2003 Midyear Auditing Conference
Held in Huntington Beach, California

The view of the Pacific Ocean from the Hilton Waterfront Beach Resort in Huntington Beach, site of the 2003 Midyear Meeting.

The 2003 Midyear Meeting of the Auditing section appeared to be a success, aided immeasurably by the 70 degree Southern California weather. The meeting was kicked off by the plenary speaker, Phil Schimmel, managing partner of KPMG’s LA office. Phil talked about the profession’s response to the post-Enron environment. His slides are available online.Click here.

The meeting featured a second plenary session consisting of a panel discussion by three distinguished leaders in accounting, oversight, and governance: Bill Kinney, Aulana Peters, and Chuck Noski. Their discussions highlighted the uncertainty resulting from Sarbanes-Oxley, the PCAOB, and the legal environment. In addition, there were four panel discussions during the concurrent sessions that dealt with the proposed risk assessment Statement on Auditing Standards and the proposed new COSO report, research opportunities in internal auditing, communicating research results outside of academia, and preparing students for the profession.

Jeff Cohen enjoying the Welcome Reception with several other attendees, including Roger Simnett who came all the way from Australia.

Thirty-two papers were presented, including, for the first time, cases and conceptual papers oriented toward education. Another 19 papers were presented at the roundtable. This was the second year of the roundtable, and it was quite successful. The papers and abstracts are available at: /audit/midyear/03midyear/2003%20Program%20for%20MYM.htm.

Despite the current economic climate and higher California costs, total attendance was 237. This was down from last year’s 272, but still very good. Twenty-eight students registered for the Doctoral Consortium and 27 attended the CPE session on integrating fraud topics in your curriculum presented by Steve Albrecht. Section award winners were: Distinguished Service in Auditing Award— Zoe-Vonna Palmrose; Outstanding Auditing Educator Award—Ted Mock; Notable Contribution to the Auditing Literature Award—Tim Bell and Arnold Wright; Innovation in Auditing and Assurance Education Award—Ulric Gelinas, Jr., Elliott S. Levy, and Jay C. Thibodeau; Doctoral Dissertation Award—Kin-Yew Low and advisor, Ira Solomon.

Panel discussion participants Bill Kinney, Chuck Noski, and Aulana Peters addressed what we have learned from the recent accounting scandals and the related uncertainties facing the profession.

Thanks are due to KPMG and Bernie Milano for their continued sponsorship and support; all reviewers, discussants, and moderators; Dee Strahan at the AAA; McGraw-Hill/Irwin for co-sponsoring a reception; and the Leventhal School at the University of Southern California for sponsoring the closing session.

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