Fourteenth Annual Midyear Auditing Section ConferencePlan now to attend the Fourteenth Annual Auditing Midyear Conference to be held in Austin, Texas on January 17-19, 2008. The conference will be held at the Sheraton Austin Hotel, situated in the cultural heart of Austin. The hotel is next door to the famed Texas State Capital and near the University of Texas and the Sixth Street/Warehouse District. The KPMG Foundation is generously sponsoring the Midyear Conference. The meeting format will be similar to previous years and will consist of keynote plenary speakers and concurrent sessions dealing with a wide variety of contemporary topics related to audit, attestation and assurance practices, education, and research. The program is shaping up to include many interesting events. The program will include a pre-conference workshop session on Thursday afternoon titled "Excellence in Audit Education." The purpose of this Workshop is to bring together audit educators and leaders from the accounting profession to discuss emerging issues related to audit education for future generations of audit professionals. The Auditing Section is hosting this Workshop to create a forum for the exchange of ideas and materials about current and future audit education needs. The Auditing Section is not charging a fee for this workshop, but there is a limit to the number of participants so pre-attendance registration will be required and limited. On Friday, the first plenary session will feature Mr. Michael Ryan, Senior Vice President of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Center for Capital Markets Competitiveness. The Friday afternoon plenary session will feature Mr. Bruce Dorris, Program Director for the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners based in Austin, Texas. The conference also will include panel sessions by the Auditing Section's Education Committee, Research Committee, Standards Committee, and the Practice Advisory Council. Thanks to the generous support of the KPMG Foundation, the Ninth Annual Auditing Section Doctoral Consortium will be January 17th, preceding the Midyear meeting. The purpose of the Consortium is to stimulate students' research by exposing them to the latest ideas from leading researchers in auditing, and by providing opportunities for networking with other Ph.D. students interested in auditing, established auditing researchers, and journal editors. The Consortium is open to all Ph.D. students who have an interest in auditing research. Students may be at any stage in their programs, and there is no limit to the number of students who may attend from any one university. However, there is a limit on the total number of students who can attend the Consortium (50), so students are advised to register early. Applicants will be accepted on a first-come basis. For further information on the application process, please see the announcement in this issue of The Auditor's Report and the section's website. Make plans now to join us in Austin next January! Roger Martin and Gary Peters |