Go EO at FAB 2026

On the 11th of March 2026, the Go EO team headed to the NEC for FAB. This annual expo is billed as the place where accountants, finance leaders and vendors get together to tackle real problems and set the agenda for the year ahead. It was our first time exhibiting at the show, so we weren’t sure what to expect. After two full on days, we came away energised and with a clearer sense of just how much appetite there is for conversations around Employee Ownership Trusts (EOTs) in the accounting world.

The accounting community is at the heart of what we do. Advisers are often the first people a founder turns to when they start thinking about the future of their business, which makes them exactly the right people to talk to about EOTs. Not every business is right for an EOT, but for the ones that are, having an adviser who understands the option can make all the difference.

The two days flew by in a buzz of conversations. It was a fascinating window into the broader accounting landscape – the challenges practices are navigating, the questions clients are asking, and where EOTs fit into this landscape. We spoke with advisers who were already fielding questions from clients about exit routes, and plenty who were curious about EOTs but hadn't yet had the chance to explore them properly.

On the panel

Thursday afternoon brought one of our conference highlights. Chris Maslin joined a panel session: Selling a Business: EOT vs PE vs Trade Sale. The session was hosted by Matt Ord, Deputy Editor at AccountingWeb, and Chris was joined on the panel by Akshay Vaghela, EOT Services Director at Doyle Clayton, and James Gosling, Managing Director at AJ Chambers.

It was a session that covered a lot of ground. The panel dug into which types of business suit each exit route, what the immediate post-sale or post-investment period looks like in practice, and how to assess EOT suitability early.

Chris’ understanding of the process from both sides of the table – as a founder that sold his business to an EOT and as an adviser – added a different perspective to the conversation. The reality of stepping back from your business isn't always straightforward: fully handing over the reins, becoming one voice among several, adjusting to a new role in a business you built. These are the things founders sometimes struggle to fully anticipate. These are the kinds of insight it’s hard to get from someone who's only seen the process from the outside.

What's next

Following on from FAB, we’ve set up a webinar on Tuesday, 17 March at 12pm to give advisers and founders a more in-depth introduction to EOTs. It covers the essentials: what an EOT is, when it works (and when it doesn't), the pros and cons, and how the process works in practice.