Monday, September 21

8:00 – 8:15 am Welcome

8:15 – 9:55 am

A. Professional Issues Update
Ernie Almonte, CPA, CFF, CITP
AICPA Chairman 2008-2009
Ernie Almonte is the current chairman of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. He is the first government official to serve in this volunteer position since the organization’s founding in 1887. Almonte brings to the chairman's role his own varied history. He is a martial arts aficionado and a voracious reader. He studied accounting at the urging of his father, an Italian immigrant who ran an ice cream distribution business in his adopted state of Rhode Island. Almonte launched his own accounting firm in Rhode Island and went on to become the state's auditor general. Topics to be covered in his address include, the State of the Economy, IFRS, Reliability Project, Exercising Leadership, Lifelong Learning, and the AICPA resources for your pathway to success.

10:15 – 11:55

B. Nobody Moved Your Cheese!
Ross Shafer
From small town pet shop manager...to 6-Time Emmy award winning TV host..to renowned business author, Ross is a fierce proponent of taking personal responsibility (and being accountable) for the success (or failure) in your professional and personal life.  In this entertaining session, Ross will discuss 1) How to shed blame toward the economy, management, another business unit, or your competition. 2) How to avoid time-robbing distractions. Staying focused and "on task" promotes confidence in your coworkers and allows you to become a trusted advisor to your customers/clients/patients. 3) Advertising and marketing aren’t powerful enough to grow your business (or your career). You must work to transform your customers/clients/patients into unpaid spokespeople for YOU and your company.  Exponential growth happens when your biggest fans insist their friends do business with you. 4) How to jump start your curiosity engine to create instant (yet highly genuine) rapport with team members and customers. 5) How to keep your business and personal life in perspective. Understanding the difference between Making a Living and Making a Life is what will keep you curious, hungry, and excited about your profession; as well as your place in the world.

1:00 – 2:40

Effective Planning in a Hectic Workplace
Dr. Dennis Elbert, Dean of the UND School of Business and Public Administration
Planning and organizational skills can be learned.  This session is designed to instruct individuals on how to develop a more focused, organized, and effective work style.  Content includes techniques on how to recognize and meet deadlines, how to gain control of paperwork, when and how to delegate, and how to get more done in less time.  The training also covers time blocking, plotting each day’s work, using lists to safeguard your sanity, and secrets to remembering details.  Participants will discuss how to pinpoint an organization’s planning weak spots, planning habits worth developing, and time traps that managers and supervisors unexpectedly fall into

C2. Some of My Favorite Frauds and How/Why They Occurred
Dennis F. Dycus, CFE, CPA, CGFM
Tennessee Office of the Comptroller of the Treasury
Over the years, division staff have conducted hundreds of fraud investigations where losses were from a few thousand dollars to well over a million dollars. This session discusses some of the more interesting cases (some funny, some sad and some unbelievable) as to exactly how the fraud occurred and the circumstances that provided the fraudster the opportunity to commit the fraud.

3:00 – 4:40

D1. Café Conversations
End your Monday on a high note exploring some of the big issues impacting accountants today. Through simple, small group conversations, you will have the opportunity to meet new people, share and build upon your thinking, connect diverse perspectives and glean meaningful insights and ideas about questions that really matter.

D2. Identity Theft – What You and Your Business Needs To Know
Dennis F. Dycus, CFE, CPA, CGFM
Tennessee Office of the Comptroller of the Treasury
Why is ID theft the fastest growing crime in America? Because it’s so easy. As a practicing CPA, a CFO in the private sector, a government official, or an administrator in the not-for-profit sector, you have access to very large electronic data bases which contains personal information on the clients you serve. Have you taken adequate steps to safeguard such information? TJ Max didn’t. As a result, their data based was illegally accessed and personal customer account information illegally downloaded. As last reported, it costs them over $90,000,000 to provide their customers with new credit cards. What about you personally? Have you taken steps to safeguard your personal information? If not, you’re an easy target. This session is designed to make the participants aware of their legal responsibility to protect the personal information of their clients as well as their own. As a rule, most individuals have no idea how easy it is to steal one’s identity. After attending this session, a lot of people don’t sleep well at night.

Tuesday, September 22

E1. What Does Fraud Look Like: How to Analyze Red Flags
Dennis F. Dycus, CFE, CPA, CGFM
Tennessee Office of the Comptroller of the Treasury
SAS No. 99, Consideration of Fraud in a Financial Statement Audit, states that one of the reasons auditors fail to detect fraud is that they do not know what it looks like. Prior to the issuance of SAS No. 82, which was revised by SAS No. 99, the AICPA did not offer a single self-study course, a training seminar or conference on how to detect fraud. In order to be successful, a fraud takes on the characteristics of its surrounds. It has to appear to be a legitimate transaction or it will be discovered. However, in spite of its effort to appear to be a proper transaction, it gives of certain indicators that it’s not what it appears to be. This session is designed to familiarize the auditor with the tools to recognize those indicators and what to do if such indicators are present.

E2. Current Tax Developments for Individuals
E. Lynn Nichols, CPA
Mares Nichols CPE, Inc – New Castle, PA
From ‘Alimony’ to ‘Trader in Securities’ . . . From the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 to e-mail messages from the IRS Chief Counsel’s Office instructing field agents . . . This update has it all, and it’s presented by one of the nation’s most respected tax commentators. Learn about Tax Court decisions; new regulations that could cause you to be subject to monetary penalties (or worse !); IRS regulations, rulings, notices and revenue procedures that affect your individual tax clients. Pick up planning tips that you can share to help them avoid serious mistakes. New rules, new forms, some of the same old issues, but Lynn Nichols promises to make this session interesting, useful, and fun.

E3. Strategic Planning for Your Firm or Business
L. Gary Boomer, CPA.CITP
Boomer Consulting, Inc - Manhattan, KS 
Every business needs a strategic plan in order to focus resources on company priorities. Learn the process of quickly developing a one-page plan based upon your core values and strategic objectives. The plan provides the foundation for accountability and increased performance. An audience response system will be used to demonstrate the importance of culture and consensus building. Planning times people times processes is the formula for success. Technology is the accelerator.

E4. Technology Update
Thomas G. Stephens, Jr., CPA, CITP
K2 Enterprises, Woodstock, GA
Are you trying to manage technology in this tight economy? What are the best new technologies to invest in? How can you stay up with the changes in technology? This session provides a valuable overview of the changes in technology that affect you today, as well as in the future. In this session, you will learn about hardware, software, and strategic options that provide improved efficiency and productivity. You’ll learn how to compare those options and examine other strategic technologies that should be considered.

F1. Walkin’, Talkin’, Lookin’, and Listenin’ or Things That Most Auditors Don’t Do Well
Dennis F. Dycus, CFE, CPA, CGFM
Tennessee Office of the Comptroller of the Treasury
An auditor can often perform an audit in accordance with all the professional standards and yet have an audit failure, that is, a failure to detect a material misstatement, whether caused by error of a fraud. Auditors cannot perform an audit sitting in a chair. They have to walk among the client’s personnel, talk to them (the auditor must often initiate the conversation), look to observe if internal controls are really present and being adhered to (remember that your client will tell you what you want to hear), and most important, listen to what your client’s staff is telling you (as a rule, auditors are not good listeners). This session is designed to improve the auditor’s chances of detecting a material misstatement in the financial statements simply by following some very easy steps that are not necessarily addressed in the professional standards.

F2. Current Tax Developments for Businesses
E. Lynn Nichols, CPA
Mares Nichols CPE, Inc – New Castle, PA
From Accounting Method Changes to Worker Classification . . . This comprehensive federal tax update will inform you of planning and compliance options your business clients can use, and warn you of tax traps to avoid.  Learn from the mistakes of others!  That why we study Court decisions.  Know the rules of the game.  That’s why we study IRS rulemaking and compliance announcements.  New audit concentrations are on worker classification, profit motive, and retail inventories. The IRS has even published new Audit Technique Guides for those issues, and they’ve hired a boatload of new agents. Don’t get caught with yesterday’s knowledge in today’s tax controversy. That would be like bringing a knife to a gunfight!  Let Lynn Nichols explain how to be of maximum value to your business clients as a well-informed tax advisor.

F3. Managing Change in Difficult Times
L. Gary Boomer, CPA.CITP
Boomer Consulting, Inc - Manhattan, KS 
Learn about the seven levels of change and six core values that will help your organization maximize performance. Managers and leaders are responsible at different levels of change. The level of trust dictates the speed and cost of change. We will focus on how to increase trust and deal with change in today’s environment.

F4. Managing Electronic Documents
Thomas G. Stephens, Jr., CPA, CITP
K2 Enterprises, Woodstock, GA
Find out which document management solution fits your needs best. This session reviews the leading solutions for public accounting practices, as well industry solutions. Learn about their features and benefits, along with the best ways to implement and manage them. You can examine the recommended DMS implementation process and review top providers and the features they offer. You’ll also learn how to prepare your office for a DMS implementation. For those seeking to get the most from a document management solution, this session is a must-see!

G1. Government Fraud Risk and Asset Misappropriation
Dennis F. Dycus, CFE, CPA, CGFM
Tennessee Office of the Comptroller of the Treasury
Each sector of the economy has certain unique characteristics. Those unique characteristics provide unique opportunities to commit fraud. This session is designed to focus on the risks of fraud in the government sector as well as how government assets are misappropriated.

G2. FIN 48 . . . No More Delays
E. Lynn Nichols, CPA
Mares Nichols CPE, Inc – New Castle, PA
Gip, GAAP, Garp . . . What’s a FIN anyway?  It’s a Financial Accounting Standards Board Interpretation Number. This one says that when we are attesting to a GAAP financial statement, we must analyze all income tax positions in open years; federal, state, and local: then, calculate and book a Provision for Unrecognized Tax Positions. That assures (or is supposed to assure) the reader of the GAAP statements that earnings have been affected only by return positions that have a "more likely than not" chance of success . . . and we must assume that everything will be audited by a knowledgeable auditor. Invest an hour with Lynn Nichols (a tax man, not an auditor), to learn how FIN 48 works.  It will be required in all calendar 2009 GAAP financials.

G3. Technology, Business and Communities
L. Gary Boomer, CPA.CITP
Boomer Consulting, Inc - Manhattan, KS 
Technology is the accelerator and organizations need to learn how to leverage this strategic asset. The growth of social networks has a direct impact on your firm or business. Learn how filtered communities are using the technology to provide useful resources to your business. We will discuss new technology and the impact on clients, business and individuals.

G4. Securing Info to Minimize Risk
Thomas G. Stephens, Jr., CPA, CITP
K2 Enterprises, Woodstock, GA
With a flurry of new federal and state mandates, such as encrypted communications and severe financial penalties for failing to comply, accountants must understand their responsibilities and adopt policies and procedures to assure compliance. In this session, learn about applicable data security laws and regulations, and how to fulfill your legal, fiduciary, and ethical responsibilities. Becoming aware of your legal responsibilities must be a top priority; because failing to comply could cost you thousands of dollars and perhaps even your business or license. Don’t take that chance!

H. Why Are Women So Strange and Men so Weird?
Bruce Christopher
Bruce Christopher Seminars, Minnetonka, MN
At the heart of any business is relationships – between team members, customers, and supervisors. Excellent communicators have better relationships at work and home. They climb the ladder of success more effectively, and achieve greater success. It is no secret that communication runs our lives. This session takes a very hilarious look at how men and women think, speak, and make decisions differently.