Members of the AFP 2023 Task Force, the group of treasury and finance professionals who hand-select the sessions, met to set the conference agenda according to the issues that matter most to practitioners. We asked them to share their thoughts on the educational sessions they’d chosen out of 550+ submissions. The descriptive term on everyone’s lips for this year’s conference is forward-thinking.
Among the seven tracks and hundreds of sessions, there were some standouts for this gracious team of volunteers. Here’s what they had to say …
Treasury Management
“There are a number of sessions I’m interested in, but the one I’m most looking forward to is the Transfer Pricing and Taxation session. This is a topic that treasury is frequently involved in, but it is rare to come across a session on it — what a great knowledge-builder!” said Linda Dixon, CTP, Director of Treasury, Multimatic Inc. “There are also a number of sessions on AI, API, real-time payments, virtual accounts, etc., which are all current concepts affecting the treasury world. It’s good to see that there is a lot of interest in presenting these ideas.”
“Automation is happening elsewhere in the business world, and this shows that treasury is on the map as well,” said Dixon.
Payments
“The overriding theme this year is clearly change,” said Gary Piper, CTP, Director of Corporate Treasury, Lennox International Inc. “The payments component of treasury is on the cusp of unprecedented innovation and change, and a number of the sessions reflect that. One of the biggest challenges for treasury professionals is how to harness this innovation and integrate it into their payments system.”
“With 141 submissions, there was a lot of ground covered. The sessions I reviewed in the Payments sector were reflective of the high degree of change and innovation, and the opportunities that provides to practitioners,” said Piper. “Between Fintechs, ISO 20022, Real Time Payments, etc., there is unprecedented opportunity to innovate and improve. The challenge is knowing where to place your bets and which technologies will be the survivors.”
In addition to the Payments sessions, the Payments Hub includes a Payments keynote, Payments Fraud Symposium, multiple roundtables and a reception.
Capital Markets & Investments and Risk Management
“I am really excited to see so many fraud topics submitted this year,” said Steven Peterson, CTP, Executive Director of Treasury, Chick-fil-A, Inc. “This topic resonates with almost everyone from an industry perspective as well as both core and senior level treasury professionals. There is also a significant monetary risk in not paying attention to fraud; the fraudsters seem to be evolving and adapting to what companies are implementing to minimize their fraud risk. This topic should be well attended at the conference.”
“The topics are thoughtful, relevant and impactful for today’s market environment, as well as forward-thinking, which will help financial professionals strategize as the market continues to shift,” said Karina Inga-Kamienski, CTP, Senior Director, Capital Markets, Gilead Sciences, Inc. “I’m excited about the topics covering investing in DEI, ESG financing, cyber risk and rate environment. Bringing sessions like these that are hot topics represents the value that financial professionals will gain from attending the AFP conference.”
“The session submissions tell us that although treasury is making strides in newer areas such as technology advancements and ESG, the core of what treasury is remains important and the main focus,” said Sherri Nicole Speaks, CTP, Assistant Treasurer, John Bean Technologies Corporation. “Whether it be cash forecasting or fraud or the impacts on borrowing from the most recent market disruption, we cannot stray too far from our core discipline.”
Two sessions Speaks is particularly excited about include “ESG — Is this a reactionary fad or a long-term mindset change?” and “Borrowing in this new rate environment — Any ideas that may help my company?”
“Investing and borrowing with a social purpose is not something most practitioners have ever had to consider,” said Speaks.
FP&A
“Everybody is more forward-thinking than I have seen from finance in previous cycles. I get excited about the impact we can have as we bring a value-add to finance,” said Camille King, FPAC, CTP, Principal Team Leader of Financial Solutions, Chick-fil-A Corporate Support Center. “We're really thinking about the future of the industry and what our unique value-add is,” said King. “I get excited because the sessions portrayed not only that foundational element, but also the future and where we would love to go with finance as an industry.”
“This is the session [Achieving Automation and Agility using Low Code/No Code Technologies] where I can get that ‘one thing.’ That one thing I take back to my group to make the group better, without breaking the bank. That one thing that makes your leadership agree to pay for next year's conference attendance,” said Ashley Merritt, FPAC, R&D Portfolio Finance Manager, W. L. Gore & Associates.
“The more we discussed this [The Impact Loop: Creating a Virtuous Cycle of Finance Transformation], the greater the application I could see for the framework,” said Merritt. “Treating the inevitability of change as an expected variable that drives action can help make it less threatening for those of us who don’t readily embrace change.”
“I'm particularly excited about several of the personal and team effectiveness sessions, because I do think that FP&A needs to move more and more towards being a business partner,” said Rosemary Linden, President and Fractional CFO, Momentum CFO. “It's easier to teach hard skills; we can measure those and see how you're doing. But with softer skills, it's bit difficult to teach and to transfer those to measure the effectiveness — but they're critical for influencing decisions.”
In addition to the FP&A sessions, the FP&A Hub, sponsored by Anaplan, includes an FP&A keynote, a symposium, a roundtable, a meet-up and a reception.
Preview the list of FP&A sessions at AFP 2023.
Executive Institute
Sponsored by PNC, the Executive Institute is an exclusive experience curated for the modern-day corporate treasury and finance leader that includes elevated sessions, speakers and networking built for executives.
“The session quality was outstanding this year; you can see this in the sessions that were not chosen. We had to pick the best of the best, and honestly, that’s how it should be,” said Speaks.
Register for AFP 2023, where bright ideas shine.