THE FUTURE OF THE ACCOUNTANCY PROFESSION BROUGHT TO LIFE AT ACCA VIRTUAL CONF...

Free online global conference explores the role finance professionals will play in building a stronger and sustainable global economy

Corporate culture, sustainability and global business service models are the burning issues up for discussion in the sixth annual

Accounting for the Future global virtual conference, held by ACCA (the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants).

Four days of video and audio webcast content, on a range of subject matter involving the future of the accountancy profession, will be streamed live and on-demand for the conference on 15-18 September 2014.

The themes of each day are:

• Monday 15 September – Risk and culture: how much does corporate culture influence effective risk management and
  

governance?

• Tuesday 16 September – Investors and reporting: a new reporting framework.
  

• Wednesday 17 September – Tomorrow’s world: how are changing economies going to impact on finance professionals?
  

• Thursday 18 September – The smart finance function: how can finance teams work smarter to become the drivers of success
  

with a business?

Key highlights to look out for during the four-day conference include an audio webcast on culture and channelling corporate behaviour. This session looks at recent scandals in the banking sector and hospitals where poor corporate culture has been blamed for the problems in these organisations. As a result of this, the Financial Stability Board expects risk culture to be thought about and boards of financial institutions will be asked to judge their own organisational culture.

The event will also focus on natural capital and how companies are managing their impact and dependency on it, and how reporting influences the decisions of investors.

On the last day of the conference an expert panel of senior finance leaders will discuss how they addressed the issues, challenges and opportunities of the change process in finance transformation, as more CFOs embrace shared services, outsourcing and other global business services models.

Faye Chua, ACCA’s head of futures research, said: 'The finance profession is ever-changing, especially with the rapid advancement in technology we have seen in recent years. We need to keep up-to-date with the changes and see how beneficial they are to our work and to the profession as a whole. Of course everyone wants to be ahead of their competitors too, so this would be another incentive to keep up with change, as well as to build a stronger and sustainable economy.

'The conference aims to create discussion and debate each year about topical issues for the finance profession.

'We organise these conferences every year to provide a platform for discussion and debate, as well as to be informative via experts in the finance field.

'

This is also a way for ACCA members to get CPD units that count towards their training and education.'

Register for the conference via the 'Related Links' section, left of this article.

- ENDS - FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:

[size=1.6em]Alana Sinnen, ACCA Newsroom
+44 (0)20 7059 5807
+44 (0)7715 812120
alana.sinnen@accaglobal.com

Notes to Editors

• ACCA (the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) is the global body for professional accountants. We aim to offer
  

business-relevant, first-choice qualifications to people of application, ability and ambition around the world who seek a

rewarding career in accountancy, finance and management.

• We support our 170,000 members and 436,000 students in 180 countries, helping them to develop successful careers in accounting and business, with the skills required by employers. We work through a network of 91 offices and centres and more than 8,500 Approved Employers worldwide, who provide high standards of employee learning and development. Through our public interest remit, we promote appropriate regulation of accounting and conduct relevant research to ensure accountancy continues to grow in reputation and influence.
• Founded in 1904, ACCA has consistently held unique core values: opportunity, diversity, innovation, integrity and accountability. We believe that accountants bring value to economies in all stages of development and seek to develop capacity in the profession and encourage the adoption of global standards. Our values are aligned to the needs of employers in all sectors and we ensure that through our qualifications, we prepare accountants for business. We seek to open up the profession to people of all backgrounds and remove artificial barriers, innovating our qualifications and delivery to meet the diverse needs of trainee professionals and their employers.