The Audit Group’s flagship event returned to Chester for 2009 in response to feedback from delegates regarding its accessibility, facilities and the attractions of the historic city.

Hosted at the Queen Hotel, delegates enjoyed the benefits of the hotel's recent refurbishment with some high quality accommodation and excellent conference facilities.

Delegates were welcomed by Andy Waine from Salford, the newly appointed Chair of the Group, who promised the 114  attendees a weekend of high quality speakers, networking and entertainment.

The programme commenced with Regional President Martyn Kenyon, of Wigan MBC in a session entitled “Have we got the right focus? ” where the audience were challenged to consider the areas covered by their own audit service in relation to the key risks now facing most councils. He also suggested that complacency about the image and placement of the audit service will lead to low expectations from customers and will discourage investment in the service. His final quote of “it’s up to you” was shamelessly plagiarised from a popular song…

The Saturday sessions were opened by CIPFA’s National President, Caroline Mawhood, providing a view of CIPFA and the Audit Role, where she explained about CIPFA’s involvement in developing the framework for public sector auditing standards and initiatives to help develop audit services nationally. She finally provided a view on the importance of effective audit, particularly in the current economic climate.

Stan Dormer, of Mindgrove Training and Consultancy provided some useful ideas on how to identify project risks and, more importantly, how auditors can help to make sure those risks are properly managed. He also kept delegates entertained with tales of problems caused by poor project management – some of which have occurred consistently, for centuries, (which is why there will always be a need for internal auditors)

The final session was presented by Paul Haley of BHBi Internal Audit Specialists, providing a highly practical presentation on the various stages of an audit and how to ensure credibility of results and recommendations. His closing message left the audience heading for lunch whilst singing and dancing, an approach which is sure to cause consternation amongst our audit clients.

The afternoon was scheduled as free time but delegates were offered the opportunity to brush up on their dancing skills, as Judith Smith of the Audit Advisory Group put a small group  through their paces with a lesson in rock and roll dancing.  The fruits of her choreography efforts were on show later in the evening as the “come dancing” team provided a dazzling display of fancy footwork before an amazed audience.  Live music was also provided by the popular Lancashire party band the Funtime Frankies.

Despite the previous evening's intensive networking, the Sunday sessions began on time, to a full house, as Adrian Lythgo of KPMG provided the framework for ensuring effective auditing of public sector partnerships, exploring potential risks and the role of audit in making sure they are properly managed. Adrian’s ideas and slides were highly comprehensive and could form the basis of any audit report on partnerships -  a time saving which easily repays the investment in attending this conference.

The final session was provided by Paul Simpkins of Act Now Training and Consultancy who gave a useful insight into Auditing data protection and freedom of information, which has a chilling relevance in relation to the recent high profile data losses and the tensions between security, confidentiality and openness and accessibility.

Overall, a highly successful event with excellent speakers, facilities and entertainment, with a number of delegates travelling in from across the Pennines, such is the quality and vfm of the event.

The organisers express their thanks to the Hotel and their staff, event  sponsors (Sellick Partnership, John Barker (Consulting), PWC and KPMG), the speakers who had taken time out of their busy schedules, delegates for their interest and involvement, and employers for their ongoing support for the Group’s events.