Russell Bedford’s conference season ends on a high in Malta

December 2019

Following a busy and successful year of events, the Russell Bedford conference season came to a close with the final two events of the year: The Marketing Meeting and the Managers and Young Partners Meeting. It was the first year combining the two events which were held at the stunning sea view Cavalieri Art Hotel in St. Julian’s, Malta on 28 – 30 November 2019.

Marketing Meeting

The Marketing Meeting sessions commenced on Thursday, 28 November with a welcome from Russell Bedford’s CEO, Stephen Hamlet, and introductions from the delegates in attendance.

Stephen Hamlet delivered a network update on Russell Bedford’s successes and developments over the past year, as well as upcoming initiatives in the pipeline.

After a coffee break, the group reconvened for a session on ‘How to enhance your firm’s marketing - collaborating with your peers.’ The session included an introduction to Russell Bedford’s latest ‘Centre of Excellence’ which is dedicated to marketing professionals within the network. The centre is a concept designed to enable members with a common specialism (in this case marketing) to collaborate with each other and share their knowledge and expertise.

The afternoon concluded with an interactive workshop session, where delegates worked in groups to develop a marketing plan for sharing the benefits of international network membership with clients and prospective clients of our member firms.

Attendees of the Marketing Meeting joined with some attendees of the Managers & Young Partners Meeting for informal drinks and dinner at the event hotel in the sea view restaurant.

Day two commenced with a morning session hosted by corporate trainer, Angus Farr, from Training Counts. Angus discussed the topic of ‘Helping accountants sell themselves’ by identifying behaviours of good versus bad ‘sales’ accountants, why (some) accountants find selling themselves difficult and sharing valuable examples of how marketing professionals can bridge the gap.

Following a successful Marketing Meeting, some attendees joined the Managers & Young Partners Meeting.

Managers & Young Partners Meeting

Our host, Sandro Grech, managing partner at Russell Bedford’s Malta member firm, SG Malta, opened the meeting with an overview of doing business in Malta. This was followed by a global update on the Russell Bedford network by Stephen Hamlet.

Professional trainer and business coach, Michael Quigley, from Kataholos, joined to share his insights on world class leadership.

After a coffee break, delegates had an opportunity to put their learnings into practice in a workshop called three essential aspects of world class leadership, also led by Michael Quigley.

The afternoon sessions centred around networking skills for international accountants. The sessions which were again delivered by Angus Farr, focused on the tips and tricks that help to make the most of business networking events.

Again, the practical element came into play in this session giving delegates a chance to put their new networking skills into practice.

As with all Russell Bedford events, networking and relationship building doesn’t stop once the professional programme concludes and delegates took the opportunity to continue their conversations with colleagues over dinner and drinks at a traditional Maltese restaurant located on the picturesque Spinola Bay in St Julian’s. Guests sampled some of the local cuisine while enjoying musical entertainment from a traditional solo guitarist.

The theme of day two’s sessions was surrounding developing staff and client relationships which were again led by Angus Farr. Delegates learned about how to turn the focus from short term to long term engagement and put their skills into practice through a series of paired coaching sessions. Delegates took advantage of the beautiful sunshine while working on their coaching skills together on the sunny terrace of the hotel’s meeting room.

During the de-brief, delegates shared their experiences of the event with many valuing the opportunity to learn the ‘people’ skills such as networking and mentoring which can often seem quite far removed from their daily technical roles.

Speaking about both events, Stephen Hamlet, said: “It’s hard to believe, we’re wrapping up yet another year of Russell Bedford events. Each event brings something special, and I love to see the new faces arriving with uncertain expectation and then leaving with a whole set of new ideas or ways of looking at how they approach their roles. I spoke with several delegates after the event and all talked about how much they valued meeting others from our firms around the world - there’s a lot to be said for the realisation that we’re not alone in our challenges and concerns about how to consistently develop ourselves professionally. Giving our member firms that opportunity to connect and talk through issues really is invaluable. A big thanks to Sandro for being a most welcoming host and I look forward to connecting with our members from around the globe when we kick off the new season of events in 2020.”