The CFO agenda: Hybrid work, cybersecurity, career development and more

The AICPA & CIMA CFO Conference begins April 24 in Charleston, S.C.

Sandy Sloyer, CPA, CGMA, and Misty Geer, CPA, CGMA are long-time members of the conference planning committee, and they joined the JofA podcast to discuss how priorities have changes for finance leaders over the past few years — and how the conference agenda has been adapted as a result.

Here’s a link to the list of conference sessions.

What you’ll learn from this episode:

• Attendance options for the April conference.
• How the conference planning committee adapted to the pandemic era.
• Key issues facing CFOs and the finance function these days.
• Agenda highlights, along with some of Geer’s favorite speakers from previous years.
• Sloyer’s feeling every year when the conference ends.
• Why the event is for current CFOs and aspiring ones.

Play the episode below or read the edited transcript:

To comment on this episode or to suggest an idea for another episode, contact Neil Amato at Neil.Amato@aicpa-cima.com.

Transcript

Neil Amato: Welcome back to the Journal of Accountancy podcast. This is Neil Amato with the JofA. Over the past several years in traveling to AICPA conferences, I’ve had the opportunity and the honor to meet leaders in the profession. Two of those leaders are with me today, and they are people I’ve met at conferences.

Sandy Sloyer is the chair of the CFO Conference planning committee, and Misty Geer is the vice chair. We’re talking on this episode about that event. First, Sandy and Misty, welcome to the podcast. I want to first talk about the event itself again, the CFO Conference: When is it, where is it, and what are the attendance options?

Misty Geer: Well, Sandy, I don’t know about you, but one of the things I love about this conference is that it moves around. We try to go on the West Coast, the East Coast, in the central part of the U.S. This year is going to be in Charleston, South Carolina. We’re super excited about that. It will be April 24-26.

Sandy Sloyer: I’m excited, too. This is going to be a great location. The conference is, as Misty said, it’s been pretty steady in what we’ve been doing, but it’s been changing location. We do have one change this year. We have some workshops before the conference actually starts that are included at no additional cost. We want to encourage, come a little earlier, join the workshops and then come to the conference. Great networking, great location. It’s going to be a really exciting event.

Geer: If they’re not able to attend on-site, we do have an online option. Of course, the on-site aspect of it, as Sandy said, we have the workshops and the networking, and we have some social events. But online, they’ll be able to attend the conference as well, and there are options to chat with the attendees and the speakers. There’s a virtual part where they can virtually visit the exhibitors and chat with them, and that’s a pretty cool feature as well.

Sloyer: Misty is the expert on that. She has gotten more people engaged on chats and treasure hunts and all sorts of other games on there. Even if you’re joining us virtually, you’ve got to connect with Misty.

Amato: That’s great. I appreciate that plug. In the show notes for the episode, we will include the links to sign up. Obviously, in person, you get the great food town that Charleston is, the history. Online does work absolutely well, if that’s how it works for you.

I am fairly certain the last time I saw each of you in person was at one of these CFO conferences. I’m thinking it was Chicago and I’m thinking 2019. I’m fairly certain on Chicago. I’m not certain on the year, but either way, late teens.

Since then, I don’t know, I guess a few things have changed in the world for CFOs and others. I don’t know – anything to add on that?

Sloyer: The conference itself had to make some changes. We went virtual for a couple of years, and I was quite pleased with how the technology developed and how we could really have some good speakers and good interaction. But, it is a whole lot better live, if you can come and join us and meet people. You do get to know people. You get to know the speakers a little bit better. It’s a better experience if you can make it.

Geer: Absolutely. I think one of the things that I appreciate about this conference is that change that you’re talking about is ever-present. I think that the CFOs might have felt it more heavily than some other business executives. The nature of our content also evolves, and we addressed some really hot topics. We’re not talking about the same things we were in 2019. Our topics are new and they’re fresh and they’re what’s keeping the CFOs up at night today. I really appreciate that about our content in our conference.

Amato: Yeah, exactly. Now for Misty, in July 2019, we published a conversation, a previous podcast episode, about lessons learned on open communication and flexible scheduling. It’s pretty interesting, that we’re talking flex scheduling back then. Who knew that a conversation about work/life balance and flex scheduling would be a preview to what people were going to be dealing with, I guess not even a year later?

Geer: Yeah. It’s funny that you mentioned that because work/life balance isn’t even the term used anymore, now it’s work/life blend. I think that the conversation back then was starting to get people thinking about what flexibility would look like. Then when the COVID era happened, it forced people into engaging with these flexibility types of issues, working from home, and flex scheduling, and flex locations and that sort of thing.

Now it’s kind of transformed. Now we’ve had to embrace this whole flexibility work environment, but now we’re trying to measure productivity and manage hybrid workforces or remote workforces. The content has had to change with that as well, because the CFOs are no longer thinking about how could it be more flexible. They’re thinking about how can I manage this new world of flexibility that we have.

Amato: Is there anything else, Sandy or Misty, on that front, as it relates to flexible work?

Sloyer: I’ve always worked with distributed workforces. Some of the things that had to happen during COVID, they moved quickly, but they were trends that were already starting, like Misty said, you guys were talking about that in 2018, 2019. You were talking about remote, you were talking about flexible work schedules, you were talking about hybrid-type work environments. That was always something that I was used to, too.

It just got super-charged, and it got some better technology behind it to make it easier and more personal and make it much more friendly for the company, for the people, for the organization, for everybody to work in that environment. Instead of just some of those segments or organizations that were living it.

Geer: Absolutely. We’ve had to talk about ways to measure productivity, manage employee engagement, so keeping the team synched up and communicating fluidly together. But one of the big issues that CFOs are dealing with are the cybersecurity issues and the challenges that have come with it. That happens to be one of the workshops we’re going to have at the conference because it’s just such a hot topic. We’re really appreciative that we have an amazing speaker to address it.

But for me, that has been the biggest challenge because the cybersecurity challenges, I guess, had been so crucial to be able to maintain a business environment. But it could also be very difficult when you have to authenticate 17 times to get into one website. It can be a little bit of a challenge.

Amato: Exactly. Misty, you touched on cybersecurity, I know there’s other things. For Sandy, beyond cybersecurity and some of the other things we’ve mentioned, what are the key trends you think CFOs should be monitoring these days?

Sloyer: As there are fewer accounting and finance graduates, that converges with the advances in AI and the continuous pressure to do more with less, the landscape of the finance team has changed dramatically. We have to address all of those things and finance leaders are in a position where they need to make some major changes.

One of the things we’ve done for this agenda is include this wide range of topics covering the full spectrum of what a CFO needs to know around people, process, and technology.

For example, we have a CEO coming in from a cutting-edge technology company to talk about how to find the ROI in new technologies. He’s going to help us evaluate where you invest the company funds. We have a session on agile budgeting and forecasting techniques as implemented in a major company.

But then as leaders are developing their teams to do more value-add work, maybe the basics that never go away need to be outsourced. There’s a session on outsourced accounting, back offices.

But then some of my favorite sessions are on people development. For attendees’ personal development, there are a couple of panel discussions about career progressions led by professionals that have taken those journeys. For example, we’ve got how to succeed in your first hundred days as a CFO or [chief accounting officer], and then going from CFO to board membership.

We’ve covered all of those. And then of course we have to have a few presentations on the current trends in the traditional areas: accounting, tax, ethics, economy, and now ESG. We really do cover everything at a level that’s appropriate for finance professionals in industry.

Amato: We don’t want to exclude anyone, but I’ll just ask: Do you have a favorite conference presentation or speaker from past years?

Geer: Well, I have to say, I’m a huge fan of John Garrett. He’s hilarious.

Amato: He is a friend of the podcast, for sure.

Geer: Yep. Love him. Dima Ghawi has done a great job. Surprisingly, Sandy said we have a slew of topics. One of them is your got-to-have accounting standards update, and Lauren Hegg, now Lauren Pringle, is exceptional. The energy and the passion she brings to that topic is amazing. Even though it’s so technical, it’s one of our higher-rated topics. Our cybersecurity [speaker], Mike Foster, is amazing.

Amato: Yep, he is.

Geer: Sandy, do you have a …?

Sloyer: We do get some people that are encore. We bring them back a couple of times here and there. They always have fresh information, but there are a lot of them. It’s hard to single them out. Misty hit the highlights.

But then we find new and fresh speakers as well. We blend it in, so to have fresh perspective and new presentations with the blend of the favorites from before is a good mix at the conference.

Geer: One of the nice things is that our conference has a pretty strong attendee base. We usually have about 350 on-site attendeees. But it’s small enough to where our speakers are engaged. It’s almost like they’re having a conversation with each individual person.

There’s lots of time for Q&A and for the attendees to ask more personalized questions. Sometimes the attendees themselves can bring the most thought-provoking ideas or questions, and I love that because it’s not so high-level. You can learn from the attendees as well as the speakers. You come home with your own little checklist of things to think about or look at, or new resources.

Sloyer: A lot of people return year after year. We had several that just as we were wrapping up last year’s conference were ready to sign up, and Charleston is certainly going to be a very attractive place to get people to come to. But we’ve got people that have come to the conference every year, or five years in a row or something. There’s a lot of continuity with the attendees as well as the speakers.

Amato: That’s great, and there is a lot of continuity and a lot of good memories, but also fresh information every year. You mentioned John Garrett, and you mentioned Dima Ghawi. They’ve been previous podcast guests on this show along with several others that we’ve brought up. The conference, again, starts April 24. That’s not April 23 for the preconference sessions, but it’s actually April 24 is the official start, is that right?

Sloyer: That’s right. There are workshops in the morning before the conference begins that people can join for no additional costs. Michael Foster, a returning favorite, will lead “Guardians of the Gateway” on cybersecurity. Or people can learn about driving corporate performance with Tom Finnegan, also building on a prior-year session. Please come early, join those, and there’s no additional fee.

Amato: That’s great. Any closing thoughts on this? Thank you for being on the podcast.

Sloyer: I love coming to the conference. To me, it’s three days where you get exposure to a wide variety of topics. You get case studies, you meet and get to know other like-minded people that can be resources, sounding boards, and a lot of friends. For me, I just love it. I always leave with a more strategic focus and a renewed energy.

Geer: This conference isn’t just for CFOs. I’m not a CFO, and I’m on this committee. It’s also for aspiring CFOs as well. This conference is for people that are trying to stay on the cutting edge of what’s happening with business and what’s happening with the profession and the industry.

Amato: Misty Geer, Sandy Sloyer, thank you very much for being on the podcast.

Geer: Thank you for having us.

Sloyer: Thank you.