Are events a waste of time? Well, yes and no. Click & Tweet!

They can often be a clear waste of time and resources… If they are not well planned and, above all, if they don’t have properly defined goals, contents and timings. However, they can also be extremely useful and effective… If they address the goals of sharing experiences common to all of the participants and assimilating this knowledge to improve any sort of process.

The great challenge of events today is to bring value added. Knowledge is increasingly accessible and sometimes even free. Some even consider it a commodity. Before attending an event, we have to ask ourselves: What are they going to tell me? What am I going to experience? Who will be there with me? If the answers to these questions don’t motivate you, the speakers aren’t good communicators or you can see the same content on YouTube, it’s probably not worth it.

It is also true that the experiences and results of work done at congresses or commissions don’t translate into immediate uses and when they do it is only partially. We fear change, even for the better.

Another issue is geography. We are increasingly global, although we each have our own baggage in terms of rules and habits. At an international Congress, you share experiences with professionals from your sector who work in different legal and social settings.

At a time of maximum globalisation, although problems and solutions must have a local twist, in general they are quite similar worldwide.

Auditing and advisory firms and professionals must have general information regarding accounting, legal and tax changes in the countries where our clients may be starting new businesses or signing commercial deals.

A few days ago, at the yearly congress of the Kreston International Ibero-American group, I had the opportunity to share concerns and projects with partners from other countries. What did we achieve? What did we get out of it?

Well, for example, to be more able to identify possible unknown risks in certain areas as well as learning where it is most attractive to invest today, and the most recommendable investment structures.

Likewise, participating in this congress gave us a unique opportunity to learn about the services offered, size, location and main contacts of the other Kreston firms we work with. This knowledge makes it easier for us to provide our clients with the right interlocutor for their needs in any country in the world where they are interested in doing business.

As I said at the beginning: goals and timings. We did it. We dealt with topics that are highly relevant and current around the world, such as the “auditing procedures to prevent and detect money laundering”.

We do business with people we know and trust Click & Tweet! , so it is essential to forge and deepen personal bonds.