Global And Local Professional Bodies Pledge Support To Global Audit Conference In Dubai

Global and local professional bodies to pledge their association and support to the largest audit professional's conference in Dubai.

Dubai is hosting the world's largest International audit conference in May 2018 under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, UAE's Vice-President and Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai.
Addressing select representatives of the professional and industry bodies in Dubai on Sunday, Khalid Al Halyan, Vice Chairman of the UAE Internal Auditors, said: "The support and participation of the global and local professional bodies are vital to the success of the conference. The benefits are going to be mutual. The members and the associates of the professional bodies will have access to a number of educational sessions on current and emerging issues and trends, ranging from business sustainability, information security, and governance to risk, fraud, and corruption. They will have the chance for knowledge sharing as well as opportunity to learn the industry best practices from global leaders in respective fields and specialisation which will enable them to address common challenges."

Ayesha Bin Lootah, UAE IAA Board Member, encouraged key collaboration with global and local professional bodies to achieve welcoming 3000+ delegates to this international conference.
"The Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA) Global, along with the UAE Internal Auditors Association (IAA), will hold the high profile global conference with the theme "Connecting the World Through Innovation," at the Dubai International Convention and Exhibition Centre from May 6 to 9, 2018, featuring more than 100 global speakers in over 70 sessions and more than 3,000 professionals from 110 countries," she said.
"We aim to meet the highest global standards and at the UAE Internal Auditors Association, our mission is to provide dynamic leadership to advocate and promote the profession of internal auditing throughout the UAE," she said.

"We are committed to provide you a distinct and a world class educational journey, rich with insights from the industry; from emerging global concepts, digital transformation and disruption, business sustainability, information security, dynamic internal auditing...etc. The program is designed to cater to having something for everyone; from Chief audit executives, Audit committee members, Internal auditors, IT audit directors, IT audit managers and staff, Internal audit providers, Educators, Corporate  managers, Risk managers, and Compliance professionals," she said.

"We believe that we have a strong tie up with global and local professional bodies; and we can make this conference a greater success by leveraging from the relationship with our partners" she added. 
Mr Michael G W Armstrong, MEASA Regional Director of ICAEW Middle East, the Middle East chapter of the Institute of Chartered Accounts of England and Wales (ICAEW), said: "The importance of Dubai holding the conference is very significant. It's part of the UAE's ambition to enhance professional standards in business and finance. The ICAEW is very much appreciating the opportunity to contribute and attend this important conference which has ten educational tracks dealing with emerging trending issues."

"Local professionals and businesses will benefit significantly. Businesses are going to have strong growth aspirations in the coming years.  It is important that professional accountants and people in business play their role to achieve the strong aspirations," he added.

Dr. Ashraf Gamal El Din, CEO, Hawkamah (Institute for Corporate Governance) said about the cooperation with UAE IAA: "Hawkamah is pleased to cooperate with the IAA in organizing a special session on the role of audit committees in a changing world. The session is to have leading global and regional heads and members of audit committees who will discuss what the audit committees can do to support corporate changes that respond to the new challenges posed by technology and new business models".
Mr Adnan Zaidi, Partner & Middle East Assurance Clients & Markets Leader, PWC, said: "We are one of the strategic partners of the conference. The conference is once in a generation and is happening for the first time in the Middle East and North Africa region. We believe this to be the biggest conference ever for the internal auditors. We want to be associated with it and support it."

"This conference will educate people about what is coming around the horizon, so that people can get prepared and go back to their offices and think about what is coming in the future, get trained up or start evaluation of what's coming up in the future." He said.

"There are conferences within the conference for the board members. Different topics will be covered and one of the key ones linked to the theme of the conference, "Connecting the World Through Innovation" is digitalisation. So there can be lots of interest in artificial intelligence, Blockchain, cyber and data analytics," he added.

Mr Ahmed Qurram Baig, Founder and CEO of CISO Council, said: "The conference will enable the CIOs (chief information officers) to keep up with upcoming trends in cyber security, and how to ensure technological and cyber security resilience. Chief Information Security Officers are also expected to understand the continuously evolving audit methodology; It's no more once a year audit. Today you have dynamic audit and  the auditors believe in adding value rather than just giving an audit findings report."

"Our mantra is very simple, like we say we talk about 'Connect, Collaborate, Contribute and Grow', and the theme of the conference is 'connecting the world through innovation'. So, we get a chance to connect our community, our members, with the audit community as well as the other representatives from the executive world. So it could be a good opportunity for them to understand what's happening on the audit side and it could also be a good thing for them to attend because there is a dedicated track on digital transformation and information security."
IIA is the internal audit profession's most widely recognized advocate, educator, and provider of standards, guidance, and certifications. Established in 1941, the IIA today serves more than 190,000 members from more than 170 countries and territories.

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