Top Proposal Examples

Check out the examples below of accepted sessions from past AFP Conferences with commentary on why they got the green light.

Financial Lessons from the Fast Lane: Building Capabilities to Win in a Crisis

Proposal Description: It’s been a thousand days in the fast lane (yes, it’s been that long since the start of COVID!). Market twists and turns may be new to some industries or practitioners, but the energy industry offers a unique case study with relevant lessons given the high levels of volatility and uncertainty presented by both commodity price swings and the energy transition. The pressing concerns of surviving in a market downturn can distort the normal decision-making process. What tactics can be used to drive high-quality decision? How do we prevent cutting cots that will destroy long-term value? Drawing on lessons learned from prior cycles and throughout this crisis, and leveraging experience across several operating units, industries and geographies, three finance practitioners will share their experience during their business from FP&A to the front line.

Why is This Topic Important for Treasury and/or Finance Practitioners: Foremost, multiple challenges (COVID, inflation, labor market challenges, climate crisis, and energy transition) are ongoing. The skills of driving company performance and generating cash to create corporate agility are essential skills today and will continue to be well into the future. The energy industry offers a unique case study with relevant lessons applicability well outside it given the high levels of volatility and uncertainty presented by both commodity price swings and the energy transition. Cash perseveration or generation opportunities are not always simple to identify and present trade-offs between the short-term and long-term. The energy industry has long asset lives and investment cycles (40+ years in some cases) meaning short-term vs. long-term tradeoffs are routinely considered in decision making. This kind of short vs. long-term thinking equips finance professionals to be thoughtful business partners to strategic decision-makers and operational staff alike.

Reviewer Feedback:

  • Topic is very relevant for AFP audience.
  • Proposal included a corporate practitioner and spoke to specific tactics utilized vs. a theoretical discussion.
  • Based on the speaker's background, they are clearly a subject matter expert on the topic.
  • Case study from a recognizable company on a relevant topic.
  • Proposal is concise and presents a topic with clearly identified strategic and tactical take-aways.
  • Proposal includes principles in a framework that is straightforward to communicate, combined with a real example where it was applied and all the messiness of the real life.

Modernizing Liquidity and Investments for a Resilient Treasury

Proposal Description: Constantly challenged with new data and reporting requirements to support the business, treasury organizations are turning to modern technologies for greater visibility, accuracy, and speed. By combining API connectivity and integrated, end-to-end workflows with best practice management of cash, liquidity and investments, treasury teams are nimbler than ever in unlocking value for the business. An expert panel that includes multiple corporate practitioners presents case studies in creating a resilient treasury.

Why is Topic Important for Treasury and/or Finance Practitioners: Treasury organizations are still working in a hybrid environment with resource constraints amid a rising rate environment. Managing working capital and cash flow forecasting as well as short-term investments in dynamic markets with staff and work-related limitations is nothing less than challenging. Teams are looking for best practice approaches from peers and use cases for modern technologies that make it easier to integrate, see, access and act upon data to conquer challenges and seize new opportunities. As internal and external factors continue to shift beneath them, teams will need to make sure their organization is resilient and responsive.

Reviewer Feedback:

  • This proposal identifies a timely issue that is being addressed by a group of corporate practitioners.
  • Topic for this proposal is one that is clearly of interest to treasury practitioners.
  • This proposal includes identified corporate practitioner co-presenters from multiple industries.
  • Proposal is well written, not overly wordy and to the point.

Time to Get Intelligent About Cash Flow: Using Machine Learning to Build an (Artificial) Intelligent Forecast

Proposal Description: Accurately forecasting cash flows is no easy task. Ask any treasury team who has faced the convoluted, complex, and time-consuming task of aggregating data, then projecting it, only to discover that the reporting wasn’t correct. This can be especially true when managing multi-national corporations, or for highly regulated legal entities. In this presentation, Humana will share best practices implementing a cash flow intelligence application that uses data integration and machine learning to automatically pull relevant historical data, and simplify and more accurately predict cash flow forecasting. We’ll discuss how to use technology to streamline cash flow forecasting and make predictions more accurate using Artificial Intelligence reporting tools that are fast and simple to use and significantly enhance your cash flow analytics team’s efforts.

Why is This Topic Important for Treasury and/or Finance Practitioners: Cash Flow forecasting is an absolutely vital function for any growing organization. Attendees will be interested in hearing from practitioners on how to build a business case for integrating machine learning/artificial intelligence into their cash flow forecast in order to make it more accurate, faster and easier to produce. This session will provide practical, replicable best practices that can be applied to any organization.

Reviewer Feedback:

  • Proposal includes an identified corporate practitioner co-presenter (Assistant Treasurer).
  • How to do key treasury functions/processes better with various technologies is always a topic of interest for me.
  • Proposal is well written, concise and focuses on a timely topic for treasury practitioners.

Submit Your Proposal

At AFP, we believe the treasury and finance profession becomes stronger when diverse voices come together. Our goal is to create an inclusive, respectful conference experience that welcomes participation from people of all races, ethnicities, gender identities and expressions, sexual orientations, abilities, religions and ages. As such, we are actively striving to increase the diversity of perspectives within our conference sessions, in order to enrich the experience for the entire treasury and finance community.

Register now
They cover so many different topics, so there’s always something that you can bring back and apply to your company.

Rafael Andrade, CTP, Director, Treasury and FP&A, Ferrellgas