Governance Center Meeting Season Starts in October

The fiscal year 2011 corporate governance conference season kicks off this October with our annual meeting in New York City and continues with Roundtable Forums and Crash Courses in several cities. Meanwhile, we will make an appearance at the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) National Audit Committee Forum next week in Washington, D.C.

The Roundtable Forums will focus on such issues as:

• How to design executive compensation programs that foster sustainable corporate growth while improving accountability and transparency.
• Best practices for managing institutional investor relationships, including how to communicate corporate policy changes successfully.
• The latest developments in the board’s oversight role, plus a review of prospective new regulations that will affect how boards and management must operate.
• Successfully managing major changes in corporate ownership, including private equity, hedge funds, and governmental entities.The dates and locations are:

November 10-11, 2010, New York, NY
February 9-10, 2011, Atlanta, GA
April 7-8, 2011, Chicago, IL
June 16-17, 2011, New York, NY

The Crash Courses will offer a critical self-assessment program for all executives in the governance area working in the offices of general counsel, corporate secretary, investor relations, and internal audit.

The dates and locations are:

January 20-21, 2011, New York, NY
June 8-9, 2011, New York, NY

To register for the events, click here or contact Brandi Mathis, Center manager, brandi.mathis@conference-board.org.

We will announce the exact date and location of our annual meeting for Governance Center members in the next couple of weeks.

As for the AICPA National Audit Committee Forum: Best Practices & Practical Applications, the Governance Center will have an informational booth set up at the July 29-30 event at the Mandarin Oriental hotel in Washington, D.C. There will be information on research and the directors education programs.

The event will feature such speakers as former SEC Commissioner Roel Campos speaking on the monitoring of corporate ethics by audit committees;  Lord Clive Hollick, a non-executive director, and Holly Gregory of Weil Gotshal & Manges speaking on international corporate governance trends; and Carl Berquist, CFO of Marriott Corp. speaking on ERM. It is expected there will be some discussion on financial reform since the legislation will exempt small public companies from Sarbanes-Oxley 404 (b), make auditors of broker-dealers subject to Public Company Accounting Oversight Board regulation and change registration requirements for investment advisers.

Governance Center members and readers of this blog can get a $200 discount for the event by using the coupon code SWF when registering. The registration link is here. For more information about the event, contact Sandra McMahon at the AICPA at 919-402-4861.

- Gary Larkin