hindsight, would have been quite good to attend, and that was a breakout session on Blockchain technology. But I would have had to wait around for about 3 hours, or come back at the end of the day, and I didn’t want to do that.  

Cybersecurity 

Day 2, I did attend a couple of breakout sessions of interest. The first was about cybersecurity, presented by Mark Knowles, Xero’s GM of Security. Very interesting and of course very relevant for our industry.  

A cautionary word about passwords from Mark…how many of you have passwords that start with a capital letter and end with a number that you just change by one number (1,2,3…) every time you need to change your password? 

Or how many of your passwords end with an exclamation point? Are you guilty of that? Just me?

Apparently we're not alone, it's very common as consequently very hackable.

He recommends using a password manager, such as Last Pass or 1Password, which encrypts your data. 

Perspective 

Then second breakout session I went to today was presented by Sue Pak, Xero’s Head of Accounting. I’ve known Sue for a while through the industry and I’m always interested to hear what she says. Sue lead a panel discussion about perspective. One thing I really liked was her use of a disco ball as a prop to demonstrate perspective. 

A disco ball is covered in tiny mirrors, and if you were looking out at something from anywhere on that disco ball, you would have a very different perspective from anywhere else. None of which is right or wrong, just different.  

I think that disco ball is a great analogy for our planet Earth. Our world views are based on where our viewing platform is, and there are no right or wrongs, just differences in perspectives. 

Advising with Purpose 

After finding not much of interest in the breakout sessions during Day 1, it seems that there were 2 interesting sessions on Day 2 scheduled at the same time. 

While I attended the Cybersecurity breakout session, several of my colleagues and clients were attending the Advising with Purpose session with Andrew van de Beek, a member of XPAC. 

Judging from the applause and the laughter I could hear from the that section, and from the feedback from my colleagues in attendance, this one was one I would have liked to have been at. 

The Xero ecosystem 

In the afternoon there were software demonstrations and Xero education sessions. 

I know some bookkeepers who came to Xerocon for the first time, and they were buzzing from the experience. There certainly is a lot to take in, especially if you want to really get your head around the Xero ecosystem and what apps are available. 

The exhibition hall housed the Xero software partners (as well as a table tennis table and soccer field). It was a good opportunity to see some of the key players in the Xero ecosystem. 

Xero can't be all things to all people so it's great that they've got an ecosystem of apps that support their product. 

Reckon and MYOB and Intuit are the same. They're an accounting platform at their core and the other products bolt on to provide a robust, often industry-specific, business management solution.  

The technology and the innovation of our industry is one of the things that I really love about it.  

Some comments from the Kiwis were that some of the content and exhibitors had a very Australian focus. Not everything was available or relevant to the NZ market. But I’d say 80-90% were. 

Any time I go to an industry conference or event, I learn something and Xerocon was no exception, Xero events always have an element of a cool about them.  

The after party 

The after party was held at Luna Park and by all accounts from those who went it was a blast with food and drink and as many rides as they wanted. 

I personally chose not to go. Instead, I enjoyed having some quiet time to myself in my room overlooking the harbour. It was bliss. 

Will I go again next year? 

No. Not saying that I won’t go ever again, but it’s not something that I see the value in attending every year. 

It’s quite a cost to get there from New Zealand with the cost of the conference ticket, airfares and accommodation.  

I felt the same way last time. Whilst I enjoyed it immensely, it was hard to justify the cost next time it came around. 

Maybe in another 4 years. 

 😃 Stephanie 

PS: Get in touch if you have any questions about building a profitable and sustainable bookkeeping business. Just reach out to see me. I'm happy to help you.