Well, its Accounting Conference season again and whilst some things have changed; for us, we’ve added another 200 staff members here at Frontline after a huge year of growth – some things have stayed the same, AI in AccounTech continues to be the trend for this year.
The 2024 conference calendar is as packed as I’ve ever seen it! I think we can say that face to face events are back with a bang again, but is there really enough room for all these events? Surely, they can’t all survive right?
How many events (if any) are you attending this year? Frontline UK kicked off our conference season as we always do with the @2020Innovation Spring Conference at a really cool new venue in Bishopsgate in London – we’ve been partners of 2020 for a long, long time and it's always good to see a lot of familiar faces of existing partners and meeting few new ones too!
Jandy & Manel braved the cold and flew to London to join me at the first of our early conferences.
We are expanding our face-to-face meetings presence massively in 2024 Next up for us was a new addition: the Alternative Events Audit & Accountancy Management Summit at Wyboston Lakes Resort in Bedfordshire.
This was a great chance to meet some partners of mid to large sized firms who are all looking for help with Audit resource. Audit just so happens to be one of our fastest growing provisions in the UK, with more firms now able to do more parts of an audit completely online, the demand from UK firms adding Auditors in Manila has never been higher!
13th of March - Festival of Accounting & Bookkeeping (FAB) – Birmingham NEC. Will this event, with its new name and venue, be enough for this to survive?
Remember Accounting Web Coventry… No? There’s a reason for that 😆.
I was there on Day 1 as part of my reconnaissance for next year's events – we’re still deciding if we would attend this every year. I’d be interested to know your thoughts on this; did you make it along to FAB? I’d love to know what you thought of it! We will then all be taking a well-earned rest over Easter – I’m heading to Dubai for some R&R before we head back out on the road in April.
11th April - Another 2020 conference in Birmingham – the Managing Partner Workshop where I will be working with managing partners from all over the UK solving problems from tech to resource. This is an invite only event, if you know Gordon Gilchrist, get in touch and he can arrange!
16th & 17th April - We will be exhibiting at The Digital Accountancy Show, London. This show has gained a reputation as one of the must attend events of the year especially if you are a tech focused accounting practice. If you’re a tech savvy accountant you tend to have a head start in making offshore accounting work well for you, so this is a great place for us to be! I’m also a huge techie having spent many years in the accounting tech industry, so this is my idea of a fun event!
15th May – Accountex – The Excel London – We’ve been a number of times, and last time we exhibited we felt like it was all just a bit too busy, too much noise, too much going on. So, this is another reconnaissance mission.
Has Accountex changed? Should we be there? I know this has the reputation as the biggest event in the Accounting Events calendar… but is it the best?
If you are going along, let me know and again I'm happy to meet you for a coffee!
23rd May – Frontline Team Trip – Manila! 1 of my 2 annual visits to the Manila office and I have to say, I love this one the most, taking the whole team out to a beach resort, doing karaoke drinking cocktails and taking in the beautiful surroundings of Subic just north of Manila!
12th & 13th of June – XeroCon – London – This has become a bit of a controversial event over the years should this multi-billion-dollar software giant be charging £400 a ticket to the very accountants that are responsible for “re-selling” their software to SME’s making them the clear leader in UK accountancy software today?
As a former Intuit employee, I've never managed to attend this one, so I am looking forward to seeing if its as good as they claim it has become! More recon for me, so reach out if you plan to be there too!
Then it’s a nice week in Turkey for me and the kids… I won't be taking meetings in Turkey… unless you have golf clubs, then I’ll think about it.
17th September – Accountex North - We’ll close off the summer with a trip to Manchester, a part of the country I always love to visit, we have so many clients in the North of England this has become a natural place for me to meet up with clients who don’t fancy the hustle and bustle of London.
5th November – 2020 Annual Conference – Birmingham – We’ll close off the events calendar in the UK the same way it began! With the 2020 Annual conference, a staple for us over the years, we have so many 2020 members as clients now, it’s a bit like a Frontline conference too!
16th November – Frontline Christmas Party – Manila my final trip of the year will be back out to Frontline HQ in manila, I can’t wait to experience the amazing Christmas atmosphere in The Philippines again, it really is something special and the Frontline team put on an amazing show!
So, there we go, what a full list of events for me and the Frontline team for 2024!
Let me know which events you will be at; I’d love to see more of you face-to-face this year to discuss building your Frontline offshore team in the Philippines.
All the Best,
Mark McNee