AFOA Canada will be hosting its Inaugural International Indigenous Conference in Vancouver.
AFOA Canada will be hosting its Inaugural International Indigenous Conference at the Vancouver Convention Centre in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada from October 2 to 5, 2017.
Background
AFOA Canada has hosted seventeen annual national conferences and will be hosting the Inaugural International Indigenous Conference in partnership with Deakin Business School, Indigenous Accountants Australia, Nga Kaitatau Maori o Aotearoa (National Maori Accountants Network) and NAFOA (Native American Finance Officers Association).
This is the premier event for the exchange of knowledge and information on Aboriginal finance, management and leadership. It is an important venue for Indigenous financial professionals, Chief Administrators/Executive Officers, Program and Business Managers, Chiefs, Tribal Council members, Government representatives and consultants working with Indigenous communities to explore emerging strategies and tools to enhance finance, management and leadership in Indigenous communities and organizations.
Attendees
Delegates to the conference include professionals, practitioners, executives and stakeholders working with Indigenous communities and organizations from around the world. Specifically:
- Financial Professionals
- Financial executives, managers, officers and administrators
- Trust Officers
- Aboriginal business owners
- Senior Management
- Chief Administrative Officers and Chief Executive Officers
- Band Managers/Administrators
- Senior management, program and business managers
- Elected and Appointed Leaders
- Chief and Councillors
- Community Leaders and Elected Representatives
- Board of Directors
- Corporate Canada
- Management consultants
- Financial Institutions and Accounting firms
- Economic development officers
- Resource Companies
- Education Institutions
- Educational Institutes and Stakeholders
- Academic leaders, students and Aboriginal Youth
- Government
- Federal and Provincial government representatives
The theme of the 2017 International Conference is Building Sustainable Communities by Strengthening International Networks.
Guidelines for Abstracts
Tell us about an initiative, project or program and how it contributes towards creating and maintaining a sustainable community through an economic, social or cultural means. How does it help to educate and develop capacity for your leadership and/or governance? Is it a local, regional, national or international initiative and are you partnering with federal, provincial or municipal governments, corporate Canada, educational institutions, non-profits or other Indigenous organizations? Tell us how your community or organization is actively demonstrating best practices that contribute to building a sustainable community? Do you have a success story to share and from which we can all learn from?
The presentation descriptions should contain no more than 250 words. Presentations should fit into one of the following five tracks and be relevant to the conference theme:
- Financial Management – Best practices and trends in Indigenous Financial Management and Accounting
- Business Trade and Development – Featuring success stories in community business trade and development
- Leadership – Trends and governance success stories
- Community Administration – Best practices and trends in Indigenous Management
- Healthy Workplace (Human Resources) – Creating healthy work environments that reflect Aboriginal culture
Where applicable, presentations should address:
- Issues that affect a particular aspect of finance and/or management;
- Case Studies especially lessons learned AND the lessons obvious to you; and
- Innovative Solutions both proven and potential, to the issues faced in any area of Finance
and/or Management
Presentation format:
- Concurrent workshops of 75 or 90 minutes of an in-depth nature and that allow for at least 20 to 25 minutes for Q and A; and
- Workshops work well with different perspectives on the issue i.e. more than 1 presenter, but not exceeding 3 presenters. Please provide in your abstract the names, titles, Community or organization name, telephone and email address of the suggested presenters.
Selection Criteria
The Program Committee will review all presentations – selection will be based on the following criteria:
- Topic and relevance to the conference theme and participant base;
- Focus on future trends and lessons learned (what worked AND what didn't) and recommended
solutions to common issues; - Speaker's expertise, knowledge and ability to challenge delegates;
- Presentation experience of speaker;
- Workshop balanced with sufficient practical information (i.e. 'here's how this can be applied to…');
- Presenters will refrain from taking the opportunity to use the workshop as a commercial for their own services or products (no marketing); and
- Provide objective and fair information to participants based on effective practices
Important note: If your abstract is selected and you are invited to deliver a workshop at the 2017 International Conference, you must submit a copy of the presentation in electronic format ie. PowerPoint and the biographies of the workshop speakers by Friday, August 25, 2017.
Deadline for Submissions
The deadline for submissions is Wednesday, March 15, 2017 at 4:30 pm EDT. The submissions should be prepared in Word format. Please send your submissions by email to George Rogerson, AFOA Canada Conference Secretariat at george@chelsea-group.net.
Compensation
Speakers will be provided with a complimentary registration to the full conference, including admission to all sessions, the exhibit area, receptions and meals (3 lunches and 1 dinner).
Note: All speakers are responsible for expenses related to their travel and accommodation and all other expenses related to their participation at the conference.
Contact Information
If you have any questions about the Call for Presentations, please contact George Rogerson at george@chelsea-group.net or telephone 819-827-5168 or toll free at 866-775-1817 or Sheila Howard at showard@afoa.ca or telephone 613-722-5543 or toll free at 866-722-2362.