"Impressive and inspiring, it was!"

The IIA and AuditPeople organized a knowledge session on December 15, titled: IT, adopt or die? After all, as an Internal Auditor, you can no longer avoid IT. You'd better embrace it. And so no fewer than 70 participants braved the flu epidemic and traveled to De Vorstin pop podium in Hilversum.

After the kickoff by AuditPeople host Sander van Oosten, IT trend watcher Sander Duivestein took over the stage. In one hour he flashed through the most relevant IT developments; what we already seem to be in the middle of and what will soon come our way. A succession of developments followed. About self-learning robots and robots that already act as board members in some companies, with equal voting rights.

Deeper discussions focused on developments such as blockchain and bitcoins and the risks that are changing as a result. Sander also confronted attendees with the likelihood that current jobs will disappear, or at least undergo major changes. You should have been there to see the effect, but the impact of the technological developments presented made a big impression on most attendees.

Then Ilona Eichhorn, former Dutch debating champion and trainer of many a politician, picked up the thread. The room was still recovering noticeably. But soon the auditors in attendance showed their resilience! First impressions were exchanged at the tables and shortly afterwards ideas arose about how the Internal Audit function could deal with (the speed of) all technological developments.

This was followed by a short interlude. Using short film clips, Ilona demonstrated that famous speakers such as Martin Luther King, Obama and Geert Wilders use relatively simple but highly effective presentation techniques. Ilona handed out four of those techniques. The participants soaked up this knowledge, realizing that the techniques can also be used in auditing practice, when delivering a message convincingly.

The afternoon ended in an apotheosis. One in which the participants, on stage, spoke like Martin Luther King. Using the learned presentation techniques, they took turns to briefly and powerfully explain how the added value of Internal Audit can be maintained in the violence of all technological developments. The audacity and content of the powerful presentations garnered applause from the audience. They also made the attendees happily hopeful about the future of our profession.

At the bar, there were long conversations about this both impressive and inspiring knowledge session.

 

AuditPeople (www.auditpeople.nl) is a specialty service provider that provides internal audit functions with capacity and expertise.