Finance Elevated Conference

Agenda

 

Day 1 - Tuesday, June 8 | Day 2 - Thursday, June 10
Day 3 - Tuesday, June 15 | Day 4 - Thursday, June 17

Agenda topics, timing and speakers subject to change.

 

Day 1 - Tuesday, June 8 | 11:15 am - 4:30 pm Eastern 

11:15 am – 11:25 am

Opening Remarks

Speaker:

  • Bridgette Link | Chair | Finance Elevated Planning Committee
    General Manager, Finance Business Intelligence | Microsoft Corporation
 
 

11:25 am – 12:25 pm

Digital Transformation – the Science, the Reality, and the Future
(1 CPE Credit | Field of Study - Information Technology)
The journey of digital transformation requires understanding the delicate science of culture change, employee experience, and the implementation and execution of a blueprint for modernization. In this fireside chat, Andrew will share his real-life experiences with Andrej Suskavcevic. Andrew will share his experience as Chief Digital Officer at Microsoft where he is responsible for implementing the mission to power, protect, and transform Microsoft while accelerating the work to modernize the company’s technology, experiences, resilience, and security. This session will l explore insight on building new hybrid work environments, implementing blockchain technology, and navigating the intelligent cloud. Get ready for the future of Digital Transformation.

Speakers:

  • Andrew Wilson | Chief Digital Officer and Corporate Vice President | Microsoft Corporation
  • Andrej Suskavcevic | Chief Executive Officer and President I Financial Executives International
 
 

12:40 pm – 1:40 pm

Ransomware: How One Company Fought Back
(1 CPE Credit | Field of Study - Management Services)
Every organization faces unique challenges when it comes to cyber-attacks. Within a span of seven months, global e-commerce, shipping and mailing giant Pitney Bowes faced two major “ransomware” attacks and had to act quickly. This session will share Pitney Bowes experience and highlight the hacker methods and security exposures identified that facilitated the assaults. Learn from first-hand experience how to improve your protection, detection and response capabilities against these potential attacks, and how to get your organization on board with changes necessary to prevent attacks in the future.

 

Speaker:

  • Raymond Umerley Vice President, Chief Information Risk Officer | Pitney Bowes
 
 

2:15 pm – 3:15 pm

Balancing Security and Privacy
(1 CPE Credit | Field of Study - Management Services)
How can you protect and secure your company’s assets while adhering to all the privacy regulations? This session will focus on intelligent automation and automated processes used for monitoring so you can consider what you need to build to effectively protect your company’s assets, including how you protect your company when you have third-party vendors who can access your systems.

Moderator:

  • Andrea Craig | Cybersecurity Principal | Ernst & Young LLP

Speakers:

  • Marene Allison | Chief Information Security Officer | Johnson & Johnson 
  • Dr. Steve Perkins | Certified Information Privacy Professional | Perkins Texas, LLC
 
 

3:30 pm - 4:30 pm

Corporates and Digital Assets: What Do You Need to Consider?
(1 CPE Credit | Field of Study - Management Services)
In 2020, more operating companies began allocating cash to digital assets and cryptocurrencies. This new dynamic and departure from more conventional investing by corporations sparked several early 2021 announcements from public companies investing in and using digital assets. As the ecosystem shifted into mainstream, these bold moves inspired meaningful conversations amongst finance departments, management teams, and boards.

Join us for a dynamic discussion of key finance and risk considerations of investing and using digital assets for your corporation, as you navigate in this new environment.

Speakers:

  • Seth Connors | Senior Manager, Blockchain & Digital Assets | Deloitte & Touche, LLP
  • Rob Massey | Global & US Tax Blockchain & Digital Assets Leader | Deloitte & Touche, LLP 
  • Amy Park | US Audit & Assurance Blockchain & Digital Assets Specialist | Deloitte & Touche, LLP
  • Carina Ruiz-Singh | Partner, Risk & Financial Advisory | Deloitte & Touche, LLP
 
 

Day 2 - Thursday, June 10 | 11:15 am - 4:15 pm Eastern

11:15 am – 12:15 pm

Workforce 2025: Finance Skills & Roles of the Future
(1 CPE Credit | Field of Study - Personnel/Human Resources)
This panel discussion will delve into the changing roles of accounting and finance as emerging technologies are deployed. How can you best onboard and train your employee base considering the skill sets of the future? Do data scientists get a hall pass to enter finance, or are they best kept squarely in engineering? There are many factors impacting how a company can maintain technology as processes change; how you can upgrade your ERP while you continuously reimagine deployment using an emerging technology stack?

Speakers:

 
 

12:30 pm – 1:30 pm

Machine Learning and the Shift to Modern Finance
(1 CPE Credit | Field of Study - Information Technology)
The pressure on Finance to do more with less has never been greater. Financial scorekeeping is no longer the core responsibility. Successful finance teams must operate as strategic business partners, bringing data driven insights gleaned from advanced analytics and predictive modeling. Machine learning helps your team move from transactional processing to strategic, actionable insights allowing you to invest in the skills of your team and define new ways of working.

In this session, we'll share insights that address some of the questions most often asked by financial leaders:

  • How are leading finance teams structured to analyze and leverage data to drive business insights?
  • What investments in people, process and technology would we need to make for the greatest value?'
  • What are the best use cases for machine learning, automation and artificial intelligence?
  • Where should I start this journey?

Speakers:

 
 

2:00 pm – 3:00 pm

Machine Learning in Finance: How?
(1 CPE Credit | Field of Study - Information Technology)
What if you could predict future failures and prevent them? This session will cover cases where machine learning was successfully deployed and worked, and then identify the delta – the complications of machine learning and how data scientists can help. There is a career path for data scientists within finance, and this panel will share the “how” and lessons learned.

Moderator:

Speakers:

 
 

3:15 pm – 4:15 pm

Hybrid Workplace and Collaboration
(1 CPE Credit | Field of Study - Personnel/Human Resources)
The global pandemic accelerated new technologies as companies were forced to adopt a hybrid model of work and learned to adapt quickly. Learn what technologies have helped bring collaboration to the workforce and lead companies to the next level and what are the particular needs of the finance function.

Speakers:

  • Alison Ford | Chief of Staff | Slack
  • Paul McDonald | Senior Executive Director | Robert Half 
 

Day 3 - Tuesday, June 15 | 11:15 am - 4:15 pm Eastern

11:15 am – 12:15 pm

Data as a Culture
(1 CPE Credit | Field of Study - Business Management & Organization)
Culture can be a roadblock for data and analytics. Companies need to build a trusted data environment to drive decisions, while considering legal issues surrounding privacy. Learn how to best manage and control your company’s data, including who should own the data and the proper governance structures to protect it. You’ll gain an understanding of the human capital and technology resources required to change your data culture.

Moderator:

  • Sam Peterson | Principal Americas Digital Leader, Financial Accounting Advisory Services | Ernst & Young LLP

Speaker:

 
 

12:30 pm – 1:30 pm

Driving Operational Efficiency and Innovation Through Continuous Integrated Planning and Artificial Intelligence (AI) Insights
(1 CPE Credit | Field of Study - Information Technology)
In order to adapt to today's quickly changing business conditions and remain competitive, organizations must embark on a journey of true digital transformation, especially in the area of planning and analysis. Successful planning requires accurate data, a single source of truth, collaboration across the entire organization and the flexibility to adjust plans and forecasts quickly. It sounds simple, but in most organizations, business unit planning is a lengthy, manual and siloed process.

Hear from Jim Collins as he shares how leading finance teams are driving more accurate plans and forecasts by integrating financial and operational planning, automating key processes and augmenting human intelligence through AI. Afterward join us for a fireside chat with Dave Marmer, Vice President of Product Management, IBM and Joonas Alasaari, Senior Business Controller, Vaasan as they discuss how Vaasan was able to integrate planning across all stores. Hear how they are able adapt quickly in the fast-paced bakery industry and how they are leveraging predictive and AI insights to improve operational efficiency.

Speakers:

  • Joonas Alasaari | Senior Business Controller | Vaasan
  • Jim Collins | Watson Applications Strategy Executive for North America | IBM
  • Dave Marmer | VP, Product Management, Regtech, Cognos Analytics and Planning Analytics | IBM Cloud and Cognitive Software
 
 

2:00 pm – 3:00 pm

Better Models for Better Insights
(1 CPE Credit | Field of Study - Information Technology)
When you need to forecast at different levels, how do you manage different grades of detail? But for many in the FP&A universe, there forecasts are only as good as the models they use. Explore tools that can improve your company’s financial modeling for future success.

Moderator:

  • Taylor Adams | Consulting Partner, FP&A and Consolidation System Implementations | Ernst & Young LLP

Speakers:

  • Amnon Levy | Managing Director | Moody's Analytics
  • Adam Wight | Director of Corporate Planning and Analysis | Intel
 
 

3:15 pm - 4:15 pm

A Post Pandemic View of Credit
Presented by High Radius
(1 CPE Credit | Field of Study - Finance)
Euler Hermes’s survey reports that more than 90% of 250 CFOs have cash flow risk and trade challenges as their main priorities in the new economy. This changes the credit department’s role from a back-office function to a more strategic one, such as managing credit risk while supporting working capital optimization and enabling sales growth. To make the most of the credit function’s potential, growth-minded credit leaders and their CFOs consider automation to get real-time visibility into the changing financial health of all customer portfolios, risk indicators, and key performance indicators by rolling out a global credit policy framework. As a result, this helps make more informed financial decisions, conduct customer profitability analysis, and lay a scalable and standardized digital foundation across all credit operations.

Data-savvy companies are an exemplar of embracing advanced tools like RPA & AI to run a more agile and efficient credit management process. In this webinar, learn about use-cases of a digital transformation in credit function, strategy for mitigating credit risk in 2021, and how to build your ideal tech roadmap for finance.

  1. Strategy for Credit Leaders and CFO to build a robust global credit policy
  2. Digital Order to Cash: What upcoming technologies to consider for your credit management
  3. Customer Success Story: Building an agile credit function for the next 90 days
 

Speaker:

  • Paul Shea | Director of Digital Transformation | High Radius
 

Day 4 - Thursday, June 17 | 10:00 am - 4:45 pm Eastern

10:00 am – 11:00 am

Everything you Want to Know about Microsoft Teams and More!
(1 CPE Credit | Field of Study - Business Management & Organization)
Increase business productivity using a modern collaboration suite at the center – Microsoft Teams. Learn how features like self service calendaring, process automation, webinars, and application system integration inside Microsoft Teams can drive business outcomes and maximize organizational efficiency.

Speaker:

  • Byron Olson | Senior Customer Success Manager | Microsoft 
 
 

11:15 am – 12:15 pm

Leading Through Changes
(1 CPE Credit | Field of Study - Management Services)
When crisis and disruptive technologies strike, how do you align your leadership team and your employee base to think outside the box while guiding the company through change? Both employees and external stakeholders resist big changes to accepted technologies, but in order to keep pace with competitors change is never complete. Learn how you can keep up with tech changes without leaving everyone behind.

Speakers:

  • Tiffany Brown | Partner & Managing Director | Accenture Strategy
 
 

12:30 pm – 1:30 pm

ERP Cloud Finance Systems
Presented by Sage Intacct
(1 CPE Credit | Field of Study - Information Technology)
Moving your accounting and finance systems into the cloud presents both issues and opportunities. Speakers will include finance leaders from fast growing midsize companies who will share lessons learned and explore solutions other users have employed to make the move as effortless as possible, while maximizing value once you’ve arrived in the cloud. Learn how these finance leaders have improved efficiency, profitability, and cash flow for their companies, while also benefitting from actionable analytics and reporting that drive more accurate forecasting and financials. Key takeaways include:

  • Key questions to ask and decisions to make when choosing a cloud vendor
  • Approaches to accounting automation that are enabled in the cloud, and the benefits different automation technologies can yield, whether it is freeing staff from routine tasks, going paperless, identifying and correcting errors easily, or closing the books more quickly
  • How to leverage enhanced reporting and analytics capabilities in the cloud to grow profits and optimize your business

Moderator:

  • Judy Hanover | Industry Marketing Director | Sage Intacct

Speaker:

 
 

2:00 pm – 3:00 pm

The Ethics of AI
(1 CPE Credit | Field of Study - Information Technology)
Privacy. Bias. Manipulation. How do you write algorithms to help in transforming business that doesn’t inadvertently target specific groups of people or that can violate a person’s identity or preferences? This session will cover what companies need to consider when building out AI solutions. Explore interpretive ability, scanning biometrics, facial recognition and detection, with an eye on ethics and the privacy issues these technologies present.

Speaker:

  • John C. Havens |  Executive Director, Global Initiative on Ethics of Autonomous and Intelligent Systems | IEEE
 
 

3:15 pm - 4:45 pm

Future Technology Trends
(1 CPE Credit | Field of Study - Information Technology)
We are experiencing a transformational, tectonic shift in digital technologies. The virtually limitless computing power of the cloud combined with increasingly intelligent and perceptive devices at the edge of the network are creating possibilities we could only have dreamed of a few years ago. With intelligent cloud and mixed reality head mounted devices such as HoloLens 2, we are transforming frontline workers’ digital workstyles today in thousands of companies around the world. More and more, we see increased usage of mixed reality apps by knowledge workers—both in visualizing vast arrays of information and in 3D content creation and collaboration. In time, Mixed Reality will not only transform our digital workstyles, but our digital lifestyles too—as head mounted AR experiences become as commonplace as mobile phones. Ubiquitous, decentralized cloud computing power combined with mixed reality-enabled applications and devices will “…empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more”.

Speaker:

  • Ori Amiga | Vice President, Mixed Reality | Microsoft Corporation
 
 

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