Hello and welcome to the podcast Listeners, we're breaking in here with a little bit of an update for you as you're listening to the podcast We want to make sure you had all the most current info about this event So with that we have Bobby Joe and Bert right here. We're gonna give you some updates So Bobby Joe, please go ahead and give us some updates on that time and location and all that good stuff Thank you Paul So yes originally our AGA affirm ear and workshop was going to be held in person in June We have pivoted as many of us have in the federal government space over the last few months and we are Holding the event virtually so completely virtually Wednesday January 14th. So coming up very soon We will be having still all the exciting speakers that and sessions that Bert will go through in a minute Just like our previously recorded podcast information, but wanted to alert everyone that is virtually all virtual Wednesday January 14th Hoping this opens it up to our friends in the risk management ear and space that is that are not local to DC So hopefully we can you know expand expand our registration and attendees so we can have more of you involved So with that, I'm gonna hand it over to Bert. Yeah, thank you, Bobby Joe and we're excited as Bobby Joe mentioned It will be a virtual session So we will begin at 9 a.m.
And the program goes to 3 45 p.m And we have some great sessions lined up first is going to we're gonna be talking about AI governance managing AI risk by policies capabilities and tools and we have confirmed speaker Dr. Cliff Raffi from the University of Maryland will be kicking that session off Next we have success stories in implementing ERM across the government and here we're going to be hearing from Karen Weber with the Department of Treasury Curtis McNeil with the architect of the Capitol and Erica Gaddy with the Bureau of Fiscal Service of the US Department of Treasury And then what we will be doing Is that we will be having table room discussion? So it's an intimate opportunity to to work as a smaller group And to to talk about what we've learned at the previous sessions and then after the table discussion We will be having a session on integrating integrated ERM concepts to helping reducing proper payments And we have Dan flavon from the GAO who is going to present presenting a report on improper payments and what GAO has learned and Presenting some best practices and how agencies can use ERM to help mitigate and reduce improper payments We are also going to be hearing from Melinda Miguel who is the inspector general with the state of Florida and now the Ivy who is with NIST and they will be talking about incorporation of cyber threats into ERM So talking about some new guidance that is out from this that speaks to cyber security risk and ERM And then to close up the day we will be talking about change management and how agencies are Adapting and utilizing ERM in the change management process And so we have speakers for that session are going to be Chris Mem and Dan Chinook And so we've got a great program once again. It is Wednesday January 14th from 9 a.m.
To 3 45 p.m. Eastern Standard Time And we look forward to the opportunity to have you all there and there is information available on both a firm As well as AGA's website to sign up. Thank you so much. I'll turn it back to you Paul Alright, let's go back to Bobby Joe.
Thank you for one more shot here. Sure. I just wanted one more plug to put some Wednesday January 14th Five and a half DPE that still remains unchanged $160 and we really really look forward to seeing you all so please register as soon as possible And we hope to see you virtually in the new year. So back to you Paul.
Alright and back to our regularly scheduled program Alright, well, we have a couple of return guests in the studio today Because we're gonna be talking all about the AGA firm ERM three acronyms in a row workshop coming up soon So we have again in the studio Bert and Bobby Joe. How are you guys doing doing? Well? Thanks for inviting us Absolutely nice to see folks in person.
So just maybe just remind our guests who you are and you've been here several times Maybe even just talk about what your role is in this whole event. Maybe Bert you want to kick us off I'd be happy to so Bert nearing I'm a partner with Crow and I had the honor to be a chair of the prior ERM workshop and co-chair of the upcoming workshop Alright, yeah, Bobby Joe pinkage one of the ERM leaders at guide house and bert took me under his wing And so I'm the chair of the workshop this year with bert's help. Alright, nice collaboration. I like it All right.
Well, why don't we just kick it off? So, you know, we've had several of these over the years It's a nice, you know collaborative effort with the two organizations and Maybe I think I wanted to start with just talking a little bit about last years and then we'll jump at them this year So maybe bert do you want to remind us all about what happened last year? Absolutely So on June 6th of 2024 the AGA as well as the association of for federal enterprise risk management ERFIRM held the eight annual enterprise risk management workshop and This workshop as it has over the years combines active dialogue and engaging presentations brought together by government professionals who lead ERM integration within their agencies and the whole goal of the workshop is to bring strategies as well as integrating ERM concepts and also techniques to better manage government programs and initiatives through enterprise risk management So we had several sessions that we will that Bobby Joe and I will talk about here today And we opened up with a with a keynote and we also had a session on technology and artificial intelligence Broad risk management requirements supporting a broader risk management agenda where the second was the second session We also talked about driving value through managing risks in a changing and evolving organization Which is still true and even more so true as we look at current the current environment And then understanding the ways to support value through management with ERM so utilization of management with ERM So the workshop event was well attended and highlighted various areas of interest to both public as well as private sectors and it also provided participants with a good way to understand how to better mobilize their resources and Look at their current approach better understand how that approach could change and how they can address challenges that A company very complex areas around enterprise risk management the format of the workshop as it has been in the past was There would be a an opening or there would be speaker dialogue Then was followed up by table discussion by the participants Which we have found to be very beneficial to the folks that attended because they have that practical Understanding from the speakers that they can apply at the table in their small group discussions From that discussion then leads to a report and at the end of the session we'll talk about how you Listening to this you might find that report both on aga as well as a firm's website. That's right We'll put some links up for sure.
You guys can check it all out. Yeah, thanks Paul and I'll start with the keynote session, which I think was very fitting to the discussion To really set things off at the workshop and the keynote was entitled the dinner party getting the right experts at the table and the presentation was by Two representatives from the veterans health administration Tracy Davis Bradley PhD who is the chief integrity and compliance officer and executive director at vha as well as nadily nadily bulger director with vha's risk management group and Their their session really talked about getting those people at the table through understanding their audience And fostering a strong relationships as being crucial to implementing erm And that can help address many of the intricacies and complexities that you might face as you're bringing diverse teams together to really explore erm and to really Implement erm goals views as well as the perspectives of those various folks Second major item that they talked about was accounting for and addressing various various levels of erm And that is so important to really go to the session where an erm is meant to be very interactive very You know very engaging and without getting those people's perspectives and helping them to understand the importance of erm You maybe lose that that perspective so you don't get the participation that you want you also You may not have the ability to help them understand the vision for erm and why it's important for them to participate The other element of this is the kind of on the softer side is focusing on interpersonal skills that you need to bring as a leader in the risk management team and Understanding your strengths and other strengths as well as where areas that maybe need a little more understanding and and work to help the people understand the importance of the enterprise risk management program Understanding the the impact that they have on the organization's risk profile As well as making sure that they feel included as a part of this this effort. So it's Important to have those correct Approaches through strong active listening Making sure that you're flexible in your approach and making sure that you have those Relationship skills to really relate to people and so that's an effort that you know Just doesn't happen as you're you know as you you know get together once or twice for an interactive session is really building that that relationship over time And so the final area that they really talked about was just really looking at the consistency of erm and risk management practices across the agency Making sure that they had the approach in a standard way that could really help people understand the terminology Also understand the processes that the organization goes through in Incorporating the enterprise risk management process into the business processes within the organization and the way they put it You know at the dinner party is to help bring erm to life and it's and it really is equating that to When you're when you're sitting down at the table to eat you really need to have everything prepared You need to be ready for people to um partake in that activity right? Yeah, it's a good way of putting it.
Yeah, it's definitely a difficult job leading those kind of organizations bringing all those people to the table You know making it work. Okay. Well great. So that was that was basically the keynote.
That was a key note of this session Yeah, so I'll turn over to Bobby Joe to talk about some of the other Sessions that we had last year definitely and I thought Tracy and Natalie did a great job kind of setting the stage They brought in a m&m activity to really bring the dinner table Uh, you know aspect in and and got the the tables kind of moving around to discuss and meeting each other Which is a a real big benefit of this workshop where it's one of the only activities or sessions I know that our small intimate tables and we have table discussions afterwards and you really get to meet meet the folks at your table and have You know exchange the virtual business cards if you will and get to know everybody So I thought they did a great job. We had four other um really great sessions the first one being technology and artificial intelligence We had um adam awaki director of office of planning performance and risk from fhwa and we had another one of her colleagues from fhwa Fhfa excuse me john major and he's the risk management compliance branch chief And so they really talked about technologies role in supporting the ongoing maturation of erm And the capabilities that you know artificial intelligence and other technologies really can bring forward to the enterprise risk management table Like burt kind of mentioned where we're not just risk management practitioners, but you know ci-os it HR folks To really bring the enterprise nature of risk management to life One notable thing that they talked about was in-depth analysis regarding the potential of AI and methods for effectively incorporating This state of the art and constantly changing technology to improve organizational operations without causing disruption And so they spent a lot of their times talking about the transformation power of modern technologies How robotic process automation or rpa automating the mundane tasks driving insights and efficiency So it was really a good technology focus for maybe the non-tech folks in the audience And for this one too, we had a table discussion afterwards And so what we try to do for these workshops is have at least two table discussions after a session So session one for the technology and artificial intelligence. We had a really lively 45 minute discussion at the tables had Some table facilitators ask some some really thought-provoking questions and a really good in-depth review in the Research paper that that burt mentioned on the artificial intelligence Session two was fraud risk management and it was the requirement supporting a broader risk management agenda We had some great three great speakers Johanna Ayers forensic audits and investigative services from GAO GED bers E.R.M. lead from the federal trans administration and then Joe Pica who's director of division of payment integrity improvement for US Department of health and human services they touched on who's responsible for integration efforts around enterprise risk management payment integrity or improper payment reviews and fraud risk management and where to start the integration of fraud risk management Enterprise risk management some problems they've encountered and success stories they've had around those integration efforts and some tools that they're Particularly using in this in this combination of fraud risk management and enterprise risk management They focused on efforts that you put forward for maybe a fraud risk management activity So in some cases there's different offices focusing on fraud risk management Activities, but they focused on you know if you're spending the effort at the time the people to develop your fraud risk management Kind of office or activities what you can use to leverage that in your enterprise activity So you're kind of integrating that in enterprise risk management So I thought that was really insightful and you know we had some fraud risk management practitioners in the audience And then you know a lot of us enterprise risk management folks as well Yeah, very interesting Session three we were driving value through managing risk in a changing and evolving organization So we had Jason Bruno director of the Bureau of Trust funds administration and was the affirm president last year Um, we had paul bick dowel risk management specialist for us aid and then that was facilitated or moderated by um, Antonio cromby So this one focused on changing technologies and managing risk Evolving the workforce to meet the technological technological changes risk management times of leadership changes and then shaping the future of risk management And a broad aspect as well as enterprise risk management something they talked about was generative AI So it was a very technology focused just couldn't get away from it So generative gen AI as a common tech resource how it poses challenges as well as opportunities to all facets of the government So state local federal and really needing the ability to manage the pace and scale of change And so they kind of leveraged a little bit about session one about the technology and artificial intelligence Um really and how to you know drive value through managing your risks in a constantly changing and evolving evolving organization And I think we're we're there currently as well.
Yes interesting because gen AI has changed a bunch in just one year I mean, you know how much it can do compared to 24 now, it's just amazing And bert will talk a little bit about maybe one of the sessions we're having in 2025 that might touch a little bit On this as well, and this one also had a table discussion So in our report you can read, you know the thoughts about um, I think we had maybe at least 20 different organizations Represented at the at the workshop. So kind of broke them apart into different tables So some really good feedback about what some organizations are doing with AI or not doing with with gen AI The final session of that of the 2024 workshop was supporting value-based management with enterprise risk management So we had Deborah Delmar who was a senior FM systems advisor from the u.s. Department of Defense and ossif Khan director of GAO And the real focus of this was the management of any organizational needs whether it's enterprise risk management or risk management Just the organization in general to deliver value to a variety of stakeholders require strategically balancing results resources and risks And they had a really good graphic that they put on screen and um talked about those three kind of Three legs of a stool if you will on how to strategically balance results resources and risks. So very good discussion Nice.
All right. Well, and I just said that's we have the report on that too, right? So we do we do so we'll get that to you Paul maybe you can put that link in and it's on aga as well as a firm's website as well Perfect. All right.
Well, um, well now we're moving into 25 So, uh, you know kind of if you guys can give us a little preview of what's what's coming up for sure So this will be our ninth annual workshop as a reminder bert went over a little bit of the of the structure But we're holding it in person at the Hyatt Regency downtown on Wednesday june fourth Approximately 9 a.m. To 4 p.m. It'd be a similar structure. We'll have a kind of a keynote intro and four sessions two table discussions As a reminder, it's open to government attendees so state local federal kind of making it a more intimate Kind of workshop and it is $160 for a full day of workshop training and you get five and a half cpe's So there's the plug if you need some some good training good discussion topics and cpe's are always a good a good bonus So I will go over two of the sessions that we plan on holding the first one being success stories and implementing erm across the government We thought at this kind of time of change some success stories or good news stories might be a a good way of Highlighting all the great things that the enterprise risk management community and risk management community across the government Is doing so this session will highlight the positive outcomes that have come from implementing erm programs across the government Different opportunities that have been identified and maybe capitalized on the impact erm programs have had on various government agencies The presenters plan to discuss some real-life case studies focusing on how their organizations effectively implemented erm identified and mitigated risks So risks across their agencies and risks and opportunities within their erm programs as well and how they have achieved positive business outcomes So for this one first session one, I'm sorry for the erm across the government success stories We have three great speakers who are going through the process of getting approved So we will keep their names, you know to ourselves for now But um really great representatives across the different branches of government and the second one that I'd like to go over is change management So change management across federal agencies and their employees As we all know facing significant changes presenting both challenges and opportunities to better align efforts with public needs I think it's a very timely topic if managed well, it could be very successful To move forward past policies must be adjusted effective change management starts with understanding the goal of delivering maximum value as stakeholders Which also involves balancing risks Resources and results so a little bit we may be plopping up that uh that three leg stool type of diagram again But we will have new speakers and in much more change and opportunities that just has happened within the last year The session will explore how to set strategic goals that balance these three factors and break them down into actionable objectives We do have two great speakers confirmed Um, chris nim former ga.
Oh, I think a lot of folks know and then dan chanak. So, um, it is going to be a great session um About opportunities and and risks and with that i'll pass it over to bert to talk about our other two Yes, thank you, bobby joe and so we we also have a couple other sessions that wanted to give you some advanced Information about and the first one of that is ai governance and we're going to be talking about managing ai risk via policies capabilities and tools and Paul you mentioned earlier that you know as as technology evolves and artificial has it Artificial intelligence has really evolved and created various industries outside of the federal government that have you know that can bring These particular types of tools to the federal government as well as government in as a whole and really erm can help governments with regards to looking at ethical and effective effective deployment of these tools developing the right policies Understanding how to incorporate data privacy activities into those particular tools as well as looking at providing the transparency and accountability for decision makers as they as they look at and evolve future uses of ai within the organization itself and we are Um, we have a great speaker from academia Dr. Clifford rossy from the University of Maryland as well as we are working on as by bobby joe's mentioned We're working on a federal speaker to get clearance for this for the session But it'll be a great session in looking at how to incorporate these particular techniques and capabilities within your organization around ai And I like to look at it ai is coming whether we like or not Uh, ai is here. We're use it all the time whether we realize it or not And so understanding that through an erm lens is really important.
We feel to uh to collaborate on The next area that we we are going to be just including as a session is integration of erm concepts to help reduce improper payments and This session will really explore Understanding the root causes of improper payments across the government and how implementing those concepts can help reduce improper payment rates And that can be done through a successful erm program Looking at the strategies that that folks have implemented at their agencies to reduce improper payments while leveraging strong erm programs and concepts and uh Or this session we are working on confirming two speakers But we do have one of those two confirmed and dan flavon from gao who is uh, very knowledgeable and improper payments will be presenting Information from recent gao studies on improper payments and uh, we'll incorporate that into the into the process itself of understanding how to Utilize erm in the practice of managing improper payments We also have a session on managing cyber through enterprise risk management and this session will explore the incorporation of erm practices Into cyber accountability cyber policies practices and as we all know the importance of of our employees and our our people are one of the best measures that we can have to to Mitigate cyber security risks and mitigate activities that that where those threats that we will all be we all face every day as it relates to cyber And so we're going to be exploring that from an erm lens. This is a topic that we've talked about and in previous sessions It is also evolved as it relates to cyber and the amount of um actors out there that have to be addressed related to cyber So, uh, we are working on confirming speakers for that session, but we do have molynda maggall who is with the state of florida who is the Inspector general for the executive branch of the government and she has worked and authored several Publications on cyber as it relates to the intergovernmental partnership and uh, so we're looking forward to hearing her comments as to how They've incorporated that at the state level and um incorporating that with a federal speaker to understand the important concepts around erm and and the erm practices itself So we're looking forward to a great sessions at the workshop this year and as bobby joe mentioned uh june fourth at the grand height downtown dc and uh, you know really looking forward to incorporating that also wanted to put a uh a plug in for uh, firm university and a firm university is having a CRMP training related to uh, which is sponsored by rims and this is a live virtual Workshop that is going to be held on june second and june third so two days before the erm workshop You can go through that process to get your certification as it relates to to rim So very exciting opportunities coming up at the beginning of june and looking forward the opportunity to present that all to you Great. Yeah, that firm university concept that's kind of new this year too, right or is that it is? It is um, just I believe this is their first uh university activity is the CRMP and the CRMP fed certification Nice.
I like that. All right. Well, this sounds great. Yeah, I mean these events are always, you know, very successful and uh, Yep, come up in june will be a busy month there and get your certification and get your training in and uh, you know, this is great So yeah, anything else you want to say anything else just encouraging words you get people out there or you know, anything you're looking forward to Registration is open.
Um, so so please and paul put another link on there for everyone But it's open like I mentioned 160 dollars for federal state local government 9 to 4 p.m Get at lunch you get to see some of your erm friends in person So uh, please register and uh as soon as possible You know just add it's it's really been gratifying to see the outcomes of the of the workshops and we've Discussed the report from last year. We'll have another report after this year's session And and it really is information that you can use it's timeless information and I've always been struck with the the people that attend and what they bring out of the session and it's so important It's it's not a five and a half hour lecture that you're hearing it's you you hear some some great techniques from folks And then you get a talk about those at your at your tabletop and it's really good to have that dialogue with other experts that You can share your stories and and hear their stories about what they're doing in enterprise risk management Yeah, the real workshop you're getting together and talking about right great. All right. Well, bert bobby joe Thank you so much for coming on the podcast today and uh, I hope you have a great event It's all appreciate it