From Mike Jacka, Senior Audit Manager, Farmers Insurance Group:
While attending the Washington, D.C., International conference in 2002, the news broke about WorldCom. First, considering the historical events that were occurring, it validated much of what we had been hearing as internal auditors during the conference. However, more memorable may have been watching The IIA move to action after that announcement. Being involved in the committees, I got the chance to watch The Institute take immediate action on an issue that was not only important at the time, but helped us reach the prominence we have today.
But maybe the more important memory is my first International Conference in Phoenix in 1991. It was my first real experience with everything that was going on in the internal audit arena, and it seemed that I was getting new ideas at every single session. I left with a new excitement for the profession and for implementing the ideas I’d heard. In general, that is what I’ve seen with the international conferences — the opportunity to discover new ideas and concepts that can directly apply to the direction in which our audit department wants to go. Some of those are tactical, some are strategic, but all of the ideas have been used to make our department better.
After attending International Conferences for a number of years and being involved at the international level with The IIA, part of the reason I go is to see old friends. Another reason is to visit new areas of the world. But the ultimate reason is to get new, actionable ideas. In fact, a small group of us have gotten together before this year’s conference and made a pact — at the end, each of us will have identified one specific idea, concept, or approach that we see as providing the most value to our situation within internal auditing. We will then hold each other accountable to take that idea and put it into action through the remainder of the year.
