It was great to see so many new and familiar faces from Xero’s accounting and bookkeeping community at Xerocon Sydney 2023. As always, day one featured a packed agenda – and you better believe the pace didn’t let up on day two.

Sharing insights and inspiration

We had another busy morning on the main stage. The day kicked off with a moving welcome from Te Raranga Whanui Kapahaka group, followed by an insightful conversation between Xerocon host Julia Zimero and Xero CEO, Sukhinder Singh Cassidy. They discussed everything from Sukhinder’s upbringing and early career to life lessons and the importance of finding your superpower.

Next up, we heard some fascinating insights on high performing practices from Australian Country Manager, Will Buckley. He also talked about the ikigai – the Japanese concept of finding a greater purpose or sense of being – to encourage the audience to find deeper meaning in their work.

Keeping AI centre stage

We were lucky to have futurist and entrepreneur Mark Pesce get us thinking about how artificial intelligence (AI) might impact advisory in the years ahead. He spoke about the new landscape of large language models (LLMs) and explained how to harness tools like Chat GPT.

The lasting message from Mark’s session, however, was that the true power of AI lies in collaboration with humans. He stressed that automation will never replace accountants and bookkeepers, only enhance trusted advisory with smarter and more intuitive tools.

Closing Xerocon on a high

After two packed days, we spent some time in the afternoon being reminded about the importance of mental health and wellbeing. Emma Murray, founder of High Performance Mindfulness, spoke to attendees about various ways to manage the rigours and pressures of business and life, sharing several practical takeaways to put to good use.

Then, myself and the rest of the APAC leadership team – Bridget Snelling, Country Manager for New Zealand; Koren Wines, Regional Director for Asia; and Will Buckley, Country Manager for Australia – shared our highlights and learnings from an incredible couple of days.

We were also thrilled to announce that Xerocon will return to the US in 2024! That’s right, after we head to London in June, we’re taking the ‘Coachella for accountants’ to Nashville from August 14 to 15 next year. We’re super excited to give our accounting and bookkeeping community in the States, Canada, the UK, and beyond a chance to reconnect.

Finally, we wrapped things up with a memorable performance from Australian music icon Daryl Braithwaite. He returned to the Xerocon stage, playing classic hits like ‘The Horses’ to get everyone on their feet!

A final message from the APAC team

It’s now time to have a lot of fun at the infamous Xerocon wrap party – hosted at Sydney’s iconic ivy bar this year – to get together and celebrate. But before we sign off, a huge thank you to the accountants and bookkeepers who made the effort to join us over the past couple of days, and to our exhibiting app partners, guest speakers, and everyone involved in bringing this event to life – we couldn’t do it without your support.

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