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ACCA’s Accounting for the Future is back! Get the insights, strategies and skills you need to thrive in an era change and earn up to 21 CPD units – free. Starting Nov 26,

Register now: https://bit.ly/AFF2024EE

Conference highlights

Join us – and thousands of fellow ACCA members – to explore critical trends shaping the future:

Day 1 | Technology: the opportunity
Learn how to leverage AI, automation and intelligent systems to build future-ready businesses.

Day 2 | Climate change: the profession steps up
Discover how finance professionals can spearhead the transition to a more sustainable world – from assessing climate risks to enabling green strategies for businesses of all sizes.

Day 3 | Skills: ready for the challenge
Gain new competencies – from data analytics to creative thinking – that finance leaders need to stay ahead of the curve.

Thriving in the reality of a turbulent business environment

26 NOVEMBER 2024

9am (GMT)

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Hosted by the BBC’s acclaimed technology editor Zoe Kleinman, our panel of financial and technology experts dive into the opportunities for finance professionals and the choices they can make to succeed in the current turbulent business environment. With an introduction from senior leaders of ACCA and CA ANZ, we will shine a light on how accountants will remain responsible for driving outcomes, ensuring there is nothing artificial about the reality of a new technological frontier.

Rise of the humans: our future in an AI world

26 NOVEMBER 2024

10am (GMT)

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We stand at the precipice of a transformational technological landscape. Everyone will be affected. The winners will be those who reinvent what they do and how they do it, increasing value for their business, not merely looking for efficiencies by automating today’s tasks. In this lively and engaging session, renowned former Microsoft UK chief envisioning officer Dave Coplin will look at problems, mistakes and assumptions before ultimately focusing on how we can best ensure our organisations thrive in this new era.

Accounting expertise meets machine intelligence

26 NOVEMBER 2024

11am (GMT)

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How should we approach implementation of AI in our businesses? Our panelists will highlight strategic approaches, examining common challenges and innovative solutions employed by industry leaders, informed by ACCA's report ‘The Smart Alliance: accounting expertise meets machine intelligence’. We'll uncover valuable lessons, emerging best practices and actionable insights for accounting professionals looking to understand the potential value of AI, with practical strategies for successful implementation and value creation.

Technology, audit and the opportunities for small firms

26 NOVEMBER 2024

12pm (GMT)

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Technology is increasingly helping auditors produce high-quality audits. Recent advancements in off-the-shelf solutions mean there is significant potential for smaller audit firms to compete with the large. In this session, experts will discuss the opportunities for small and medium-sized practices and the practical  considerations, including what to focus on in the next 12 months. We will also address standard-setting developments in relation to audit and technology.

Supporting clients on their AI journey

26 NOVEMBER 2024

2pm (GMT)

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Many small enterprises, short of knowledge and resources, may view the benefits of AI as being out of reach. But small accountancy practices (SMPs) can help their clients profit from AI just as much as any other business. This panel discussion will focus on the way SMPs can build their own expertise and help their clients identify use-cases, select the right AI tools, manage the transition to AI competency and overcome key challenges such as data-quality issues, cost and integration with existing software solutions.

Unlocking the data and AI skills dividend 

26 NOVEMBER 2024

3pm (GMT)

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The rise of data analytics and rapid adoption of generative artificial intelligence technologies are having a dramatic impact on the financial world. But there are many interpretations of these terms, with different skills required to reap the benefits from the different technologies. In this session, experts will demystify these technologies, bust through the jargon and set out what finance professionals need to know, now and into the future.

Global economy 2025: could rising populism put green transition at risk?

27 NOVEMBER 2024

9am (GMT)

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What will be the state of the global economy in 2025? Our panel of experts will highlight the latest economic trends and discuss the consequences of elections that are taking place in half the countries in the world this year, and the impact of ongoing geopolitical tensions. Could slow growth, strained government finances, rising populism and green protectionism increasingly put a green transition at risk? Could technology save the day? Are sustainability policies the next battleground in geoeconomic fragmentation? Join us to find out.

Leading the green transition with climate risk assessments

27 NOVEMBER 2024

10am (GMT)

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Organisations need to disclose the climate-related risks that are likely to have a material impact on the business, the governance and risk management processes related to these risks and how they affect strategy, business model and outlook. So how can professional accountants not only support their organisations in this activity but in fact lead the green transition? What are the risks if they don’t? This session will look at key issues including skills for scenario-planning across whole risk landscape.

The new era of nature reporting

27 NOVEMBER 2024

11am (GMT)

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Momentum is building for companies to report on biodiversity and ecosystem risks and opportunities. The International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) is working on a new biodiversity-related standard, while the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) has already revised its biodiversity standard. As corporate reporting enters a significant new era, with some jurisdictions already adopting advanced disclosures, this session explores the current landscape of nature reporting. Join the session to learn about emerging trends, best practice, and practical advice for businesses.

Connecting sustainability to business strategy

27 NOVEMBER 2024

12pm (GMT)

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A connection between sustainability information and financial information, and decision making, can create a virtuous circle that propels an organisation’s success. Unfortunately this connection is either absent or inconsistently applied across many organisations. This panel session will explore what is meant by connectivity, the information that needs connecting for value creation and the processes, data, technology and people needed to do so.

How to grow a sustainable SME

27 NOVEMBER 2024

2pm (GMT)

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Small businesses are under pressure to be more sustainable. Public opinion and stakeholders facing regulatory demands impose ever greater expectations on SMEs to adapt and change. But this is not just about compliance; it is an opportunity to thrive. The key players are practitioners and SME finance professionals guiding small businesses to adapt and succeed. This session will examine the consequences of failing to change, and share the tools and skills available to SME finance experts seeking to become specialist sustainability advisers.

Global Talent Trends: 2024 perspectives

28 NOVEMBER 2024

9am (GMT)

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Employers face a struggle to attract and retain key staff at a time of growing anxiety about the future of work. Our expert panelists explore the future of key workplace concerns as revealed by ACCA's flagship survey of 10,000 members worldwide: improvements to diversity and inclusion, support for mental health and upskilling for artificial intelligence.

Skills for thinking critically about creativity

28 NOVEMBER 2024

10am (GMT)

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Creativity is of growing importance given that AI can increasingly do many of the routine and predictable tasks at work. However, creativity is not one thing. In this session, ACCA's resident talent adviser Dr Rob Yeung will introduce various frameworks for developing your creativity skills. Rather than providing you with simplistic (and misleading) answers, this session will equip you to better assess and augment business creativity.

Improving the allure of a career in audit

28 NOVEMBER 2024

11am (GMT)

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Attracting and retaining talent remains a challenge for audit practices around the world. How can firms make this vital line of service appealing to the next generation, and what are they doing to keep the talent on board? Our experts will delve into insights from ACCA/CA ANZ research to reveal the key strategies firms need to adopt to ensure their talent pipeline remains healthy, treat their people fairly and offer new opportunities, such as in the emerging space of sustainability audit and technology.

Rising to today's new ethical challenges

28 NOVEMBER 2024

12pm (GMT)

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ACCA research reveals a multifaceted, interconnected and evolving landscape of ethical challenges for the accounting professionals in the 21st century. Join this session as our panelists examine the key issues identified in ACCA's research, IESBA's perspective on leadership and culture, and the skills we need to draw upon in dealing with the challenges.

Evolving the finance function: talent and transformation

28 NOVEMBER 2024

2pm (GMT)

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Finance functions continue to evolve as transition brings the non-financial and traditional financial worlds closer together. But with value and a pre-emptive, autonomous outlook at the function’s core, what are the new skills finance professionals need to enhance their careers? With accelerating career pathways, transformative technologies and new accountabilities emerging while businesses transition to a more sustainable future, our panel of experts analyse the opportunities.

Upskilling for changes in IFRS presentation and disclosure

28 NOVEMBER 2024

3pm (GMT)

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In 2027, we will see IFRS 18 replacing IAS 1, and IFRS 19 substantially reducing the disclosure requirements for eligible subsidiaries. In this session, we will hear directly from the IASB about the drivers behind these new standards and how users of financial statements will benefit from the new information. Our panel of experts will then analyse the practical implications and the skills required for preparers and auditors.

The reasons to work ethically are obvious: your professional designation depends on it; it is crucial to your reputation and long term career success; cleaning up from ethical lapses is incredibly harsh and expensive; it is a valuable principle in its own right (it’s the right thing to do); and it makes your organization, industry and country better places to live and work. The challenge is how to work ethically even when we are under pressure, when we are charting new territory, pushing the boundaries, and navigating our complex and ever-changing world. This hands-on, participatory workshop will guide you through several classic ethical principles and supply you with practical tools you can use to resolve ethical challenges, make better decisions, and coach others to do the same.

What You Will Learn:
1. The Stakes: The value of ethics to you/your career+measures of success (metrics)
2. Principles: Ethical principles and frameworks you can use to better assess
and calibrate your decisions
3. Cases: Systems thinking cases: dealing with complex ethical challenges
4. Leadership: Create a culture of high ethical standards on your team
5. Checklist: Assessing & auditing decision and actions for ethicality
6. Inspiration: Inspiring and thought-worthy quotes on ethics, character, and
leadership

Joel Shapiro, Ph.D.
Joel has educated 1000’s of leaders in his open enrolment programs and has designed and implemented dozens of customized LD & OD programs for notable companies. Joel helped save his third-generation family business in an extreme turnaround situation, transforming the company from a local, non-competitive, commodity supplier into a national, highly competitive, value added service provider. In three mergers and two acquisitions (all within 18 months), Joel led the post-merger integration, uniting the six cultures into one cohesive team, and realigning them all with the new vision, strategy, values, and market realities.

Joel's Unique Experience

• Founded Advanture Consulting in 2001
• Co-founded Spectral AgriVentures in 2016
• Pro-bono work for non-profits: gender, environmental, ethnic, gov’t employees
• Former Associate Faculty for the Vancouver School for Narrative Therapy and Adjunct Assist. Professor, Master of Workplace Learning, University of Calgary
• Former member of the Canadian National Freestyle Ski Team
• Ph.D. with Distinction in Philosophy. Lived, worked and studied in Europe for eight years: speaks German and French (rusty)

The Salvation Army stands firmly behind individuals impacted by slavery and human trafficking and is committed to the eradication all forms of slavery and trafficking by advocating for legislative change in governments, opening over 100 global safe houses to help those fleeing exploitative circumstances, providing platforms for people with lived experience to speak into and lead change, and engaging in preventative, protection, and support efforts.

MSHT is a multi-billion-dollar criminal industry that denies freedom to an estimated 40.3 million people around the world, including 20.9 million people who are forced into different forms of labour and sex trafficking.

People read statistics but don’t often engage with trafficking on a deeper level because they feel it is a problem that is happening “over there” in developing countries. Many think such exploitation, trauma and oppression could never happen here. As the old saying goes, “Out of sight, out of mind.”

Yet, Canada is not immune to human trafficking. Today, in Canada, there is an estimated 17,000 people enslaved. Canada has been labelled internationally as a “destination country” for human-trafficking victims, a “transit country” through which victims are moved and a “source country” for recruiting potential victims. No matter where we live, chances are it is happening nearby.

 YOU WILL LEARN:

• The extent of modern slavery and human trafficking in Canada.
• How Indigenous women and girls have been sexually exploited from first contact with the explorers to Canada and the extent of their subjugation today.
• The breadth of modern slavery beyond human trafficking and how the two are linked
• How to recognize some of the trends, signs, risk factors and methods of recruitment
• The current considerations specific to Indigenous Peoples in providing support and services.
• How organizations like the Salvation Army assist in the prevention, support, protection and education around MSHT.

OUR SPEAKERS

• • Barbara Carey serves as a Salvation Army officer in the province of Québec.  She has been working with The Salvation Army in social services for over 16 years. She a Social Services Consultant and a dedicated advocate for Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking Response at the Salvation Army Territorial Headquarters. Through her multifaceted roles, she remains steadfast in her commitment to combating exploitation and empowering individuals to reclaim their dignity and freedom.

  • Captain Crystal Porter is a Salvation Army Officer from Ktaqmkuk (Newfoundland, Canada). She holds a Masters of Theological Studies from NAIITS, an Indigenous Learning Community specializing in Indigenous Theology. Crystal is currently the Territorial Indigenous Ministries Consultant for the Canada and Bermuda Territory. She is an avid reader, loves spending time at the ocean and enjoys teaching and sharing her love for traditional Mi’kmaw beading and quillwork.

  • Dianna Bussey is a social worker within the Salvation Army Correctional & Justice Services – Winnipeg, currently serving as the executive director.   She became aware and involved in anti oppression and restorative justice work early in her career through her education at Booth University College and then keenly aware of exploitation through journeying with individuals who have been exploited; work with the exploiters; families; and work with colleagues of the agencies and systems that respond to exploitation.  This made her passionate about fighting to end modern slavery and human trafficking in all forms.
    

  • Major Sandra Rowsell has been an Officer for 18 years serving in Church and Family Services Ministries in Ontario, New Brunswick and British Columbia.  She currently lives in Maple Ridge, BC and serves as the Divisional Secretary for Women's Ministries, Divisional Family Services Consultant and Modern Slavery Human Trafficking Response Advocate.

  • Valerie Pavey is a Children’s Ministries Consultant at the territorial headquarters in the Children and Youth Ministries Department. When asked if she would represent her department on the Territorial MSHT Response Committee, she was thrilled to say Yes! Being a part of this committee has been a great learning experience widening her knowledge and understanding of the MSHT battle and the need for everyone to join the fight. She wants others to see the need to reach out into our communities to educate and equip others in understanding what trafficking is, to know their value as individuals, and to provide them with safe spaces to seek help.

•  

REGISTER NOW - CLICK HERE

CPE Credit: 31

Course Level: Basic

Prepare to pass the CFE Exam by attending the CFE Exam Review Course. This instructor-led course will help you master the concepts tested on the CFE Exam — Financial Transactions and Fraud Schemes, Law, Investigation, and Fraud Prevention and Deterrence.

This course, in combination with the CFE Exam Prep Course software, will provide you with an unbeatable combination for passing the exam.

Learn More

How did Home Depot wind up sharing customer information with Meta? How did a Cincinnati hospital wind up sending patient information to Meta and other third parties? Why did a Mall use facial recognition software to target shoppers inside the building?

There’s no two ways about it. Cybersecurity is on everyone’s mind; however, not everyone knows the steps involved in preventing or managing a breach. Data breaches have dominated the news cycle long enough for individuals, small and large businesses, front-line employees, and risk managers alike to know how serious cybersecurity risk can be. But what happens when the data wasn’t stolen but willingly shared?

Privacy Impact Audits are essential for any sustainable privacy compliance framework to ensure that organizations are aware, from the outset, of the possible consequences of their data leaking to outside sources. The role of internal audit is especially important regarding this topic and how to mitigate risk of data exposure.

 You will learn:

• The three lines of defence in managing risk
• The importance of executive suite/board level involvement and commitment
• How to promote a culture of skepticism and risk management
•  How to make employee training more than a “tick the box” exercise
• About the threat from a compromised employee and from third-party vendors and how to mitigate these risks
• The protocols and policies needed to prevent cyber breaches and to manage the breach when it occurs
• How to conduct a Privacy Impact Audit
• The risks of free promotional materials and how to assess them.
•   The importance of having an action plan in place to manage a breach when it does happen
  
  

Our Speaker

Nejolla Korris is an international expert in the field of Linguistic Lie Detection and Cybersecurity - Social Engineering and Social Media Risk. She is the Chief Executive Officer at Interveritas International.

She is skilled in Scientific Content Analysis (SCAN), a technique that can determine whether a subject is truthful or deceptive. Since 2000, Korris has analyzed documents for fraud, international security, arson, sexual assault, homicide, and missing persons' cases, causing some of her clients to dub her the "Human Lie Detector."

Nejolla was one of five sanctioned trainers worldwide in the SCAN methodology. She has worked with Singapore police, FBI & cold case units of Scotland Yard and Irish Garda as well as several other law enforcement agencies. She introduced the methodology to the business community helping train professionals in detecting deception and honing interview skills.

In 2010 Ms. Korris added social media risk and social engineering training and consulting to her portfolio. She was approached by a firm of penetration testers to develop the social engineering ruses used to hack into corporations otherwise known as people hacking. This is used to train staff to recognize online threats and scams. Korris works with all levels of management, IT and internal audit to determine risk and prevention strategies for corporations and their staff.

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More details to come shortly

In 2020 the OPP adopted a Framework for a Victim-Centred Approach to ensure a comprehensive, consistent, and structured approach to enhancing programs, policies and processes to better assist and understand the needs of victims/survivors. The inception of the Victim-Centred Approach Team and the Victim Specialist Program ensures victims are aware of, and can access their rights, and that they are supported throughout the criminal justice process. This presentation will provide an overview of the OPP’s Framework for a Victim-Centred Approach and those processes which ensure the OPP are meeting not only their legal obligations as they relate to victims/survivors (inclusive of victims of fraud), but also their moral and ethical obligations by recognizing and respecting an individual’s fundamental human rights.

OUR SPEAKER

Shauna Marshall: Staff Sergeant, Program Manager
Victim-Centred Approach Team
Crime Prevention & Community Support Bureau, Ontario Provincial Police

Shauna has been a member of the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) since 1998 and began her career as a front-line general law enforcement officer in Arnprior, Ontario. In 2006, Shauna transitioned from front-line duties to a specialized role and became a certified Forensic Identification Officer servicing the central areas of Eastern Ontario, where she later promoted to Sergeant of the Unit. Working within this specialized field and amongst trauma on a day-to-day basis for over a decade, Shauna became acutely aware of the impact on mental health within the policing community and actively sought out opportunities to support fellow officers through education and awareness, specifically relating to operational stress injuries and post-traumatic stress disorder. In 2019, given her dedication to mental health and having a trauma-informed approach as it relates to policing in general, Shauna joined then Deputy Director Maria McDonald (Victim Support Strategy Lead, Victim-Centred Approach Team, OPP) to support the inception of the OPP's Framework for a Victim-Centred Approach and the creation of the Victim Specialist Program. Shauna is currently the Program Manger for the Victim-Centred Approach Team, which oversees the Victim Specialist Program, a Program which supports front-line investigations within 10 Detachments and the OPP’s Criminal Investigation Branch.

Shauna’s role within the Victim-Centred Approach Team further supports the implementation of a victim-centred approach to mass casualty and extreme events through the engagement of her expertise and the Victim Specialist Program, when investigations require, throughout Ontario. Shauna is a member of the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police (CACP) National Working Group supporting Victims of Terrorism and Mass Casualty. Within this role, Shauna facilitated the development of National Job Specifications for the Victim Specialist/Family Liaison and coinciding Management roles and is also one of the Design and Development Leads for the CACP NWG Victim Specialist Workshop: Piloting a Canadian Victim Response Framework for Terrorism, Mass Violence and Mass Casualty Events.

LOTS of FREE PARKING

This is a great opportunity for you to meet your Chapter Board of Directors and to network with other Certified Fraud Examiners as well as our industry colleagues who are involved in fighting Financial Crimes.
Please come and bring a friend or co-worker!

It is ONLY $20.00

ONLY paid-up Members of the GTA Chapter
(as identified by their name badge)
may speak or vote at the
two separate meetings that are being held on June 12:
(a) Annual General Meeting ("AGM") (6:30 pm)
(b) Special Members Meeting  (6:45 pm)

Meetings Documents
Each document will open in a new browser tab. Then "Save" it to your device.
If you cannot attend these In-Person meetings, please submit a proxy form. Instructions & Deadlines for Proxy submission are found in the form.

Documents will be uploaded on April 28, 2025

Financial transactions are increasingly digital, and payments processing is increasingly automated, which makes our role as fraud examiners more important than ever. Now is the time to delve into the potential of AI platforms such as ChatGPT to raise our workplace productivity, assist our fraud examination workflows and speed up or automate routine tasks, allowing us to keep our focus on strategic fraud prevention and detection activities. By demonstrating AI’s capabilities in natural language processing and generation, we will show how AI-based tools can streamline communications, answer queries and help with interactions within your organization. Additionally, AI can even help us find the formula(s) that will return the desired results in Excel or any other app. We will also look at the darker side of AI to answer questions such as: What can ChatGPT and other tools learn from your data and queries and explicitly or implicitly pass on to the rest of its userbase? Or, if you repeatedly ask AI to identify the purchase of gift cards by employees using P-cards, will the AI tool “learn” that this is a recurring and significant problem in your company?

You Will Learn How To:

• Identify the potential positive impact of AI on productivity, efficiency and fraud detection.
• Include the use of AI in the planning and reporting phases of an investigation.
• Solve hypothetical and real-world problems with the help of AI.
• Appraise the confidentiality-related issues related to sharing data and information with the tool.

OUR SPEAKER

Mark Nigrini, CA(SA)
Professor, West Virginia University

Mark J. Nigrini is an associate professor of accounting at West Virginia University. His research passion for many years has been a phenomenon known as Benford’s Law which is related to the patterns of the digits in tabulated data. The smaller digits (1s, 2s, and 3s) are expected to occur more often in scientific and financial data and Benford’s Law has shown itself to be valuable to fraud examiners in their quest to uncover fraud in corporate data. His current research addresses insider threats, and more specifically the cybersecurity risks posed by former employees. 

Nigrini is the author of Forensic Analytics (Wiley, 2020) which describes analytic tests used to detect fraud, errors, estimates, and biases in financial data, and Benford's Law (Wiley, 2012). In 2014 he published an article in the Journal of Accountancy that was co-authored with Nathan Mueller, a fraudster. That article won the Lawler award for the best article in the Journal of Accountancy in 2014. Included in his array of academic publications is the lead article in the new premier forensic accounting journal, the Journal of Forensic Accounting Research. His recent publications include the lead article in the Nov/Dec 2020 issue of Fraud Magazine. His work has been featured in, amongst others, The Financial Times, New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal. His radio interviews have included the BBC in London, and NPR in the United States. His television interviews have included an interview on a fraud saga for the Evil Twins series for the Investigation Discovery Channel. He is a regular presenter at the ACFE’s Global Conferences and at events overseas such as Brazil’s Interforensics 2023. 
 

SAVE the DATE

More details to come shortly