Fifteenth Annual Midyear Auditing Section ConferencePlan now to attend the Fifteenth Annual Auditing Midyear Conference (AMC) to be held in St. Petersburg, Florida on January 15-17, 2009. The Conference will be held at the Hilton St. Petersburg Bayfront Hotel, located in the waterfront district of downtown St. Petersburg. Downtown St. Petersburg is home to many of the finest cultural attractions in Florida, all conveniently located just outside the hotel’s front doors. 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. This year’s program will again include a pre-conference workshop session on Thursday afternoon titled "Audit Education Workshop." The first workshop last year was well received so we are continuing the tradition this year. 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. Our profession is facing many changes creating significant education challenges that affect not only undergraduate and graduate accounting curricula, but also life-long professional learning. 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. There is a $25 registration charge for this Workshop, and there is a limit to the number of participants so pre-attendance registration will be required and limited. The Friday morning plenary session will feature a presentation by Charles Holm, the Chief Accountant of the Federal Reserve Board's Division of Banking Supervision and Regulation, on the accounting implications of this fall’s banking crisis for teaching and research. Mr. Holm advises Federal Reserve Governors and the Board on the implications of key accounting and reporting issues facing the financial industry. He oversees the accounting policy and regulatory report functions of the Division. He also is the senior Federal Reserve Board policy official responsible for domestic and international accounting, auditing, reporting, disclosure, and related internal control issues affecting the banking industry. Mr. Holm oversees the development of Board positions on major accounting and auditing issues and regulatory reporting proposals affecting the banking industry. Charley regularly interacts with senior representatives from accounting and audit standards-setters, bank and securities regulators, the banking industry, and accounting firms. Mr. Holm also serves as the Federal Reserve Board’s representative to the Basel Committee’s Accounting Task Force. In addition, Charley is a frequent speaker at banking industry conferences. The Friday afternoon plenary session will feature a presentation by Oliver Halle, Diann Cattani, and Josh Kenyon from CorporateScaredStraight (for more information, see their website at www.CorporateScaredStraight.com). Their presentation is titled “Taking the Harder Right” and discusses ethics, fraud prevention and anti-corruption based on their first-hand experiences. The conference also will include panel sessions by the Auditing Section's Education Committee, Research Committee, and Standards Committee related to topics such as global convergence of accounting and auditing standards, how to prepare our students for this convergence, and potential research issues related to these and other changes in the profession. In addition, the Center for Audit Quality and representatives from several audit firms will be participating in a panel session discussing major challenges facing the profession and the Center for Audit Quality’s efforts to address these issues. Thanks to the generous support of the KPMG Foundation, the 10th Annual Auditing Section Doctoral Consortium will be January 15th, 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 program. There is a limit on the total number of students who can attend the Consortium (65), and a maximum of four students may attend from any one university. 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 St. Petersburg next January! Brian Ballou and Chris Hogan |