Preparing Future-Ready Professionals
8 Hours (Over 3 Days) of Free Speakers & Sessions to Help You Lead on Sustainability. Join us October 12-14
Helen Partridge, Megan Hartman | September 27, 2021
A growing, global demand for sustainability—in society, in public and private organizations, and on our planet—has fueled demand for enhancing corporate reporting. For investors and sustainability-minded stakeholders to assess a company’s future performance, they need a clear and comprehensive picture of the ability to create sustainability value over time.
IFAC is dedicating our second annual virtual summit to sustainability and helping professional accountants do different things with the skills and competencies they already have in their toolbox.
Our three-day summit in October will focus on the demand for organizations to act and the needs and perspectives of investors, regulators and public interest entities. It features speakers with global expertise in sustainability, environmental, social, and governance (ESG), integrated and sustainability reporting, sustainability-related investor needs, and more. It will help professional accountants, and the professional accountancy organizations that support them, understand—and take action to meet—growing demands for sustainability services from the public and private sector.
Available in English, French, Russian and Spanish
Keynotes and sessions will include live interpretation in French, Russian, and Spanish. Video recordings for sessions will also be available on the IFAC website following the event.
New Platform: So Much More than Zoom
Taking advantage of the virtual world, this year’s summit will take a place in a new platform built for virtual conferences by the American Accounting Association. The platform features an exhibit hall available 24 hours a day, conference chat function, speaker backgrounds and Zoom integration. Keynotes and sessions will also include live interpretation in French, Russian, and Spanish. Video recordings for sessions will also be available on the IFAC website following the event.
Registration: An Extra Step but Worth It
Leveraging this new platform requires registrants create an account (including Username and Password) to provide the necessary event registration information for the event and to enter the platform. This access and your new Username and Password allow you to enter the platform and visit exhibit booths outside of the event sessions, and for a short period after the Summit, and chat with other registrants. Your contact information will only be used for the summit and will be deleted by the AAA following the event. For additional information on how to register, see the IFAC EdExchange Registration Guide. Please contact info@aaahq.org with registration questions and education@ifac.org with any other questions.
Agenda
- Tuesday, October 12: The Demand for Organizations to Act
- 8:00 am EST-10:15 am EST
- Keynote speakers: Helle Bank Jorgensen, Leading with Purpose: Sustainability’s Opportunities and Challenges, and Mirtha Kastrapeli, The Changing Needs of the Investor
- Case study: Forico, From an Idea Seed to Valuing Sustainability Forestry
- Wednesday, October 13: Where and How to Start
- 8:00 am EST-10:45 am EST
- Panel: Expectations within an Organization, featuring speakers including a Fastly and Robinhood Markets board member, the Future Generations Commissioner of Wales, Korn Ferry (global recruiter), and The Luxury Network (Singapore)
- Case study: KPMG, The Crucial Role of Accountants in Tackling the Climate Crisis
- Case study: Black Sun PLC, Counting What Counts
- Thursday, October 14: Assured Sustainability and a Sustainable Profession
- 8:00 am EST-11:00 am EST
- Panel: The Role of the Auditor: Expectations of Audit Institutions and Regulators, featuring speakers from the African Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions - English Speaking (AFROSAI-E) and the Independent Regulatory Board for Auditors (South Africa)
- Panel: Ensuring A Long-Term Sustainable Profession: The Impact to Future Generations, featuring speakers from Dublin City University, KPI, and Messer Americas
- IFAC’s recent sustainability initiatives, including The State of Play in Sustainability Assurance
Session Descriptions
- Helle Bank Jorgenson, Leading with Purpose: Sustainability's Opportunities and Challenges
- Mirtha Kastrapeli, The Changing Needs of the Investor
- From an Idea Seed to Valuing Sustainable Forestry
- Panel Discussion - Expectations Within an Organization
- The Crucial Role of Accountants In Tackling the Climate Crisis
- Counting What Counts
- The Role of the Auditor: Expectations of Audit Institutions and Regulators
- Ensuring a Long-Term Sustainable Profession: The Impact to Future Generations
- IFAC Recent Initiatives Including the State of Play in Sustainability Assurance
Helle Bank Jorgensen, Founder and CEO, Competent Boards, kicks off our 2021 EdExchange Summit by bringing to life her experiences and reflections of the expectations of the accountancy profession in sustainability-related services by those charged with governance. Helle is a strategic and visionary director and tech entrepreneur with a 30-year track record in turning environment, social, governance (ESG), climate and sustainability risks into innovative and profitable business opportunities. A former PwC audit and advisory partner in Denmark and the US leading Sustainability & Climate Practices, Helle is also the creator of the world's first Green Account and Integrated Report.
Why Accountants?
Professional accountants and the accountancy profession need to play key roles—we are the right people to serve the public interest in developing and executing sustainability-related processes and reporting. We have the necessary skills and competencies: many of the skills and competencies required to effectively use sustainability standards and frameworks are already in today’s professional accountant’s toolkit.
Our background and experience with financial and, frequently, non-financial reporting means we already know how to:
- Understand and report information that is transparent, relevant, and meaningful to a user.
- Understand and apply appropriate guidance to transactions and reporting.
- Determine and use appropriate measures of materiality.
- Evaluate impact of guidance to transactions, trends and strategy.
- Understand, develop, and execute processes to extract, synthesize and interpret complete and accurate data.
- Develop, implement, execute against or evaluate an internal control system necessary to prepare or assure an organization’s information.
- Collaborate with other departments.
Interested in More?
Looking to get ready for the 2021 IFAC EdExchange Summit? Check out some of IFAC’s recent sustainability-related initiatives and materials.
September 20, 2021 | IFAC & ACCA
Director, Accountancy Education
Helen Partridge leads the accountancy education work at IFAC. In this role, she has oversight and leadership of IFAC’s global approach to advancing accountancy education working together with the International Panel on Accountancy Education. Advancing accountancy education is integral to IFAC’s vision of a dynamic, future-focused global profession that is essential to strong, sustainable organizations, financial markets, and economies. Competent and credible professional accountants, committed to lifelong learning, underpin this vision. Prior to joining IFAC, Helen was an accountant in practice, having spent 16 years in audit, advisory and audit systems design in the US and Asia Pacific. She has also served in the controllership at a large multinational transportation company working with GAAP conversions, financial statement preparations and complex and significant transactions such as business combinations and tax planning. In addition, Helen presently serves two not-for-profit boards and is a CPA licensed in multiple states in the United States. See more by Helen Partridge
Megan Hartman is a senior manager on the Communications team. She joined the team in 2011 after working with a number of international organizations, primarily in the not-for-profit sector. Megan holds a master’s in integrated marketing communications from Northwestern University as well as a bachelor’s from George Washington University. See more by Megan Hartman
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