At Rutherford Cross, we’re always looking for ways to bring Scotland’s tax community together in a meaningful way. Tax Talks was created with that in mind: a simple, informal space for tax professionals to meet, talk, and share experiences without the usual structure of conferences or online sessions.
Our second Tax Talks event, held recently at Flight Club, continued to show that there’s real appetite for this kind of interaction across the profession. Rutherford Cross tax specialist, Ben Jones captured the atmosphere and the conversations of the evening in his write‑up below, highlighting the range of people who attended and the value that comes from getting the tax community together in person.
Video Credit: Inkwell Digital.
Tax Talks
Last month I hosted the second instalment of Tax Talks, this time at Flight Club, because if you’re going to bring Scotland’s tax community together, you may as well throw in a few darts to keep things interesting. After the first event at Gleneagles Townhouse, it already felt like tax professionals were crying out for more chances to connect properly, not at a conference, not on a webinar, and definitely not on a Teams call where half the cameras are off. This second event confirmed it.
Yes, I’m a recruiter, and yes, I love catching up with clients and candidates, but Tax Talks has become something much bigger than that; it’s slowly turning into a little pocket of the tax world where people can relax, be themselves, and actually enjoy meeting others in the profession. It turns out, when you remove the formalities, the name badges, and the forced networking, people are much happier to talk.
A Rare Gathering of Scotland’s Tax Landscape
One of the things that struck me was just how varied the room was. It’s not every Wednesday night that you see more than twenty tax professionals from totally different corners of the industry in one place, and crucially, choosing to be there. Big Four partners were chatting away with boutique firm owners, in house tax leaders were trading stories with newly qualified advisors, and corporate and private client specialists were discovering they have more in common than they expected.
It was genuinely refreshing. In a world where teams are increasingly global, and hybrid / remote, opportunities like this don’t happen organically. Tax Talks seems to be filling that gap, offering a space where different perspectives collide naturally and everyone leaves having learned something new or at least laughed at something unexpected.
When Fun Leads, the Networking Just… Happens
We’ve been very intentional from the start with this new event series: Tax Talks is fun first, networking second. No icebreakers, no rigid agendas, and no awkward circles of people pretending to check their phones. Instead, we had darts and snacks, and enough friendly competition to break down even the toughest technical tax exterior.
What happened next was exactly what we hoped for. Conversations flowed effortlessly, without that horrible “so what do you do?” energy. People found themselves chatting about holidays, hobbies, dogs, their horror stories of self assessment season, and only then did the work conversations naturally follow. When you let people relax, they are more comfortable opening up, and that’s when the best networking happens.
A Space for Real Career Growth
One of the nicest things to watch was the way people at totally different career stages interacted. Not in a formal, structured, HR approved “mentorship” way, but in a genuinely human way that you just don’t see inside most firms.
At one point, a newly qualified professional was having a long and honest conversation with a partner from another firm about careers, choices, confidence, and direction. No hierarchy, no pressure, and no performance review metrics lurking in the corner. By the end, they’d swapped LinkedIns and agreed to meet for a coffee.
These moments matter. For early career professionals, access to that kind of insight is gold dust. For senior leaders, it’s a chance to give something back, and this is exactly why Tax Talks exists: to create a space for interactions that simply wouldn’t happen naturally outside this environment.
A Quiet Relief for Senior Leaders
Senior tax leaders carry a lot: commercial pressures, people challenges, market uncertainty, fee targets and operational headaches… and that’s just a Monday morning. Talk Talks created an environment where they could talk openly about everything.
Away from the boardrooms and partner meetings, leaders were relaxed, they spoke candidly about the realities of the market, the pressures of leading teams, and the sheer mental load of being the person everyone else relies on.
You could feel the relief in the room -the relief of being among people who get it. Not competitors, not colleagues, but peers. It turns out that sharing those experiences in a genuinely safe, social environment is something senior leaders don’t often get, and it’s something they clearly need.
A Lifeline for Solo In House Leaders
If you’ve ever been the only tax professional in a business, or part of a global team where your closest teammate is 500 miles away, you’ll know the feeling of isolation. Endless Teams calls, the occasional “quick finance question” that is absolutely not quick, and a general sense that no one around you truly understands what you do.
Several in house leaders told me the same thing last month: “It’s just nice to be around tax people again.”
Being part of a community – a real, local one – matters. And for those in industry, Tax Talks seems to be becoming a small but meaningful antidote to the loneliness that can come with those specialist roles.
Human Connection for Business Owners (Without the Pitch Decks)
For business owners and boutique firm leaders, the evening offered something equally valuable. It wasn’t a chance to pitch, nor a platform to sell, but an opportunity to build relationships the way human beings actually prefer to build them, naturally.
People got to meet the person, not the brand, and conversations weren’t transactional or forced. This is the kind of environment where trust forms quickly and future collaborations happen because people genuinely like each other (not because someone felt obliged to hand out their business card)
The message was the same across the board: this industry can be lonely if you let it, but nights like this make it feel a lot less so.
People Before Job Titles
If the feedback from the event showed anything, it’s that Tax Talks isn’t about recruitment – it’s not even about networking in the traditional sense – it’s about bringing together a group of people who understand each other’s worlds, and giving them the space to relax, connect, and be themselves.
When you strip away the job titles, the firms, the specialisms, and the usual professional guard, you’re left with good people. And when you bring good people together, good things tend to happen. I’m already looking forward to the next one!
If you’d like to be involved in future Tax Talks events, or you want to discuss your own tax career, please get in touch with Ben Jones for a confidential discussion: [email protected] | 07432 482 882
