Summary of 2007 Auditing Midyear Conference
Charleston, South Carolina
By Karla Johnstone (University of Wisconsin) and
Terry Neal (University of Tennessee)
The 2007 Auditing Midyear Conference was held in Charleston, South Carolina on January 11-13, 2007, at the Francis Marion Hotel. The meeting was preceded by the 8th annual Auditing Section Doctoral Consortium.
The meeting included outstanding plenary sessions. Friday morning's plenary speech by Damon Silvers (Associate General Counsel for the AFL-CIO), "Investors' Stake in Strengthening the Audit Profession," provided a stakeholder view of recent events in auditing regulation and the profession's responses. Friday afternoon's plenary speech by Bill Gradison (member of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board), "An Insider's Perspective on Recent PCAOB Activities", outlined PCAOB activities and also provided insights regarding the PCAOB inspection results and efficiency-related aspects of the proposed standard "An Audit of Internal Control Over Financial Reporting That Is Integrated With An Audit of Financial Statements and Related Other Proposals."
The meeting also included four separate panel sessions. The Education Committee sponsored a session on the PCAOB inspection process, including speakers from the PCAOB, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, and Grant Thornton LLP. The Practice Advisory Council provided a session on routine forensic audits, and featured speakers from Grant Thornton LLP, Deloitte LLP, and the PCAOB, among others. The Research Committee sponsored a session on the PCAOB's Research Synthesis projects. Finally, the Auditing Standards Committee presented a panel on how multiple standard setters work together in today's environment, including discussions by representatives of the AICPA, the GAO, the PCAOB, and the IAASB.
Thirty-nine papers were presented in the concurrent sessions, including three teaching cases. Another 25 papers were presented at the Research Roundtable session on Saturday morning. Total attendance was 294. As in prior years, the Doctoral Consortium had a capacity group of 50 students.
Section award winners were:
- Distinguished Service in Auditing: Ira Solomon
- Outstanding Auditing Educator Award: Larry Rittenberg
- Notable Contribution to the Auditing Literature Award: Jere Francis, Edward Maydew and H. Charles Sparks for "The Role of Big 6 Auditors in the Credible Reporting of Accruals" (Auditing: A Journal of Practice & Theory, Fall 1999)
- Innovation in Auditing and Assurance Education Award: Eric Spires
- Doctoral Dissertation Award: Gary Hecht (PhD student), and Mark Peecher (advisor)
The conference program and copies of many of the papers featured at the meeting are still available at: http://aaahq.org/meetings/2007AUD_program.htm.
We are very grateful to the many people who helped make this conference work. First, we thank the KPMG Foundation and Bernie Milano for their faithful sponsorship and support of the AMC. Second, we thank the 2007 AMC Program Committee, including Roger Martin, Gary Peters, Mark DeFond, Todd DeZoort, Jane Kennedy, and Amanda Van Zee. Third, we thank our friends at the AAA, especially Debbie Gardner and Dee Strahan. Finally, we thank all of the authors, reviewers, discussants, moderators, and panelists who helped make the program possible.
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