Join fellow professionals at ACCA’s flagship virtual conference for engaging and enjoyable learning and development – ensuring you keep up to date with the tools and knowledge you need to manage multiple priorities in a fast-changing business environment
Conference highlights
Develop the insights and skills that will help you navigate a business and economic landscape that is increasingly driven by new tech, sustainability and generational change.
Join experts discussing hot topics, from the technical – such as sustainability reporting – to softer skills – such applying ethics in the workplace, coping with change and becoming a value‑adding CFO.
Accounting for the Future will be followed on 24 November by ACCA’s Virtual Public Sector Conference, which focuses specifically on the interests of finance professionals working in the public sector around the world.
The accountant's role in putting profit, people and planet on par
For decades and perhaps centuries, profitability has been the overriding measure of performance. Today, we realise people and the planet need to be placed on par with profitability. The world is on a mission-critical journey to halt a worsening climate crisis this decade. Accountants have a fundamental obligation to collaborate over a just transition, ensuring no one is left behind. This session will explore how our roles need to evolve to create a better world for future generations.
2024: another challenging year for global economic growth
Will 2024 be another challenging year for the global economy as central banks keep interest rates high to combat inflation? Could a Chinese recovery boost global growth? How will Africa fare amid the likely global backdrop? Our expert panel will discuss the challenges across regions, the results of ACCA’s latest Global Economic Confidence Survey, and the role finance professionals play in navigating turbulent economic weather.
Global trends in talent
ACCA’s 2023 Global Talent Trends report reveals members are concerned with the impact of economic uncertainty on their careers, how the workplace is changing, hybrid working and the risk of burnout. This session will examine the key issues dominating the workplace of today and tomorrow, and how organisations are addressing the challenges faced.
AI innovation and regulation: an artificial conflict
As artificial intelligence sweeps the business landscape, professional accountants face balancing a pro-innovation attitude with a proportionate risk response. While organisations value the potential of AI, issues of accountability, ethics and trust need careful consideration. Our panel of experts will guide attendees through the maze of competing AI opinions and set out how a multi-stakeholder solution can ensure alignment between the benefits and risks of AI.
Fraud risk – who's in charge?
There is a lack of comprehension about the extent of fraud. Too often, its impact on an organisation is understood only when the damage is done. In addition, governance is failing to keep up with regulatory and technological change. This session looks at the latest developments and thinking, and what our profession can do to be better prepared.
Navigating ethics in the workplace
The successful finance professional must balance both ethics and the delivery of business results. However, data suggests that organisational ethics is a complex phenomenon that can be measured across multiple dimensions. What are these dimensions – and why do they matter? In this crucial new session, ACCA’s talent expert Dr Rob Yeung will explore the psychology of organisational ethics and its implications for both making change happen and having a thriving career.
Role of the finance function in transitioning to a low-carbon economy
Just transition is the process of moving to a climate-neutral economy in a fair and sustainable way. ACCA research highlights the urgency to begin this journey, but few organisations have transition plans in place. In this session, global experts will look at the finance function's leading role in transition planning, including emissions plans, supply chain collaboration, and measuring the cost. It will also feature a case study from an energy company that is developing its Just Transition strategy.
How CFOs hold the key to organisational change
The role of the CFO continues to expand. Leading CFOs are stewards of assets, strategic advisers, reporters of performance and guardians of risks. At the heart of this, they are also leaders of organisational change. Our panel of experienced CFOs will review the implications of this progression and what is increasingly expected by the various stakeholders with which they now interact.
Attraction and retention of accountants to audit profession
Demands for sustainability disclosures from regulators and policy makers are only increasing, as is the need for assurance of this new body of work. This step change presents an opportunity to pitch the audit and assurance profession as a more attractive option for students at a time when the profession faces a looming recruitment crisis. Our panel of experts explore why ACCA students could be playing a major governance role protecting society and the environment, and what the opportunities are for small medium-sized practices.
SMEs and SMPs: skills and innovation for the future
Small and medium-sized entities (SMEs) around the world are facing myriad challenges: rising costs, tight recruitment markets, fast-changing technology and related skills, and a shifting regulatory environment, to name just a few. This session will look at the findings of ACCA research around what current work looks like for SMEs, and a panel discussion with SMEs and small and medium practitioners will explore how businesses and their advisers can tackle the key issues.
Integrative thinking: the guide to becoming a value-adding CFO
To navigate complex multi-dimensional problems facing organisations calls for CFOs to be ‘integrative thinkers’ as they strive to achieve a fair balance of multiple resources, from nature, human capital, brand and relationships to finance. Achieving this balance and adding value calls for integrated information and decision-making by organisations. Through an immersive game, we will show how value-adding CFOs, as the stewards of this information, can be integrative in their thinking.
Preparing for sustainability reporting
What data will businesses need in order to comply with sustainability reporting requirements, and how it can be sourced? This session will address the key issues and also explore the changes organisations are making to address business processes, technology, people and other financial and non-financial costs. We will also hear from the ISSB on what is coming next, including insights on the future workplan.
Ethical dilemmas in an era of sustainability reporting
The rise of sustainability reporting around the world presents accountants with tough choices, many of them with an ethical dimension. This panel session will outline why ethics and independence remain important. Our experts will offer a summary of IESBA’s Ethical Code requirements and will examine key ethical case studies and provide a checklist of common considerations for professionals as they confront sustainability reporting dilemmas in real-world situations.
Realising the future of finance with generative AI
As the role of automation and AI technologies evolve, they will increasingly define the accounting landscape. Recent exciting developments around generative AI show that it can help lower existing barriers to the introduction of predictive and cognitive analytics to support various finance activities. Our panel will explore how generative AI can be used to enhance skillsets, implement new solutions, and the challenges that must first be confronted to ensure safe and ethical use.
R&D: harnessing the value of disclosures
Companies around the world need to do better at reporting research and development (R&D), an essential activity for innovation and growth. The failure to report R&D spending despite extensive discussion of the topic in annual reports could undermine the perception of potential investors and other stakeholders regarding a company’s future prospects. This panel session will examine the causes and discuss practical recommendations for harnessing the value of disclosing R&D activities and the associated amounts.
Making tax and ethics work together for a just society
As public trust in tax shifts, demand is growing for the need to create an ethical tax system, one that is just and fair, balancing the role of planning and efficiency with wider social and economic aims. In this session, our panel of experts will drill down into the competing demands that tax systems face at local, national and international levels, shining a spotlight on the ethical dilemmas facing tax professionals today and in the future.
Coping with change: tune in, connect, respond
You’re facing change - what’s new? But what if it’s a change that involves different people with different agendas and is full of unknown unknowns? In this type of complex change, the recipes and approaches you may have used before might not be enough, and you may need a different way of coping. This session will explore how to tune into the dynamics of change, connect with your lived experiences, and develop key habits to successfully navigate complex change.