A. Transformational Leadership
Phillip Van Hooser, MBA, CSP, CPAE
Princeton, KY
Competitive, growth-oriented businesses require multi-faceted leaders who generate profits while improving employee performance and retention. Through real-life examples and thought-provoking discussions, Phil offers executives and managers practical strategies that transform the way they solve complex leadership issues.

B1. Information Security and Other Myths
J. Carlton Collins, CPA
AdvisorCPE, Atlanta, GA
"Information Security" has been listed as the number one technology in the AICPA’s annual listing of top ten technologies for 5 of the past 6 years. This session features in-depth coverage of Internet security issues and offers simple and advanced solutions for combating these problems. Topics to be discussed include preventing viruses, preventing others from accessing computers connected to the Internet (including both personal PCs and office networks), confidentiality and authenticity of e-mails, sending credit card numbers over the Internet, EDI and EFT transactions over the Internet, site and user certificates, controlling Internet pornography, and more.  You will also learn about the various threats including 40Hex viruses, bombers, flooders, crackz, serialz, anonymous senders, key generators, sniffing tools, spoofing tools, fake Ids, phracking, and phreaking. Learn how encryption can be used to protect e-mail, passwords, and commercial transactions.  Find out how firewalls and proxy servers can protect your network from hackers.

B2. Secrets of Service Professionals
Phillip Van Hooser, MBA, CSP, CPAE
Princeton, KY
Based on his best-selling book about one special cab driver who embodied the secrets of exceptional customer service, Phillip Van Hooser shows business leaders how applying six techniques to their own enterprises will boost performance and profitability while building profitable, loyal customer relationships. These strategies from "Willie's Way: 6 Secrets for Wooing, Wowing and Winning Customers and Their Loyalty" work for company executives, managers and frontline staff. Anyone who has direct contact with customers -- inside the organization or across the counter -- can build profitable, long-term customer relationships using these proven strategies.

B3. Linking Strategies to Budgets
David L. Osburn, MBA
David L. Osburn & Associates, LLC, Las Vegas, Nevada
This session emphasizes the relationship of business strategies and budgets. The importance of developing a clear strategy or business plan is explored including the vision statement, mission statement, and overall company objective. Additionally, the evolution of the company’s strategy and role of the board of directors in crafting and later executing the strategy, through the CEO, is reviewed. Evaluate the company’s various business units from a budgetary standpoint and how this analysis should tie directly to the company’s strategic plan. Additionally, the session covers compensation issues, corporate culture, and ethics as they impact both strategy and budgets.

B4. Networking Your Network: Maximize Your Time
Missy Ohe
The Ohepen Mind, Grand Forks, ND
Have you ever wanted to be in two places at once? In this session, discuss the three types of networks you need to know to help you maximize your time. Next time someone asks, "Is there anything I can do to help?" you will be ready with the answer.

C1. 101 Technology Tips
J. Carlton Collins, CPA
AdvisorCPE, Atlanta, GA
In this session, you receive 101 of our top technology tips that you can use to save money, save time, and improve system performance. Learn tips for configuring Windows, browsing the Internet, operating Excel, using Word, configuring Outlook, purchasing hardware, implementing systems, printing, security, remote communications, software drivers, data organization, printers, computers, laptops, servers, cell phones, web sites, Internet tools, utilities, scanners, optical mice, hand held devices, productivity software, operating systems, accounting software, e-mail applications, and browsers. This session also includes an overview of some of the newest hot productivity products on the market today.

C2. Accounting Standards Update and Emerging Issues
Harold Wilde, CPA, Ph.D.
University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, ND
This annual session gets you up-to-date on the most significant developments in accounting standards that affect your company. Review new and pending standards, interpretations, and staff positions issued by FASB. Dr. Wilde provides practical implementation guidance for these standards.

C3. Key Ratio Analysis
David L. Osburn, MBA
David L. Osburn & Associates, LLC, Las Vegas, Nevada
Ratios, ratios, and more ratios! What do they really mean? Many financial professionals including CPAs, bankers, financial analyst, etc. use financial ratios on a regular basis. But do they always use the same ratios and more importantly, do they always interpret the ratios in the same manner? Attend this proactive session and learn a "five-step" analysis plan which will clarify and "unify" this often confusing financial subject. Upon completion of this session, you will be able to better understand the "key" ratios and use this information to negotiate with your business clients as well as other financial professionals. The session concludes with a brief review of both the bankruptcy (Z-score) predictor model and sustainable growth model.

C4. Celebrate the Journey: Today and Tomorrow
Missy Ohe
The Ohepen Mind, Grand Forks, ND
Do you ever wish you could push "the easy button" and everything in life would be perfect? Do you feel as though there has to be more to life? In this session, discuss the three stages to serving your purpose. Next, identify five arenas in your journey, and recognize the source that always remains constant.

D1. Excel Data Analysis & Financial Reporting
J. Carlton Collins, CPA
AdvisorCPE, Atlanta, GA
Excel provides an abundance of specialized tools for analyzing data and generating financial reports, yet most CPAs are unaware of these tools or don’t know how to use them. In this session, Mr. Collins uses financial data to demonstrate the following data analysis and reporting tools: Subtotaling, Grand Totaling, Filtering, Consolidations, Grouping & Outlining, Drilling, OLAP Data Cubes, Pivot Tables, Scheduled Updates, Embedded Objects, Charting, Foot Notes and End Notes, Formula Auditing Tools, Error Checking, Functions, security, Random Number Generation, and Data Analysis Tools. The concepts discussed are intended to directly aide the CPA in generating financial reports.

D2. Top 10 Mistakes Employers Make
Lisa Edison-Smith, J.D.
Vogel Law, Fargo ND
Many financial professionals who attend this conference often comment that they need just enough HR to stay out of trouble!  This session should help with that.  Lisa Edison-Smith, a local attorney who specializes in employment and labor law for small business will cover the 10 mistakes she sees many employers making. Join us and make sure your company is on the right track.

D3. The Multi-Task Role of the CFO/Controller
David L. Osburn, MBA
David L. Osburn & Associates, LLC, Las Vegas, Nevada
Existing or future CFO/Controllers needed! Today’s competitive environment requires your full attention to detail and your ability to manage abstract situations – all at once! Attend this proactive training session and learn to work in a highly complex environment, address real "human" issues, and still manage to survive to the end of the day. This session emphasizes the role of the CFO/Controller from a multi-task, multi-functional approach. Various topics are explored including basic "required" analytical skills, management techniques, performance measurements, compensation techniques, and financial analysis. The analytical skills include accounting, finance, economics, marketing, banking, business law, and management. Additionally, this session focuses on the CFO/controller’s role as part of the senior management team.

D4. Lean & Loving It: Learning to Add Value and Eliminate Waste in your Office
Audrey Thomas, CPO
Organized Audrey, Minneapolis, MN
Many individuals struggle today with "piles of files," information overload and other chaos in and around the office. This workshop teaches specific Lean Office techniques and principles for office organization that participants can immediately implement to avoid the avalanche in the office.

E1. Creating and Managing PDF Forms
Will Fleenor, CPA, CITP, Ph.D.
K2 Enterprises, Hammond, LA
You’ve worked with PDF files for years, but did you know that you can quickly and easily turn routine forms into interactive, fill-in PDF documents? Imagine converting time sheets, expense reports, job applications, time-off requests and all other forms into interactive PDF documents that are automatically distributed. Responses can even be collected and summarized using just a few keystrokes. At this session, you’ll also learn how to convert transactional documents – such as estimates, invoices and purchase orders – into interactive PDF forms you can import into leading accounting applications, including QuickBooks. You’ll discover the nearly limitless possibilities of PDF forms!

E2. How To Be An Impact Player, Not Just a Number Cruncher
Dennis L. Faurote
The Faurote Group, Indianapolis, IN
One of the biggest misconceptions in the workplace today is that one has to have a leadership position to make an impact on an organization. People at all levels can lead and be an "Impact Player." Having an impact is not about where you sit but rather what you do and how you do it. In this session we will identify key attributes of being a leader, discuss how to lead from anywhere within an organization and provide tips on how to get people to "want" to follow you.

E3. Forensic Accounting: Finding and Preventing Fraud
Jay Giannantonio, MBA, CPA, CIA
Executive Education, Chelsea, MI
Prepare for the inevitable! A recent study by the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners estimated that fraud costs the economy in excess of $650 billion per year (the equivalent of $4,500 per employee). This same study estimated that the course of normal audits discovers only about 11% of frauds versus approximately 19% discovered by accident. This session examines various types of frauds and discusses ways to prevent, detect and investigate these activities.

E4. Getting Organized with Microsoft Outlook
Audrey Thomas, CPO
Organized Audrey, Minneapolis, MN
With the onslaught of email and the dependence of electronic data in offices today, the need to be proficient in Outlook is a necessity in relationship to getting the most done in the least amount of time. This workshop highlights concepts within MS Outlook 2003 for the following components: Contacts, Calendar, Email and TaskPad.

F1. Technology for a New Generation of Professionals
Will Fleenor, CPA, CITP, Ph.D.
K2 Enterprises, Hammond, LA
A new generation of professionals means they will be employing a new generation of tools to complete day-in and day-out tasks and activities in ways that were previously unthinkable. Social networking sites, collaboration tools and online applications are just some of many ways this new breed of information worker is getting the job done today. Whether you are using any of these new tools or managing others on your team who do, now is the time to learn about the potential gains in productivity - along with the potential risks - associated with managing this new generation of technology.

F2. Being Strategic: How to Achieve Greatness
Dennis L. Faurote
The Faurote Group, Indianapolis, IN
One of the reasons many organizations fail is because they become complacent and are not acutely aware of what’s going on around them, both internally and externally. A key to any organization becoming a "Great Company" is to understand who they are, where they and where they want to go and then developing a strategy to get there. In this session, discuss the importance of be strategic and identify the steps to become a "Great Company."

F3. Trends in Corporate Financial Planning
Jay Giannantonio, MBA, CPA, CIA
Executive Education, Chelsea, MI

Corporate financial planning has undergone such radical changes over the last five years that many business writers advocate we eliminate the word "Budgeting" from our business vocabulary. The disciplines of benchmarking, performance measurement, activity-based costing and a German technique called grenzplankostenrechnung are all changing financial planning.
Get up-to-date on the latest techniques of metrics-driven financial planning.

F4. Email Overload: Effective Email Strategies to Improve Productivity and Efficiency
Audrey Thomas, CPO
Organized Audrey, Minneapolis, MN
The average American office worker today handles 125 emails each day. While Email is here to stay and is a valuable tool in our world, does it interfere with your ability to be productive? This workshop provides ideas and strategies to implement so you can manage your email vs. it managing you.

G1. Smart Technology in Today’s Economy
Will Fleenor, CPA, CITP, Ph.D.
K2 Enterprises, Hammond, LA
Companies want to know how to navigate through these difficult economic times. New and ever improving technology offers unprecedented opportunities to those with vision. These new technology platforms can vastly improve worker productivity while simultaneously increasing overall organizational efficiency and profitability. Attend this session to learn what types of solutions can help you succeed in today’s economy.

G2. Achieving Extraordinary Results by Engaging and Aligning individuals to What is Important
Dennis L. Faurote
The Faurote Group, Indianapolis, IN
In the current economic environment it is imperative that we not only retain the right people but properly align their talents, skills and strengths to the organization’s needs and engage not just their head and hands but their hearts as well. In this session, learn how to make the proper alignment for yourself and others you lead and manage. The outcome will allow the individual and the organization to achieve extraordinary results.

G3. Operational Analysis: Using Auditing Techniques to Identify and Implement Cost Savings
Jay Giannantonio, MBA, CPA, CIA
Executive Education, Chelsea, MI
Discover ways to make your company more profitable! This fast-paced, session teaches you how to use operational auditing techniques to identify and implement cost saving operating controls and processes. Based on the principles of COSO’s Internal Control Framework and standards of the Institute of Internal Auditors, this session makes the experienced financial manager and the professional operational auditor more efficient and value-added in their respective fields.

G4. Ethics and Leadership: A Search for Meaning and Direction in Today's Organizations
Joan Engeseth
Noridian, Fargo, ND
This workshop is designed to emphasize the importance of ethics in today's work environment, to help to develop a common meaning of ethics and values, and to discuss the importance of personal and organizational values. The workshop relates these to your decision making with ethical issues and describes ways you can design an organization to be more ethical.

H. The Courage to Succeed
Jackie Pflug
Jackie Pflug & Associates, Inc., Eden Prairie, MN
Little did Jackie Pflug know that a weekend trip to Greece for a high school volleyball tournament would put her in the middle of a deadly terrorist attack. She was one of three Americans who were shot execution style, thrown to the tarmac and left for dead. Jackie lived. Find out how she survived this horrendous tragedy and the lessons she learned from it. Through her inspiring story, discover your own courage to face daily challenges, confidence to deal with change, and enthusiasm for who you are, what you do and who you work with. Take with you a renewed sense of hope and the belief that anything is possible.