My top 5 highlights from Xerocon Sydney 2023
I had a blast at Xerocon Sydney 2023. It was another great opportunity to connect face to face with the Xero community. I, along with others from our Ecosystem and Partnerships team, were excited to kick off Xerocon on Tuesday night with our exhibitor drinks. It was lovely to see some familiar faces and welcome new ones too!
There was an exciting lineup of main stage speakers sharing stories around the rise of carbon accounting, machine learning and AI, and crypto technologies in the accounting industry. So much valuable info to learn, and so awesome to see how the use of apps was integrated into many of these topics.
With so much quality content, great conversations and fun-filled activities on the exhibition floor I thought I would share my top 5 highlights.
Highlight #1: Beautiful welcoming ceremonies
Both mornings of Xerocon had spectacular welcoming ceremonies with Milan Ring sharing a captivating dance with us on day one. Then Te Raranga Whanui Kapahaka group represented New Zealand with an inspiring performance on day two.
Highlight #2: Chatting with our exhibitors
Big kudos to all of our 80+ exhibitors! It was great to hear about all the high quality leads you gathered and I learnt about quite a few new Xero integration features. The crew and I loved chatting with you, answering your questions and hearing your feedback about the Xero platform. We even squeezed in some Xero App Store listing updates, talked about the ins and outs of adopting Xero App Store Subscriptions and some of our exclusive App Partner only features.
Highlight #3: Xero ecosystem leaders talking apps
We were also fortunate to hear from Jeremy Butteriss, EGM Ecosystem & Partnerships, and Emma Macfarlane, GM Marketing & Growth — Ecosystem, who gave great tips on finding the right apps for the job. We think creating the right app stack is an important part of a successful advisory function, and a great way to get our app partners embedded into Xero customer workflows.
Emma was joined by Michelle Williams and Jacob Nayda from Rowe Partners who spoke about how they do things differently with apps for their practice. One of the neat initiatives they shared was app speed-dating. Rower Partners invite apps into their practice and do a rapid meet and greet to help their staff learn about and choose the right apps for their clients.
Kathryn Horton from GJ Gardner Homes chatted with Jeremy about how a custom integration to Xero streamlined their franchise process. GJ Gardner Homes is able to tap into all the benefits of Xero’s platform, and the franchisees can access the wide range of apps in the Xero App Store to create the app stack that works for them.
On the topic of finding the right apps, a number of our app partners spoke on demo stages. A number of accountants I spoke to mentioned that it was helpful to have been able to get answers to their questions and gain in-depth insights across a range of apps.
Highlight #4: Full crowds wanting to learn how to build an app with Xero
I spoke at the Xero stand on both days about, ‘How to Build an App with Xero’. Building a custom integration is a great way to improve processes and drive efficiency within practices. There are over 20,000 integrations on the platform beyond our apps already, so it was great to encourage others to tap into our resources — specifically the Xero Developer Centre and custom integrations on the Xero App Store featuring our developer partners.
We know that a number of custom integration apps are useful beyond internal use at a practice and list in the Xero App Store. In fact, our recent ecosystem research report indicated that 1 in 10 of our app developers are former or practicing accountants or bookkeepers who are now building apps for other practices!
Highlight #5: Cereal bar!
On a final note, no Xerocon is complete without some fun activations. This year featured a ‘Well-Being’ area complete with barbers and a masseuse, life sized bowling, and a gigantic piggy bank and vault. My personal favourite was the Xerio’s Cafe with all the cereal and milk options you could want! Yes, that’s a gigantic life sized cereal bowl in the picture.
See you in London and Nashville in 2024!
