CPA Congress in Sydney drawing to a close

Rick Romanin FCPA, CFO Greyhound Australia

Tony Faure, a former CEO, will close CPA Congress in Sydney today after a day filled with networking, technical sessions and entertainment.

Amanda Gore, Head2Heart, certainly kept the energy high at lunch today with her talk about the differences between genders. She also ensured member engagement was at its peak with a lot of hand holding! One of her pieces of advice was to “ignite people’s spirit,” not extinguish it. Her four steps to changing behaviour are:

Attendees work shop ideas on web 2.0

*Focus
*Attention
*Repetition
*Celebration

It was a priviledge to have Rick Romanin FCPA share the story of Greyhound Australia. Rick came on board as CFO three years ago when the company was struggling against the strength of low cost airlines. In that time the business has changed their strategy and diversified. Now Greyhound Australia is in a much stronger position, although Rick admits there are always challenges.

Asic Chairman Tony D’Aloisio gave delegates an important update on regulation. He discussed the changes happening and what to expect. Also, Robert Gottliebsen, from the Eureka Report, shared his insights into current economic conditions in his own unique way.

Since Monday over 80 presenters have shared their knowledge and contributed to debate. CPA Congress has offered great opportunities for delegates to hear practical solutions for ‘The Way Forward’.

Speaker brings a pommel horse to CPA Congress

Day 3 of CPA Congress in Sydney has included the Chairman of ASX, an independent forensic investigator, the director of the Australian Tax Centre for KPMG and a gymnast who showed off his talent.

Brennon Dowrick shows his talent

Brennon Dowrick, former Olympic gymnast, certainly entertained today as he shared his story of success with hundreds of delegates at CPA Congress Business lunch. He says the pommel horse is the hardest gymnastic aparatus and when he first used it he nearly hurt himself.

CPA Australia's NSW Division General Manager Ron Switzer FCPA is asked to try the pommel horse

Brennon worked trirelessly for years mastering the pommel horse and managed to win a gold medal at the Commonwealth games when he was 18 years old. He was chosen as a 10 year old to attend the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra, he says not for his talent but his determination.

He shared with guests what the importance of laying great foundations. He says his success at mastering the pommel horse has been because he had laid great founations, meaning he could handle a hurdle and not slip too far.

Brennon demontrates one his many falls when laying foundations

David Gonski FCPA, Chairman of ASX among others, also shared his knowledge of success today. He spoke about leadership and the best and worst attributes in leaders he has observed over the years. Some of the keys to successful leadership he shared included having long term vision and focus.

David Gonski FCPA

David also pointed out the importance of vanity, appealing to it in others and putting your own in perspective. Some of his other points on leadership included the importance of thinking and challenging the staus quo; and integrity and honesty.

Day 4 of CPA Congress will see Rick Romanin FCPA, Company Secretary with Greyhound Australia take the stage and Tony Faure the former Chief Executive with Nine MSN among others.

Neil Walker memorial lecture – live video

Leadership and the public interest

Penny Armytage, Secretary of the Department of Justice, will speak about her experience leading internal change at the Department of Justice, building a whole-of-government culture, responding to government priorities, and supporting emerging and future leaders.

Live: 5.30pm – 6.30pm (Melbourne time) Wednesday 14 October

Watch the recorded video here.

Time to ask ’so what’?

Craig James, Chief Economist Commsec and Margaret McKerchar FCPA, NSW Division President CPA Australia

Day 2 at CPA Congress in NSW is drawing to close after a day when hundreds of finance professionals have heard from top speakers from across the globe at Darling Harbour Convention Centre.

Craig James caught everyone’s attention early in the morning by saying business professionals should ask “so what”? He suggests when confronted with any information such as economic conditions it’s important to consider how that relates to your business.

Alex Malley FCPA, CEO CPA Australia presenting at CPA Congress business lunch

Today’s business lunch brought a few laughs with three sporting personalities Geoff Huegill, Matthew Hayden and Andrew Gaze presenting a panel discussion on leadership. Although, conversation at one stage turned to Andrew Gaze’s talents on the dancefloor in the recent “Dancing with the Stars” series. All three personalities shared stories of success and it was clear that each have great passion and great support.

Hundreds turned out to hear the free community session for small business and NASA’s Risk Systems Manager, Dan Mulligan.

Tomorrow, day 3, will once again give delegates key insights into successful business practices and provide inspiration. Innovation will be highlighted by Michael Traill and Brennon Dowrick will share his story of beating adveristy after suffering injuries that held back his olympic career.

Vox pops from CPA Congress in Brisbane, Queensland

It’s a wrap for Queensland’s CPA Congress 2009!

The Sunshine State boasted an outstanding line-up of speakers – Dan Mulligan (NASA’s Risk Management Specialist), Rick Romanin FCPA (Company Secretary, Greyhound), Andrew Flannery (CFO, Flight Centre), Jonty Bush (Young Australian of the Year 2009), Scott Pape (The Barefoot Investor) and Noel Whittaker FCPA (bestselling author and one of Australia’s favourite money-managment gurus).

So what are people saying about this year’s Brisbane event?

The team at CPA Australia are roving at CPA Congresses across the nation to capture the buzz and hear the feedback.

Check out the great voxpops from Brisbane on You Tube:

Who knows, you might even spot yourself…

The baton is now handed to Melbourne and Sydney this week.

Enjoy!

Where’s my money? – Live video

Jason Cunningham, a young and dynamic business owner and accountant, shares his experience and insights about the world of finance and investment. Jason talks straight and calls it as he sees it. During this presentation he will discuss how to earn more money – and keep more of it.

Live: 2.30pm – 3.30pm (Melbourne time)

Watch recorded video here.

Take flight with CPA Congress in Victoria

CPA Congress has taxied up, is on the runway and will be taking off from Melbourne today!

Today will be jam packed with sessions that will make you want to plan your next holiday sooner rather than later.

First up is Keynote 1, ‘Rethinking the crisis- strategies to survive the economic turmoil’ with an excellent panel comprising Bruce Buchanan, CEO of Jetstar, Peter Switzer, financial commentator and Anne La Fontaine FCPA, Finance Director for Hewlett-Packard South Pacific.

After this morning’s sessions, our lunch guest speaker will have you hankering for some excitement and danger in your life. Matt McFadyen is an adventurer who was the youngest Australian to ski to the North Pole unassisted and has sailed to Antarctica on a 43 foot yacht across the most dangerous ocean on earth. He will no doubt inspire you to break out of your box and do something different, challenge yourself and test your limits.

Following this afternoon’s concurrent sessions, there is more travel. James Strong, AO will be delivering Keynote 2. He is Chairman of Woolworths Limited and Insurance Australian Group and Director of Qantas Airways and will discuss ‘The management challenge for Australia’ in what will be an enlightening and informative presentation from a business veteran with a very impressive list of achievements.

Don’t forget, this year CPA Congress is being held at the new Melbourne Convention Exhibition Centre at South Wharf, near the Polly Woodside. It’s impressive and classy and I guarantee you’ll enjoy the facilities as they are world class.

Don’t forget to follow CPA Congress on Twitter. Use the hashtag #cpacongress to send your own updates.

See you there!

Plenty for small business at CPA Congress

One of the highlights of the CPA Congress program in NSW this year is the free Small Business Community session, this has continued to be a successful event attracting a few hundred members and non-members.

CPA Australia recently released the results of an Asia-Pacific Small Business Survey that showed differing sentiment in different countries across the region. Small business operators in Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore and Australia took part in the survey.

The survey showed overall that throughout the region confidence is improving among small businesses. However, CPA Australia’s President Richard Petty FCPA noted that, ‘the results indicate that while there exists a general expectation that conditions will improve this sentiment is qualified in that many small business operators appear hesitant when it comes to obtaining extra funding or employing more staff.”

Can CPA Congress inspire small business confidence?

This year some truly inspirational commentators will be at Darling Harbour Convention Centre to share their stories, least of which is Rick Romanin FCPA. Rick will share the story of Greyhound Australia suffering because of low-cost airlines. He will relate how his company changed their fate by diversifying and recognising the need to respond to change.

This year’s community session includes a panel that will discuss the economic outlook for SME’s, share success stories, offer practical advice and answer questions on real business issues. The panel includes Amanda Gome from smartcompany.com.au, Stacey Lapping the co-founder of Remoov.com.au and Andrew Griffiths who is known as a serial entrepreneur.

Leadership, innovation and risk management are also key issues to be covered this year that affect finance professionals in any sector. There’s now less than a week until CPA Congress opens in Sydney, you can still register.

[2008] Improve the bottom line with behavioural education

Organisations that focus strongly on interpersonal skills learning are on average 27% more productive and enjoy 40% higher revenue growth than their competitors, according to a recent study by Accenture.

Ric Willmot says that his experience shows that great leadership is achieved by getting things done through others, which involves so many of the interpersonal skills that we all use every day. But, even if you can identify your own behaviour properly, you won’t change unless you’re willing.

To help companies leverage the inherent value in employees’ work styles, the Executive Wisdom Consulting Group uses the Social Style Model, a tool for understanding basic behaviours and their impact on others, and for building interpersonal skills in business settings. The Social Style Model divides human behaviour into two categories:
1.    Assertiveness and
2.    Responsiveness.

Assertiveness refers to the degree to which a person “asks” vs. “tells” during social interactions. The example Ric Willmot gives is: Do you quietly ask your colleagues, “Would you like to go to lunch?” or loudly announce, “Let’s go to lunch!”?

Contrarily, responsiveness refers to the degree to which a person is introverted vs. extroverted. If you’re angry, do you keep it to yourself or let everyone know how you feel?

Employees must not only have the ability to recognise their own work styles and those of others but be willing to change and adapt.

Ric Willmot will be sharing more about Social Styles at the Brisbane and Adelaide CPA Congresses.

[2008] CPA Congress Community – Why Join it?

Last week I posted about the CPA Congress Community, in that post I discussed what the community is. Today I’d like to talk about why you should join up. Here are several resons you should join the CPA Congress Community.

Networking

In his recent post on the CPA Congress Blog, Personal Brand and Networking Consultant David Dechro describes networking as “… relationship based, mutually beneficial and evolves over time”

Building your network means more than finding out someone’s name and where they work then never speaking to them again. Is about sharing and exchanging to the benefit of both. You could be sharing information, experience or even just ideas, the point is both you and the other person involved in the discussion are gaining something from the exchange.

The CPA Congress Community is a perfect conduit to continue the discussion away from the CPA Congress venue. Strike up a conversation with someone interesting in the seat next you? Why not catch up in the CPA Congress Community? While you are there you will not only be able to continue the discussion with the person you met at the event, but also connect and share with other delegates from all over Australia and the world.

Learning

With all of this sharing, connecting and exchanging going on, you are going to learn. Possibly learn a lot: listening to the perspectives of your peers may provide you with an insight into a problem you had not previously considered, it may direct you to an application, regulation, or source of information that you did not know existed. Learning from those that have done it before can be a powerful experience.

Give something

I believe that anyone can learn from discussing an issue with their peers, however there are those that have more experience than others. The CPA Congress Community provides you the opportunity to share the knowledge and experience you have gained with those that have not yet been there before. You may even find, through sharing your experience you look at a familiar situation in a completely different light.

Create opportunities

In many ways the old adage ‘it’s not what you know, it’s who you know’ is alive and well. The CPA Congress Community creates new opportunities to expand who you know. The member search tool allows you to search for other members of the community with similar interests (Remember you control how much of your information other members can view). Discussing a challenge or interest in the discussion forum and groups will also provide opportunities to discover common interests and challenges amongst the community. Sharing a solution to a problem you have faced my open a door to your next employment opportunity.

Each of these are valid reasons to connect and share with your peers, the key to remember is that the CPA Congress Community is not about a the latest techno gadgetry it is about the relationships you can establish with your fellow CPA Congress delegates. Log on to the community and see who is there, you may be surprised what you discover.

Mick Leyden
Project Executive – Knowledge Exchange
CPA Australia