Following on from the success of last year's "New Horizons" full day, in person event, the Community of Finance Professionals are excited to announce our next event, "Towards the Horizon". This will be another full day, in person event where we have some terrific speakers lined up to set the scene on the next steps in our finance future.

We have the following speakers locked in and are in discussions with more potential presenters

Daniel Mookhey, NSW Treasurer - Daniel was elected to the Parliament of NSW on 6 May 2015 as a Member of the Legislative Council. As Treasurer since March 2023, Daniel has delivered two budgets, with a focus on helping the people of NSW with the cost of living, fixing essential services, addressing the housing crisis and driving reform to get the state budget back to a sustainable position. He has done this at a challenging time for the people of NSW with high inflation and interest rates affecting both family budgets and the state budget.
Michael Coutts-Trotter, Secretary NSW Treasury - Michael was first appointed to head a NSW Government department in 2004 and has since led seven agencies. He was appointed Secretary of the NSW Treasury on 22 May 2023, following his appointment as Acting Secretary on 14 April 2023. Before joining the public service, Michael was chief of staff to a NSW Treasurer for seven years. Michael is a fellow of the Institute of Public Administration of Australia
Bola Oyetunji, NSW Auditor General - Bola was previously Group Executive Director – Financial Statements Audit Service Group and Group Head – Systems Assurance and Data Analytics Group at the Australian National Audit Office. He also had a long and successful period in senior roles at the Audit Office of NSW.
Paul Andon, UNSW, Head of Accounting, Audit and Taxation - Paul has over 25 years of experience as an accounting practitioner, educator, and researcher. Paul's educational expertise concentrates on developing curriculum and teaching approaches for management/accounting courses in MBA, coursework Masters, and Bachelor Programs. Paul has also had previous involvement in developing and delivering resources for the CA Program.
Plus we'll have a session on the future of finance technology where we'll hear in a panel discussion about how AI technologies such as MS Copilot can be leveraged in our work environments. Following the panel discussion, experts from SumProduct, will provide practical demonstrations on leveraging AI and MS Excel to streamline financial tasks, share tips and tricks for maximizing the efficiency of financial operations using AI, and present case studies showcasing successful implementations of AI in finance. By the end of this session, participants will have a deeper understanding of the transformative potential of AI and other emerging technologies in the finance sector.

Format: This event will be held at the University of NSW, John Niland Scientia Building, Leighton Hall. This will be an in person only event. The event will not be recorded or streamed.

Date and Time: The event will be on Friday 11 October. Registrations open from 9.00am, with sessions underway from 9.30am and continue until 4.30pm.

This event will be open to sector members, regardless of your location across the state. We welcome our state, local and federal public sector members as well as the university sector to join us.

For the accountants out there, earn your CPD hours for Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand and CPA Australia by attending this FREE event.

For those not already member, or those after more information about the Community of Finance Professionals, you can find more information and join here.

Contact the host of Towards the Horizon, the next steps in a public sector finance future