Meeting new faces and connecting with old ones is always a key focus at the conferences; the activities chosen up in the Canadian mountains did well to bond members together; go-karting (congratulations to Roberto Piazzo for winning the cup); golf; white water rafting; the spa or general  mountain walking gave plenty of time for delegates to get to know each other – competitively or in team spirit.

The conference was delighted to welcome the outside speakers, including LGen.  The Hon. Romeo Dallaire who gave a fascinating talk on The New Leadership – A Humanistic Approach.  On the technical side, Jerry Cytryn introduced the topic on Social Media and David Blumentals updated delegates on the developments of Cloud Computing.

For the first time the International Conference held a concurrent Tax and Audit forum which proved to be very popular, as were the small break-out sessions including Martin Clapson’s strategy review on practice management and more generally what members want from IAPA. 

Simon Blake gave a presentation on the Corporate Finance Group and Dieter Sohr updated the audience on news from the Membership Committee, welcoming Marion MacDonald, Hilborn Ellis Grant, Canada, as a new member of the team.   The speed-networking has been requested again for future conferences by many members, although sitting down next time!

During the AGM, we were pleased to also welcome Debra Hunter to the International Board as representative  of the Americas Chapter, with Roger Werner stepping down.

And finally, the future conferences; Amsterdam for the 2012 European Conference (25-26 May), Chicago the US (22-24 June) and Tel Aviv for the International event (28 October – 1 November).