Dubai, April 2024

We were delighted to welcome more than 45 delegates to our annual global conference at Le Meridien Resort Hotels in Dubai from 23 to 25 April.

The conference started with a session from Alun Morgan updating members on developments within Kudos. We reflected on the considerable growth in the network during 2023 and how much the network had matured in the last 18 months.

Alun also highlighted the live online audit training that will be taking place during October 2024, in a modular format. Central to the future plans of Kudos is the prospective future partnership with Kelly + Partners from Australia. All Kudos members (including those who did not attend the conference) have now had the opportunity to listen to the rationale behind this move. We were also delighted to see  Alistair Bryant from Kelly +Partners attend the Dubai event. As the partnership agreement develops in the coming weeks, we will keep members informed.

We moved on to hear from Kudos members in Egypt, Lebanon and of course Dubai on issues facing accounting and auditing firms in the Middle East.

After lunch, Mark Lloydbottom gave a talk on practice profitability which as ever, was well received.

Attendees then adjourned for a city bus tour which went well until the coach was delayed in traffic attempting to reach Dubai Mall where we had a dinner overlooking the fountains. Thank you to Kudos PRS for their sponsorship of the city tour.

Over dinner, the Kudos firm of the year award was presented to Angela Lee-Loy of the Aegis group. This was in recognition of the great work done by Aegis Group on improving corporate governance in Trinidad & Tobago and the Caribbean more generally.

A 10 year membership certificate was also awarded to KAP Sriyadi, Elly & Sugeng Rekan from Jakarta, Indonesia

Day two commenced with Dermot Hamblin going through how we should develop an effective IT strategy, particularly concentrating on the different types of software available to accounting firms. This was later magnified after lunch with a presentation from Ken Lee of the Lee Kim Group from Singapore who demonstrated the software they had developed internally. This had significantly enhanced productivity within the Lee Kim Group on the non- audit side of the firm.

In between these sessions, Mark & Alun went through the issues delegates had highlighted as their greatest challenge. After a slow start, a vigorous exchange of views was had on recruiting and retaining staff. In fact, the discussion was so detailed we only covered that challenge! Other challenges will be covered in future Open House meetings.

After formal proceedings on day two, the group braved a 4×4 experience in the desert, followed by a wonderful BBQ dinner, also taken in the desert. Thank you to CZone for their sponsorship of this activity.

On day 3 we were treated to a fantastic seminar on “Coming Alive” with Meher Mirchandani who taught the group on the importance of self-love to enable you to develop fully inside and outside of business.

After lunch we went through some of the challenges face by the Network rather than firms, many of which would be assisted by the partnership with Kelly + Partners. The conference then closed with some final remarks.

Thank you again to everyone who attended but a special thank you to Giresh from Kudos PRS for his assistance in finding the venue and organising some wonderful social activities.

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