Presenting 'FD Live' at Accountex 2025
For the fourth year running VFD Pro are proud to be sponsoring the newly named ‘FD Live’ theatre at Accountex.
You can benefit from 13 inspiring sessions from a range of hand-picked keynote speakers, all specialists in their field.
Day 1: Wednesday 14th May
The landscape of payroll compliance is always changing, so whether payroll services are a core part of your offerings or an added extra, it is essential that you are up to date with what is changing in future. The CIPP are here to support you and cover off the key changes for the 2025/26 tax year to keep you on the right side of the law.
The session will cover:
-Tax and national insurance changes
-employment law changes
-considerations for beyond 2025
A must-see session for your payroll department.
Presented by: Samantha O’ Sullivan
In today’s fast-paced and complex business environment, the CFO is no longer just the custodian of financials—they’re a strategic partner at the core of organisational success.
This inspiring panel brings together some of the best C-Suite in the finance and accounting industry to explore how finance leaders collaborate across functions to drive performance, innovation, and sustainable growth.
Expect real-world insights, candid conversations, and practical takeaways on how CFOs can deepen their impact by building powerful partnerships across the leadership team.
Join: Lucy Cohen, Becky Glover, Melanie Mills & Olivia McMillan
As finance professionals advance, they face a key decision: pursue a full-time Finance Director (FD) role, embrace the flexibility of a fractional FD model, or go remote as a virtual FD.
For accountants in practice, this may mean leaving their firm, launching advisory services, or building a portfolio career. Industry professionals must decide between full-time stability or a more autonomous FD role.
This panel features finance experts sharing insights on each path, key skills, financial rewards, career progression, and how to choose the right fit for your ambitions, goals, and lifestyle.
Join: Steve Darnell, Sue Penney, Gaye Prime & Sam Newton
As CFOs face mounting pressure to boost efficiency and reduce costs, we’ll examine the key question: What’s the best strategy for tomorrow’s finance function?
Join our specialist panel, featuring AI innovators and outsourcing experts to explore the future of finance teams. The discussion explores three approaches: AI-driven in-house transformation, strategic offshoring, and hybrid models.
Through real-world case studies, we’ll assess their impact on cost, expertise, scalability, security, and client satisfaction, helping you identify the optimal strategy to enhance efficiency, drive growth, and stay competitive.
Ask 10 accountants about the future of their profession, and you’ll get 10 different answers. Private equity, artificial intelligence and outsourcing are just some of the drivers of change creating uncertainty about the future.
Futurists explore the unknowns of the future, and many will tell you what they see. But in this session, organisational psychologist and futurist Dr. Graham Norris encourages you to look at the possibilities for yourself. By cultivating your own futurist mindset, you’ll be able to identify risks and opportunities to become a more confident leader of yourself and others.
Does the planning process fill you with dread, as you attempt to rally the troops to take part in something you’re not even quite sure you believe in? Adam Rakich has seen more budgeting processes than you have, so in this session he will give you some zero investment, immediately actionable tips to make it more bearable – and maybe even a little enjoyable?
After this session you will be able to:
– Learn from the hubris of Jurassic Park
– Find unlikely allies in the business and build a minor empire
– Apply the philosophy of James Bond to budgeting and forecasting
And more!
Join: Adam Rakich
In today’s complex financial environment, knowing when to engage a valuation professionally is crucial for achieving strategic and operational success. This session will outline key scenarios where valuation expertise adds value, including financial reporting, M&A planning, litigation, and tax strategy. Attendees will gain practical insights on how valuations enhance compliance, inform decision-making, and drive long-term value creation. Designed for accounting professionals and CFO’s, this season offers actionable guidance to identify and capitalise on opportunities with expert support.
Join: Theresa Zeidler
Day 2: Thursday 15th May
This talk addresses the challenges faced by both practice owners and industry professionals, focusing on talent development, retention, and the effective integration of AI tools to enhance not replace human expertise.
Key discussion points:
•Collaborative Networking
•Balancing Work-Life Boundaries
•The Unspoken Realities
•Ethics and Earnings
•Responding to Criticism and Harassment
We will cover:
– obtaining a practicing certificate,
– what skills are transferable,
– any extra skills to work on and how,
– how and where to get started with a practice
– important tips/topics to know
– software needed
– my specific journey
– problems I incurred and how to avoid (my lessons)
– building a network
– advisory or compliance?
– building a brand on LinkedIn/ social media
We are in the midst of a triple crisis of climate change; nature loss and rising social inequality. But how is this relevant for accountants?
With increasing pressure for action on sustainability coming from investors; providers of capital; consumers and standard setters there are many business risks and opportunities. This session focusses on how sustainability standard setters have responded to these pressures and what this means for you. By the end of this session you will know what sustainability reporting requirements apply to you/your clients; what requirements are on the horizon and how to prepare.
Join: Andrew Hancock
Reflecting on Accountex 2024:
VFD Pro's Continued Commitment to Empowering Accountants
London, UK – VFD Pro, renowned for its transformative financial analysis and advisory platform, proudly reflects on its successful sponsorship of the Accountants in Industry Theatre at Accountex 2024. Held at ExCeL London on May 15th and 16th, the event once again brought together thousands of professionals from the accounting and finance sectors.
As sponsors of the ‘Accountants in Industry’ theatre, VFD Pro was at the heart of the action, delivering a series of 14 thought-provoking seminars. These sessions were designed to equip accountants and business advisors with practical tools and strategies to enhance their advisory services and support SME clients effectively.
The theatre’s agenda featured a diverse range of topics, including:
- Reinventing Accounting Advisory – Exploring the evolving role of the Virtual Finance Director and its impact on modern accountancy practices.
- How Do You Become a Successful Portfolio FD – Insights into building a thriving portfolio finance director practice.
- Understanding Your Clients – Why Cash Flow Forecasting is Vital for Small Businesses – Emphasizing the importance of cash flow management in SME success.
- How to Support Businesses Throughout Their Lifecycle – Strategies for providing comprehensive support to clients at every stage of their business journey.
These sessions were led by industry experts, including VFD Pro’s own Steve Darnell and Mark Walker, alongside subject experts from the accounting and finance community.
VFD Pro’s sponsorship and active participation in Accountex 2024 underscore its commitment to empowering accountants and business advisors. By providing advanced tools and fostering knowledge sharing, VFD Pro continues to support the profession in delivering exceptional value to SMEs.
“We are delighted to have once again sponsored the Accountants in Industry Theatre at Accountex 2024. Engaging with industry professionals and sharing insights into how VFD Pro can enhance advisory services is always a rewarding experience.”
Looking ahead, VFD Pro remains dedicated to its mission of helping SME entrepreneurs survive, thrive, scale, and exit successfully.
The company is excited to continue its support for Accountex and the broader accounting community in the years to come.