In 37. annual global conference Russell Bedford participated almost 400 participants from above 100 Member States, covering around 70 countries around the world.
- 2020 will be a year remembered for many years," said President Russell Bedford, Bruce Saward in his opening speech. “It is a huge challenge for all of us, both personal and professional. The events of the last six months showed the importance of the accounting profession. We are trusted advisors to whom customers seek impartial and independent advice. Advice based on understanding their position and our ability to develop strategies to respond to customer needs in changing circumstances.
The first guest at the conference was Hélio Vogas, a leader and motivational speaker who spoke at TEDx events and at the UN headquarters in Vienna, Austria. Hélio joined us to discuss decision-making in stress: how clearly to think in the face of a hurricane, share strategies to deal with stressful situations, support decision-making in the face of important business challenges.
A board member and partner in Russell Bedford Argentina, Daniel Ryba, then led the discussion panel: Maximum use of international business opportunities.
Daniel was joined by panelists from member companies Russell Bedford: Fabio Corno (Studio Corno, Milan), Laurence Newman (Lubbock Fine, London) and Stephan Strothenke (Tomik + Partner, Halle in Westfalen).
Fabio praised Russell Bedford's Centre of Excellence as an excellent source of networking contacts with experts on specific areas of partner specialisation. "Knowing partners in different jurisdictions gives companies a clear advantage.
Strengthening cross-border connections can result in greater business opportunities for all companies, enabling customers to service 360 ° - said Fabio Corno. Daniel, in turn, stressed that the reservation of permanent time each week to study and promote business is crucial for the long-term successful development of the company.
Day one ended with an open discussion at the forum on corporate social responsibility, led by CEO Russell Bedford, Stephen Hamlet, who shared a wonderful film depicting the Lebanese member company Russell Bedford, Bureau Saghir & Associates, and their charity work to help the most needy people in Beirut.
Stephen then opened the second day of the conference with his CEO report. Speaking of the many challenges the network and individual companies had to overcome this year, Stephen praised the collective efforts of everyone on the network.
Improving digital marketing this year was an important and natural step in helping networks to further develop. Thanks to him, we have adopted new members, several in new territories in recent years 12 months and the number of commands between Member States has increased by more 10%.
The expert accountant, public speaker, author and founder of Value Price Academy, Mark Wickersham, joined the discussion about Mastering Value Price: how to move their prices to a different level. Mark shared a immersive session during which he talked about how a failure in business could help in science.
While studying the psychology of price fixing, Mark shared advice on a conversation about the value that partners must conduct with their customers. We learned how to ask the right questions in order to build the right solutions.
Our second panel discussion at the conference was conducted by Deanna Salo (Cray Kaiser, Chicago) and focused on the following topics: Advisory services – the way to growth? They joined Deanna with Colin O'Brien (Cooney Carey, Dublin), Jaime Navarro (Navarro y Llima, Saragossa) and Andrzej Dmowski (Russell Bedford Polska, Warsaw) to share their observations.
Deanna stressed that while all companies had to adapt quickly to the current climate, the optimization of customer relations was a key element of Cray Kaiser's strategy for sustainable business development.
“The companies often fight fires, especially in the current business situation”, said Colin O’Brien. - As a result, they do not see a wider picture and do not offer a holistic look at the client's business. It is unnecessary to lose the opportunity to maximize prices, as customers usually attach great importance to this additional layer of advisory services, in addition to auditing. Clients are looking for direction. It is extremely important that we give priority to customer needs by remaining available and always answering the phone. This source of customer maintenance is at risk, so the strategic advice you're offering them now is the most important.
Andrzej Dmowski added: - Companies must deal better with cross sales. This is much better for the company and the customer, because it does not have to look elsewhere for services. In order for this to be possible, however, the departments need to talk to each other and companies need to make sure that they support internal marketing so that there is an agreement throughout the organisation.
The second day of the conference ended with a Happy Hour networking session, conducted by Stephen Hamlet, a fun and engaging session, during which members revealed some cheerful facts, such as what star they would like most to invite to dinner, where they would like to live and without which objects they could not survive.
During this session, the network took the opportunity to thank you for 20 years of loyalty and commitment of network development director, Kempton Bedell-Harper, who has played such a significant role in the progress and development of Russell Bedford International over the years.
The last day of the conference opened by Stephen Hamlet, allowing Mahmoud Saghir to say a few words of thanks to the network for the initiative to support his city – Beirut, and then an important AQC update took place, by Jim Sylph. Then a session of the opinion was held, during which members with the global board had the opportunity to exchange ideas on the strategy. The Ordinary General Meeting took place at the conclusion 2020, which was chaired by Bruce Saward.
The closing Mylène Pontbriand (FBL, Montreal) website conference presented an introduction to Montreal – a place where the network hopes to return to a physical meeting, to an annual global conference at 2021
Speaking after a successful conference, President Russell Bedford, Bruce Saward, said: "Our profession has shown that it is innovative, flexible and adaptable. In order to adapt and improve, we must continue to learn, pay attention to trends and be open to new knowledge and new ways of acting.
Just taking time to join this conference confirms that our members have such a desire to learn, adapt and improve. We are pleased that we could consistently provide this kind of opportunity to our members throughout the year 2020. This year shows that together we are stronger and together we can move on.
Stephen Hamlet added: - Year 2020 will be remembered as a year of surprises, consistently changing and pushing us out of our comfort zones. It was challenging and difficult, but we gave him a shot.
We have shown resilience, developed both individually and as a network, welcoming new companies and observing the development of our current members. We also showed ingenuity.
We have created and continue to create a number of new opportunities for our members, so that colleagues from our member companies did not have to hold back their personal and professional development.
This special conference did not resemble any of our previous events, we were forced to think differently and creativity, and the results were surprisingly positive. It's a real reminder of how special a network of professionals we have in Russell Bedford. They are very committed, completely devoted to our ethos and values.