Summary of 2010 Auditing Midyear Conference
San Diego, California

By Jennifer Joe (Georgia State University) and
Susan Shu (Boston College)

The 2010 Auditing Midyear Conference was held in San Diego, January 14-16, 2010, at the Westin Hotel. The meeting was preceded by the 11th annual Auditing Section Doctoral Consortium and the Audit Education Workshop.

The meeting included two plenary sessions.  The first plenary session was held on Friday morning.  Christopher Cox, Past Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), provided his view of accounting and fiscal policies.  He discussed the challenges in accounting for the assets acquired by the government in the most recent financial crisis, and pointed out the important role played by the accounting and auditing profession.  The second plenary session was held on Saturday morning.  Professor Arnold Schilder, the Chair of the International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board (IAASB), discussed the challenges and opportunities of international standard setting.  He provided details on the implementation and innovation in audit and assurance standard setting, and offered his perspectives on future research opportunities.

Christopher Cox at the first plenary session.

From left: Susan Shu (Conference Co-organizer), Jennifer Joe (Conference Co-organizer), Arnold Schilder (Plenary Speaker, Chair of the IAASB), and Urton Anderson (Section President).

The meeting also included five outstanding panel sessions. The Center for Audit Quality committee sponsored a panel session “What Now? How Have Changes in Washington Impacted the Audit Profession”?  Professor Bill Kinney moderated a panel on green assurance.  In that session various experts discussed the assurance of sustainability, greenhouse gas emissions disclosures, related policy initiatives, and research opportunities on this topic.  The CPA Exam committee sponsored a session on the auditing and attestation section of the CPA examination.   The Internal Audit committee sponsored a session on research in internal auditing, including current issues and opportunities.  The Research Committee sponsored a session on research opportunities in fraud prevention, fraud detection, and working with practitioners.  All five panels were well attended and generated extensive discussion of current issues in the profession and academe.

Forty four papers were presented in the concurrent sessions, including three teaching cases. Another 24 papers were presented at the Research Roundtable session on Saturday morning. Total meeting attendance was close to 300.  The Doctoral Consortium had 70 students participating, and 51 participants attended the pre-conference Audit Education Workshop. The conference program and copies of many of the papers featured at the meeting are still available at: http://aaahq.org/meetings/2010AUD_program.htm.

During this year’s conference we attempted to reduce waste wherever possible.  For example, we avoided plastic and canned beverages and opted for reusable cups and mugs.  Each conference participant was issued a reusable water bottle upon registration (donated by KPMG) that could be refilled using the water pitchers available in the presentation rooms and at the beverage reception stands.  

We are very grateful to the many people who helped make this conference successful. First, we thank the KPMG Foundation and Bernie Milano for their faithful sponsorship and support of the conference. Second, we thank Auditing Section President Urton Anderson, the 2010 Program Committee Vice Chairs Scott Vandervelde and Mike Wilkins, and the Doctoral Consortium Chair, Brian Mayhew. Third, we thank our friends at the AAA, including David Boynton Debbie Gardner, Sonja Langley, Arlene Oliver, Dee Strahan, and Peggy Turczyn. Finally, we thank all of the authors, reviewers, discussants, moderators, and panelists who helped make the program possible.

Conference Co-organizers, Jennifer Joe (far left) and Susan Shu (far right), present the award for best paper by a Ph.D student to Marsha Keune (left center) and best conference paper to Banjamin Luippold (right center).