Speaking
Business value, succession and exit, for the people who own the business.
Simon Bedard is Founder and Managing Director of Exit Advisory Group and National Chair of the Australian Institute of Business Brokers. He speaks to professional bodies, associations and business-owner audiences on what a business is worth, how it is sold, and what the succession wave means for the people who own one.
Grouped by kind, because a programme committee reads a national industry conference differently from a webinar. Ordered within each group by weight, not by date.
National and international industry bodies
Panellist on "The Great Business Transition" with economist Warren Hogan and Jim Parker, President of the International Business Brokers Association. Simon opened and closed the conference as National Chair, and gave the advocacy address.
"From Traditional Broker to Trusted Advisor", a full hour opening the main programme, straight after the welcoming address. Simon was a member and not yet National Chair, so this was an invited slot on merit.
"Cross Border Transactions". The IBBA is the international peak body, and this is the one credit in the set where the inviting organisation is neither Australian nor one Simon holds office in.
Conferences and summits
"From Revenue to Value", 40 minutes on the conference's growth day.
"How to build a valuable company", to the peak body for financial advisers.
"Exit Like an Expert".
Succession Planning Event. Invited as a panellist, one of four, to a full room.
A session for chief executives on business value and exit.
Simon shared the stage with Naomi Simson and Ita Buttrose.
Co-hosted with economist Warren Hogan of EQ Economics.
Both virtual. Simon shared the stage with Mark Bouris AM and Janine Allis.
Click any image to enlarge. Every one is captioned with the event and the date.
Advocacy
As National Chair of the Australian Institute of Business Brokers, Simon advocates on the issue he sees every week: the succession cliff. When a viable business cannot be sold or handed on, it too often simply closes, taking local jobs, services and decades of built-up value with it.
That work has taken him to Parliament House in Canberra, to a meeting with the Chair of the ACCC on merger and acquisition rules, to a submission to the Productivity Commission on succession and access to capital, and, as a Council Member of COSBOA, into the rooms the small-business peak body convenes. In June 2026 his small-business advocacy was recognised in the New South Wales Parliament.
“A strong voice on an issue that deserves far more attention: the looming small business succession cliff.”
Simon raises the need for a national succession strategy and government-backed acquisition finance.
Elected 2025. Sits on the National Board and the conference committee.
Eight sessions, each with an abstract, what participants take away, durations and format options. The detailed outline, with formal learning outcomes for an education team, comes with the session.
How a buyer actually values a professional services practice: what they pay a multiple for, what they treat as a cost, and why owner dependence is usually the largest single discount. Closes on the three years before a sale and what can still be changed.
What participants take away
DeliveredBx Diamond Conference, 24 August 2026
Revenue keeps a business running; value is what an owner builds. What a buyer pays a multiple for, and why recurring revenue, customer concentration, contract quality and margin can move the number more than the top line does.
What participants take away
DeliveredAIBB National Conference, Hobart, opening the main programme
Every technical profession reaches a point where doing the work well stops being enough to grow the firm. What the shift from delivering a task to advising on a decision requires, what it does to pricing and referrals, and why an advisory relationship transfers to a buyer when a transactional one does not.
What participants take away
A generation of Australian business owners is approaching the exit at the same time, into a market with a fixed capacity to absorb them. The demographic picture, what it does to price and terms for an owner who arrives late, and where the policy argument currently sits.
What participants take away
Selling when the time is right sounds like a plan, until you notice that the timing never announces itself. What a buyer sees in a business that has been prepared and one that has not, how long preparation really takes, and what can be started without committing to a sale. Of the owners surveyed in Exit Like an Expert, 81 per cent wished they had spent more time preparing.
What participants take away
When the owner is the business, a buyer is being asked to purchase something that may leave on settlement day. Where key-person risk hides, what it costs in price and in deal structure, and why it is the most common reason an earn-out appears in an offer.
What participants take away
When a business-owner client sells, the adviser who was not in the room usually finds out afterwards. How to see a client's liquidity event coming years out, how to open the subject without sending them looking for a broker, and how the adviser stays close through a sale.
What participants take away
Some owners choose when they sell. Others have the decision made for them by health, a partnership breakdown, a death, or the only offer on the table arriving at the wrong moment. What actually differs between the two, and the contingency work that protects an owner who has no intention of selling yet.
What participants take away
20-minute keynote · 40 to 60-minute conference session · 45-minute webinar · 60-minute breakout · 90-minute workshop · panel seat.
In person or virtual. Simon travels from Sydney and is available nationally and in New Zealand.
Sessions 7 and 8 are the CPD lane for financial advisers. Formal learning outcomes for any session come with the detailed session outline, so your education team can assess it against your own framework. Exit Advisory Group makes no accreditation claim of its own.
Sessions come with abstracts, learning outcomes and format options ready to submit.
Simon is the author of Exit Like an Expert, the book behind most of what these sessions cover.
About the bookWriting a story rather than booking a session? Simon’s media kit carries the bios, story angles and press contact.
Email or call, and tell us the event, the date and who your audience is. We will come back within one business day with availability and the session outlines.