Xerocon London 2019 Roundup

The Xavier team are back from their second Xerocon!

It’s been a very exciting few weeks for the Xavier team! 2019 is the first Xerocon Xavier have attended as sponsors, rather than attendees. As we were so busy with the stand we barely got to explore the event; this is Xerocon from the exhibitors point of view

We took six team members (Helen, Rich, James, Jon, Simon, and Rachel) to hold up the stand. It was the first time exhibiting for us, in any trade show, so we weren’t quite sure what to expect. We had been taking pre-booked demos as part of a prize draw for an iPad mini (won by Rachel from Figure Fairy, congratulations Rachel!) so we were prepped and ready to provide tours of Xavier for the waiting crowds.

Day Xero

The Xerocon week started with Co-Founder Jonathan Gaunt at the Practice Ignition workshop along with Will Farnell, Bridge, SuiteFiles and Clarity, highlighting the awesome benefits of a fully Xero connected practice.

Shortly before stand setup time, Xavier were announced as a finalist for the Xero Awards Emerging App of the Year, along with Clarity and Tradelock, when we arrived at our stand we had a nice little board declaring our finalist status. We’re really honoured to be finalists, and can’t wait till the awards ceremony in March next year.

We really enjoyed catching up with some familiar faces from the first Xerocon precon, and to catch up with the team from App Advisory Plus. Of course we were also celebrating our award nomination, but not too hard, we had the first booked demos at 8am!

Getting Started

Day 1, we awoke in our team Airbnb bright eyed and bushy tailed (crossing the Royal Victoria Bridge at dawn will wake you up if nothing else) we had a great spot by the entrance to the exhibition, right next to the swag stand so things warmed up very quickly! It was great to see lots of engagement from both existing and new users. We were helped in preparing ourselves for the day with caffeine from the brilliant baristas (note for next year, if you’re avoiding the caffeine jitters, the hot chocolate was also divine). From the beginning, the stand was flooded with excited forward-thinking accountants and bookkeepers from businesses of all sizes, looking to learn how Xavier could provide value in their practice.

Communities of Purpose

While we didn’t get to watch the keynote (we could hear the low thrumming of the main stage whilst we necked all the caffeine we could) you couldn’t miss this year’s theme: Communities of Purpose.

The community is what has made our time as a Xero app really special. Over two days we spoke to a brilliant community of accountants, bookkeepers and industry experts, each with the determination and purpose to provide a better service for small businesses, from data quality measures such as Xavier health checks, through to improved forecasting, cashflow and business advisory.

Looking ahead

Nick Houldsworth shared the amazing statistic that there are over 800 apps now available on the app marketplace using the Xero API to improve their services. As app developers we're very excited about the updates coming to the way you log into connected apps, called Single Sign On, we can't wait to use this and get started improving the onboarding process for Xavier.

It wasn’t all work and no play; James got a neck tattoo, Helen learned how to make an (only slightly wonky) origami crane, and Rich landed his Soyuz module safely back to earth thanks to VR guidance from Tim Peake. The day 1 party leaned into Xerocon’s new unofficial tagline as the Glastonbury For Accountants with a very British festival vibe. If you weren’t lucky enough to try it, the rumours are true; pour your chilli into a bag of Doritos, and thank Xero later.

Take Action

Finally, one takeaway message was clear: take action! Whether it’s ‘buy that Lurpak’ (thanks to Brad Burton for that sage advice) or registering for check-ins, demos and trials from your favourite new app finds. If you loved what Xavier could do during your demo, or just want to see what all the fuss is about, sign up for the 30-day free trial here: https://app.xavier-analytics.com/register

See you next year!

~ Helen