Turn inspiration into action: 5 Steps to transform your practice after an event

Turn inspiration into action: 5 Steps to transform your practice after an event

You’ve just come back from the AI in Accounting Summit or another event – a day full of ideas, conversations, and lightbulb moments. Maybe you left with pages of notes, fresh energy about the possibilities of AI, and a dozen things you want to try in your firm.

But then Monday hits. The client work piles up, the inbox fills, and that post-event energy can quickly fade. Sound familiar?

This guide is about bridging that gap – turning conference inspiration into meaningful change in your work, your team, and your practice. The steps below apply to the AI in Accounting Summit but also work for any professional event you attend in the future!

1. Capture your key insights – fast

Events like the Summit deliver a firehose of ideas. The risk? Waiting too long and losing them to memory.

Before you get fully back into work mode, spend 10–15 minutes capturing:

• Top three insights that stood out (not 20 – three is manageable).
• A note on why they matter to your role or practice.
• Any immediate next steps or experiments you want to try.
  

Ask yourself:

• Which idea could most transform how we serve clients?
• What change would free up the most time or capacity for my team?
• What deserves deeper exploration, even if I don’t act on it right away?
  

2. Share the learnings with your team

Knowledge is more valuable when it spreads. Instead of keeping the insights to yourself:

• Host a 15-minute “AI in Accounting Summit Insights” huddle. Share your three takeaways and invite the team to discuss where they see opportunities.
• Turn your notes into a quick Loom or written summary for those who couldn’t attend.
• Encourage the team to ask questions or add their own ideas. Often, others will see opportunities you didn’t.
  

This approach turns your personal learning into collective momentum.

3. Turn inspiration into action – one small step at a time

Big changes rarely happen overnight. Start small, but start quickly:

• Choose one idea to act on in the next 30 days.
• Break it into a first step – schedule a demo, test a workflow, or experiment with one client.
• Assign responsibility and timelines so the idea doesn’t get lost in good intentions.

4. Build accountability (and celebrate progress)

The easiest way to let insights fade is to never check in. Set a reminder to review progress one month later:

• What did we try?
• What worked? What didn’t?
• What’s the next iteration?

Celebrate even small wins. Seeing progress builds confidence and motivates your team to keep experimenting.

5. Keep the learning alive

The AI in Accounting Summit may be over, but AI in accounting isn’t slowing down. To stay ahead:

• Follow Summit speakers and peers on LinkedIn – keep the conversation going.
• Subscribe to articles/blogs and resources (like Aider’s) to see what’s evolving.
• Embed learning in your culture: encourage regular “share sessions” or micro-learning moments.

Your next step

Events like the AI in Accounting Summit aren’t just about a day of inspiration – they’re a launchpad. The real value comes from what you do afterward: capturing ideas, sharing them, and turning them into action.

So before the post-event buzz fades, ask yourself: What’s the one change I’ll commit to making this month?

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