Managers' Conference

Welcome and Introduction

Louise Conner, Mercia Group

This session will help professionals to refine their client service skills, move beyond transactional interactions and deliver exceptional, personalised experiences that foster long-term relationships. This session will cover strategies for anticipating client needs, resolving issues with confidence, and acting as trusted advisors. 

Topics include: 

• How to communicate proactively and empathetically with clients.
• How to handle challenging conversations with professionalism.
• Personalise service to exceed expectations.
• Align client service with broader business goals. 

Refreshment Break

Louise Dunford

A practical and fast-paced session, explaining the differences between bullying and harassment, and the new statutory developments relating to sexual harassment in particular. We also review case studies and provide practical tips for handling harassment allegations and grievance investigations.

• Bullying and harassment – how are they defined?
• Types of bullying and harassment.
• The particular issues around sexual harassment allegations.
• Vicarious liability issues, the responsibility of the employer and the direct manager and the importance of workplace policies.
• Tips for dealing with allegations and grievances in this area.

Refreshment Break

Louise Dunford

With the upcoming changes to SSP, and the current issues around mental health, managing absence is becoming more important from a practical and economic perspective.

• Reasons for absence and types of absence.
• SSP, company sick pay and other paid leave.
• Dealing with casual absence.
• Sickness and Disability – the issues.
• A focus on neurodiversity and mental health.
• Making decisions around incapacity – good absence management procedure and a few pitfalls from the cases.

Lunch Break

Vicki Banthorpe FCIM

What does your practice do when it comes to marketing? Do you know? Do you care?

Spoiler alert – you should!

Marketing in accountancy practices falls into three strategic categories: client acquisition, client retention, and maintaining a presence. Your firm’s marketing strategy may vary but is likely to involve one or more of these strategies at any one time.

During the session, Vicki will discuss these three strategies and explain why it is in your interest to get involved in marketing. She will give examples of marketing activities you can do and provide practical tips if you feel that some activities are outside your comfort zone. The areas covered will include:

• social media
• networking and events
• client communications
• writing blogs and articles.

Refreshment Break

Shane Lukas, AVN

It’s never easy to communicate the value you bring as an accountant, whether to clients or within your own organisation. And with the rapid rise of AI, many accountants worry that their perceived value will decrease even further.

In this session you’ll discover how to leverage AI as a valuable ally that amplifies your expertise rather than replaces it. 

• You'll learn specific prompting techniques to create compelling insights, reports and discussion documents that clearly demonstrate your value.
• If you’re in the industry, this approach will help you stand out and get better recognition within your company. If you’re in practice, it will enable you to generate substantial additional revenue through better communication.
• You’ll leave with practical skills including an AI Prompting Playbook and communication frameworks that naturally showcase the difference you make.
• By using AI you can strengthen and communicate the human advisory edge that truly matters and deserves appropriate recognition and reward.

Refreshment Break

Louise Conner, Mercia Group

In the fast-paced world of accounting, managers are often tasked with leading or participating in projects of varying scope. Lack of formal project management can lead to missed deadlines, budget overruns or unmet expectations. This session will provide tools and techniques to manage projects with clarity, control and confidence.

Topics include:

• Understand core project management principles.
• Defining project scope, goals, deliverables and success metrics.
• Identifying and managing project risks and stakeholder expectations.
• Tools for effective tracking and communication.
• Improve collaboration across teams and departments.
• Learn from past projects to drive continuous improvement. 

Close of conference

Louise Conner is Mercia’s Management and Skills Trainer. She has worked in the financial services industry for 22 years, 18 of which have been within the Learning and Development arena. This experience has allowed Louise to perfect her motivational coaching model. She has a diverse range of courses, focusing on transferable skills within the workplace. Louise always aims to make her courses as interactive as possible to keep them fun and engaging. Her passion lies within training, and she always gets great job satisfaction from seeing people grow and develop along their career paths.

Louise has been continuously involved in training and consultancy since 1987 and is a qualified barrister. She provides advice and assistance to employers through a consultancy company, CompleteHR Ltd and has assisted with the preparation of many disciplinary and investigation reports. 

Louise has also engaged in CPD training for most of the national accountancy training bodies and district societies in the UK for many years. She is involved in management training, particularly in employment and HR, for many large multinational and national commercial companies. Louise has also published academic papers in refereed journals, chiefly on employment status and corporate manslaughter.

With over 20 years of marketing experience in the accountancy marketplace,Vicki knows what works when marketing an accountancy practice.

She takes a ‘back to basics’ approach to helping partners and managers in accounting firms adopt marketing activities that are right for their firm. She is also experienced in helping accountants understand marketing so that it becomes an intrinsic part of their roles.

Shane has dedicated over two and a half decades to creating a global community where accountants transform their firms, deliver meaningful value to their clients and enrich both their own and their clients’ lives. Rather than feeling trapped by outdated methods, overwhelming workloads or fee-sensitive clients, accountants working with Shane build profitable, future-ready firms that run smoothly without their constant input.

Through a blend of structured coaching, training, and expert resources aligned with his proven methodology, Shane and his team of Practice Growth Experts guide accountants in mastering value pricing, attracting quality clients and offering transformational solutions. As a result, these firms not only thrive financially but also grant their owners true freedom, well-being and the opportunity to make a powerful difference in others’ lives.