August 15 - 17 San Francisco
Reserve Your Spot in the Cloud Today
For more information or to sign up for Xerocon, visit http://xerocon.com/
It’s the “cool kids club.” That’s the way Russ Fujioka describes the infectious vibe surrounding what Xero and its “must attend” industry conference, Xerocon, is generating in today’s accounting space.
In an business landscape defined by change, Xero continues to lead its charge to transform the traditional ways accounting professionals do business today. And as Fujioka, President of Xero Americas, will tell you, change is a good thing.
Standing front and center in its initiative is Xerocon, this year slated for Aug. 15-17, at the Pier 27 Cruise Terminal in San Francisco. The content extensive accounting conference, billed as “The world's most beautiful conference for leaders in cloud accounting,” offers something for everyone – and much more.
With its slate of thought-provoking speakers, Xerocon is structured to give today’s accounting professionals insights into their businesses, help them build their networks, earn CPE from industry leaders, be privy to exclusive content and get an inside look at the Xero Ecosystem.
Xerocon offers four educational tracks, 30-plus speakers, up to 18 CPE credits, one-on-one time with key Xero representatives, including executives, support, product and ecosystem team members, and networking opportunities galore. To register, click here.
“Most people are in business to flourish, to thrive, and so we’re really here to help them along that journey, help them understand what this means,” Fujioka says. “So people ask, ‘Why is Xerocon a must? Why must I go there?’ When I talk to my friends who are in the accounting world, I tell them that they have to be there, if just to see what’s possible. To see where professionals in their field are going and how they are using all of this great technology.”
Fujioka says the surge in technology and where it is taking the profession continues to change the conversation about what it means to be an accounting professional today. The way technology works now is changing the complexities of doing business.
Xero is working tirelessly on providing venues such as the Xerocon to keep industry professionals in the know on new ways to grow their businesses. “I think it has to do a lot with where we were born,” Fujioka says. “We were born in the cloud. Our platform was built with the small business and the accounting channel in mind. It was prescriptively built from the beginning, not added on, not edited in. The underlying goal is to make small businesses – accountants, bookkeepers, CPAs – more successful. When you look at that entire ecosystem, that whole profession of accountants and bookkeepers, they are really at the center of it.”
Our curriculum helps you sow together some of the things that you want to take a deep dive into, so the amount of time we give for you to network, the events and the social parts are really important.
Xero Unplugged & Plugged In
One of the continuing themes of Xerocon is to show how to make the process of integration, especially when it comes to technology, easier. Fujioka says it has nothing to do with servers, virtual engines or loading things. It’s all about connecting data, connecting customers to your data, connecting the data to your accountants, and connecting that to your compliance events.
The key, he says, is in the presentation. That’s why Xerocon has gathered some of the industry’s brightest thought leaders to deliver their insights in fast-paced TED-style talk sessions. Each block features one topic and three unique perspectives, covering areas such as strategic relationships, globalization, technology, future proofing and modernizing your business, and more.
“We bring you peers and influencers who can relate directly to what you are doing every day,” Fujioka says. “We want to make sure our profession relies on its brains. Part of that is valuing your practice.”
Another key aspect of the conference is the peer-to-peer connections. Thanks to hands-on workshops and opportunities to mingle with peers, attendees can share experiences and swap stories on the myriad trends and challenges in the marketplace. Getting an insider’s look at somebody who has made the leap is invaluable.
Most people are in business to flourish, to thrive, and so we’re really here to help them along that journey, help them understand what this means.
“Those connections are still the primary, trusted source of information,” Fujioka says. “I can say anything I want and I can try to convince you to try it (Xero). But when you see people who have executed it in practice and have a passion for it, and can tell you the bugs and quirks and joys that they had going through it, there’s nothing better than that.”
By providing opportunities to meet, greet and learn from your peers, attendees have found Xerocon to be the mother load of information and resources – a way to break down the steps for implementing change and refocusing opportunities.
“What we find is that the amount of people that are aware of Xero, let alone want to engage with us, grows by multiples every year,” Fujioka says. “We’ve gone from, ‘I haven’t heard of Xero,’ to ‘I’ve heard so much about Xero. I think I need to now start investigating it.’ The latter is what we hear more now. The best practice sharing and the networking is absolutely the heart of Xero. Our curriculum helps you sow together some of the things that you want to take a deep dive into, so the amount of time we give for you to network, the events and the social parts are really important. And the fact that you can spend time with ecosystem partners is critical.”
Fujioka says that it’s important for attendees to have conversations with ecosystem partners like MindBody or a Shopify, so that they can immediately identify how the various add on's wokr with Xero.
“They go in and say, ‘Oh, I’ve heard about the TSheets integration you guys announced this week, but I didn’t know it was that easy and that my 100 customers should be using TSheets today.’ Then they realize right away how easy that integration is once you spin it up. The conference gives them lots of actionable ideas”
In the end, the feedback that Xero gets is what builds on the momentum that Xerocon has generated. Fujioka is elated when he hears an attendee say, “‘I brought 10 clients over on this thing. It’s magic. They do all the computing on mobile device and there’s no more paper and yes, the errors are gone.’ It’s that type of conversation that’s worth everything you pay to get there, and more. It’s a good place to be.”
Reserve Your Spot Today
For more information or to sign up for Xerocon, visit http://xerocon.com/
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