2023 Annual Conference Sessions: Business Process Improvement
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Sessions for Sunday, May 21
Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Government
Artificial intelligence (AI) will someday be ubiquitous in government operations. Should workers be threatened? No. This session will focus on the benefits of AI and its limits. Speakers will discuss the evolution of AI and its potential impacts on local government. Case studies where AI has been implemented will be presented. Attendees will walk away with a better understanding of AI, why human interaction is still important, and how successful organizations in the future will manage AI to make better decisions.
The Customer is Always Right: Applying Lean Process Improvement to Government
Lean Process Improvement focuses on identifying and removing unnecessary waste in business processes and systems. For many, this is often not easy and changing "the way we've always done it" takes focus, leadership, and effort. In this session, speakers will highlight how governments have benefited from a lean approach focusing on customers to improve outdated processes, implement new technology, work more effectively with other departments, and deliver better results for the public.
Sessions for Monday, May 22
Miracle Pill: Practical Solutions to Fix Your Hiring Process
Struggling to recruit qualified candidates to apply for your vacant positions? Does it seem like your burdensome hiring process makes it difficult to land your top candidates? GFOA knows the ability to hire new employees quickly is critical for all areas of government, but especially for finance. Join this session to uncover common sense strategies for streamlining your hiring process, build a better working relationship with the human resources department, and develop a strategy for avoiding errors many governments make in recruiting talent.
Building a Data-Driven Finance Office
At some point, it’s likely that every government has wanted to become more "data-driven." Adopting a data-driven approach to decision making can result in better outcomes for the community, improved accountability, and increased efficiency, but doing so is often easier said than done. Where do you start? How do you get people on board with the idea? What data do you use? This panel discussion will address these questions and more to help you start building a data-driven finance office and will provide case study examples of how data has improved outcomes in various areas of decision making in the finance office.
Leadership Workshop – Common Sense Improvements to the Budget Process
The budget process is often referred to as the most consequential in government. However, many staff in government find the steps that organizations go through to create the budget as time consuming, confusing, and outdated. Worse, many approach the process as an experience to survive missing out on great opportunities to innovate and collaborate. Fortunately, there is a better way and all finance officers can learn simple strategies for process improvement that can be applied to their budget process. In this session, join Brian Elms in an interactive workshop to break down key components of the budget process and apply proven process improvement strategies to eliminate waste, achieve better outcomes, and become a leader (and hero) in your organization.
Interactive leadership workshops are limited to 250 individuals per workshop and requires pre-registration.
Under the Microscope: Strategies for Effective Performance Audits
Local government finance professionals know financial audits well, but performance audits may be less common at your government. During this session, leadership from the Association of Local Government Auditors (ALGA) will discuss common misconceptions with performance audits, how they really work, what finance officers can do to establish an audit function within the organization and how they can be used as an important tool for governments looking to get results, use budget funding more effectively, and build stronger organizations. Speakers will provide case studies of past audits and how information from the audit was presented and used by staff to drive improvements—not blame.
