SOX 404 Conference 2013: Revitalizing Your SOX Program to Protect Against Today’s Emerging Threats

DAY ONE AGENDA

Deluxe Continental Breakfast & Registration
8:00 – 8:45 AM

Welcome & Opening Remarks
8:45 – 9:00 AM

Keynote Speaker
9:00 – 9:45 AM

PCAOB Regulatory Update
9:45 – 10:45 AM
This session will provide an update on the PCAOB’s auditing standards, inspections and enforcement activities. 
• Understanding the root causes of audit deficiencies to improve audit quality
• Impact of inspections on companies

Break
10:45 – 11:00 AM

SOX Panel Discussion
11:00 AM – 12:30 PM
This session will point out common flaws in existing SOX programs and challenge the audience to reinvent their SOX programs to answer the critical question—Are you lucky? Or are you good?
• Infrastructure: steering committee, staffing and tone at the top
• Emerging innovative practices and lessons learned from peers in industry
• Consolidation of processes
• Leveraging technology to change SOX testing coverage

Luncheon
12:30 – 1:15 PM

SOX Transformation: Moving from Control to Process Optimization
1:15 – 2:15 PM
This session will cover the highlights, trends and expectations for internal audit groups, as surveyed by PwC.          

Compliance & Regulatory Landscape Hot Topics
2:15 – 3:15 PM
This session will highlight hot topics in regulatory compliance that Finance Risk Functions are addressing and provide insight into areas that you should be thinking about and raising in your company.
• Dodd-Frank
• Regulation AB
• Foreign Corrupt Practices Act

Break
3:15 – 3:30 PM

End-User Computing & Financial Model Controls
3:30 – 5:00 PM
End-user computing (spreadsheets, access databases, etc.) and Financial Models have received a significant level of scrutiny from external auditors and regulators due in part to the complex processes and risks they support. These “shadow IT” systems present challenges and opportunities for organizations. This session will be a panel discussion moderated by an industry expert on EUCs and include Big 4 accounting firms, internal auditors and compliance executives who will share best practices for maintaining an effective EUC and Financial Model control environment.

Topics to be discussed include:
• Use of Cloud to proliferate EUCs and Models
• Risks of misstating financial statements due to data entry or calculation errors in spreadsheets
• Regulatory and compliance hot buttons
• How to design and implement an effective enterprise EUC and Financial Model program

Cocktail Reception
5:00 – 6:00 PM
 

DAY TWO AGENDA

Deluxe Continental Breakfast
8:00 – 8:30 AM

Opening Remarks
8:30 – 8:45 AM

Computer Automated Techniques: The Lost Art of Data Analytics
8:45 – 10:30 AM
Data analytics today are employed in every part of an organization to maximize revenue, learn more about your customers and find malicious insiders. However, using data analytics has receded in the area of internal controls analysis in part due to the focus on SOX testing. This session will be an open conversation on successful data analytics for risk management success.

Topics to be discussed include:
• Kick-starting data analytics for internal controls
• Embedding audit and controls data analytics into existing processes for real-time controls analysis
• Data analytics you should be doing today

Break
10:30 – 10:45 AM

Technology Risk Management: Moving the Needle on IT Internal Controls
10:45 AM – 12:15 PM
Internal control leaders are increasingly discovering that significant risks exist in IT and the likelihood of earning a Significant Deficiency or Material Weakness is greater than ever before. This session will be an open conversation on the technology risks that companies are living with today and don’t even know about. You may be getting a clean SOX opinion today, however, what you don’t know can hurt you.

Topics to be discussed include:
• How technology professionals are getting around your SOX controls
• How to “fake it”: your IT controls are passing, but why they should really be failing
• Why is Change Management becoming a routine Significant Deficiency across companies?
• How to properly evaluate IT deficiencies and design sustainable remediation

Luncheon
12:15 – 1:15 PM

Risk & Controls Self-Assessment
1:15 – 2:45 PM
An effective internal control environment includes the development and execution of a Risk and Controls Self-Assessment (RCSA) program. This session will be a panel discussion of industry experts discussing various options and approaches to their RCSA program.

Topics to be discussed include:
• Getting executive support for program development and execution
• Benefits realized from an RCSA program
• Common mistakes to avoid and strategies to help accelerate benefits realization

Break
2:45 – 3:00 PM

Risk Management: Tragic Comedies
3:00 – 4:45 PM
This session will review 2012’s biggest, costliest and most embarrassing internal control mishaps, why they occurred and how these tragic comedies could have been avoided.

Topics to be discussed include:
• Spotlight on companies that made 2012 headlines
• Lance Armstrong: what can we learn from an internal controls perspective?
• Predictions on 2013 headlines

Conference Ends
4:45 PM