Thank You To Our Sponsors!

AGA extends a special "thank you" to our sponsors for their generous support of PDC 2009. We appreciate all you have done to help make this event possible!

PLATINUM
Grant Thornton LLP Global Public Sector

Teradata Corporation

GOLD
Accenture

CGI

Deloitte.

Ernst & Young LLP

Kearney & Company

Oracle USA, Inc.

PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP

Visa Inc.

SILVER
Altum, Inc.

Clifton Gunderson LLP

IBM Global Business Services

KPMG LLP

SAP Business Objects

BRONZE
Booz Allen Hamilton

The MIL Corporation

BRASS
Savantage Solutions

June 23, 2009 • Special PDC Edition

Laissez Les Bon Temps Roulez!
AGA is letting the good times roll in New Orleans this week with its 58th Annual Professional Development Conference & Exposition. Opening with a touch of jazz and a warm welcome from the City Council, the PDC got under way yesterday morning with 2,200 attendees and an opening keynote address from Neil M. Barofsky, the special inspector general for the Troubled Asset Relief Program, known as TARP. Barofsky told the crowd that the Office of the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program may be “one of the least understood” offices in the U.S. Department of the Treasury. While TARP began in October of last year as a way to buy toxic assets from financial institutions, it is now made up of 12 separate programs, each with their own potential for fraud, waste and abuse. One of four oversight agencies, the special inspector general’s office is the only one with criminal law enforcement authority. Read more.

Oxygen Not Includedâ„¢
PDC attendees were treated to Monday luncheon speaker Alison Levine, team captain of the First American Women’s Everest Expedition and groundbreaking polar adventurer, who used her adventures climbing the highest peaks on six continents to impart a series of valuable life lessons.

She began her talk by showing photos from an earlier climb of Mt. McKinley where she learned that you have to use resources wisely. All you have is what you can carry, which can also be freeing. You stop stressing, she said, about the things you don’t have and learn to make the most of what you have available.

At Carstensz Pyramid, situated in west Papua (now named Papua province Indonesia), she had one of her most difficult climbing experiences because the mountain she’d come to conquer had been shut down due to war. She was told it was impossible to get to the mountain, which challenged her to find a way. Asking the right questions, she said, is critical in any situation. “You have to be creative and proactive and keep asking the right questions until you get the answer you want.” She prevailed by procuring an army escort who saw her to the base of the mountain.

When she was asked to captain the first American women’s expedition to Everest, initially she said no. She didn’t think she had yet gathered the proper skills and abilities to lead the team. Then Sept. 11 happened she realized she couldn’t allow fear to stop her from doing what she wanted to do. Read more.

Watch the AGA Blog for frequent updates from the PDC!

© Association of Government Accountants 2009

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