08:00-10:00

Registration

08:30

Welcome by JAN HUYGENS - IAPA European Chairman

IAPA President's Report/CEO

New Member Presentations

Reports

09:45

Coffee

10:00

Business Strategy session and discussion groups

[including coffee break from 11:00-11:15]

We have just completed our strategic business plan for the next 5 years.  How does your plan look?  Are you carefully plotting your future strategy, or will you just have more of the same next year?  Is your plan just a budget?  Strategy is the path your business is going to follow to achieve its objectives, but how do you identify that path and commence the journey?  Traditional business planning is hard to sustain.  The average business will spend weeks preparing a business plan only to find that it is never implemented

This session is split into two sections.  Introducing the first session we will share some of the merging trends that we are seeing in the professions right now.  We shall then cover a couple of business planning tools that you will find useful in your own practices to encourage powerful thinking and focus on implementation

The second session is related.  It concerns offering business planning services to your clients.  If you can get traction in your own planning and implementation, then you can help clients to do the same.  Of course, the contrary is also true!

PAUL HOPWOOD specialises in facilitating the development and implementation of strategic plans for professional service firms - particularly accountants, lawyers and IFAs, using a blend of strategy, coaching and senior management training.  Started his own business in 2001 following a successful career as south region tax partner with a top 10 UK accounting firm

One of the leading Mindshop facilitators in the UK

12:00

The Pitfalls and Pratfalls of making Presentations

TIM LYON and KEN NORMAN - New Tricks Training

Great speakers are highly respected and revered; however, we all know that the converse is true.  The less-than-skilled presenter is often [and quite unfairly] written off as a blithering idiot.  Scary, because more and more of us find ourselves having to present, whether at a client seminar, a sales pitch or just to get over an important message to our staff.  Ken Norman and Tim Lyon of New Tricks Training have trained thousands of business professionals to conquer their feat, polish their presentation and engage with their audience.  They have trained, among others, bankers [The Royal Bank of Scotland and NatWest], accountants [Grant Thornton], solicitors [Brethertons, Lester Aldridge] and vicars [The Church of England]

In this entertaining session the pair will illustrate the heinous crimes, sins and most common mistakes [they are common because they're easy to make] that speakers make so YOU can avoid making them

12:45

Lunch

14:00

Risk Management

KAREN EKSTEIN - Watson Burton Partner was Highly Commended at Tax Lawyer of the Year Awards in what is both a first for the Tax Lawyer of the Year awards and a first for the insurance world.  She leads Watson Burton's Leeds professional indemnity practice and heads the firm's tax litigation practice nationally.  Karen is acknowledged as a market leader, with a unique national practice, combining taxation skills and professional indemnity expertise.  Her work includes resolving claims against the profession on behalf of accountants, tax advisers and advising the profession and those involved in the professional indemnity insurance for the profession on claims and risk management issues.

14:45

Business Generation - a client focussed initiative by IAPA Europe

MATTHEW HALL - IAPA European Board, will present the proposals of IAPA's European Board followed by an open discussion session

15:15

Looking ahead - 2025:  Will Europe be competitive?

JAMES ELLES MEP - UK Conservative member in South-East England, elected to the European Parliament in 1984.  He is a member of the Committees on Budgets and Budgetary Control; a substitute in the Foreign Affairs Committee.  He founded the Transatlantic Policy Network [TPN] in 1992; co-founded the European Internet Foundation [EIF] in 2000; and set up the European Ideas Network [EIN], a pan-European think-tank, in 2002

16:00

Tea

16:15

IAPA AGM

17:20

Presentation on the 2008 IAPA Annual Conference - Pasadena

17:25

Presentation on the 2009 IAPA European Conference - Malta

17:30

End of working sessions

18:15

Leave hotel for Champagne Reception and Gala Dinner

19:00

Reception and Dinner 

Reception and Dinner at HQS Wellington - Honourable Company of Master Mariners, Temple Stairs, Victoria Embankment, London WC2 2PN www.thewellingtontrust.com

The historic ship Wellington is the last surviving member of the Grimsby Class of sloops which served the nation with such distinction in World War Two.  She has been moored on the Thames since 1948, during which time she has been the home of the Honourable Company of Master Mariners, a City of London Livery Company.  Today she is part floating museum, library, as well as being a unique dining venue.  There will be a tour and talk about the ship by highly experienced and knowledgeable Master Mariners

After Dinner Guest Speaker - Lord Roy Hattersley
A former leader of the Labour Party and cabinet minister, Roy Hattersley is now a full-time writer and a Fellow of The Royal Society of Literature.  The author of twenty books, his most recent is Borrowed Time The Story of Britain Between the Wars.  He is currently working on a biography of Lloyd George

09:00-12:00

SUNDAY 18 MAY 2008

Launch of the new Expatriates Service Group

This session will be led by Ullrich Bork [Germany] and Michiel Martin [The Netherlands]

To agree the aims, activities and operations of the new Expatriates Service Group

1. Refreshing your memory - a brief update

2. Seeking your views

   a]  Introduction
   b]  Open discussion
        [i]    Promotional materials
        [ii]   Exploitation of existing client base
        [iii]  Approaching potential clients
        [iv]  Any other marketing activities
        [v]   Any other ideas

3. Appointment of a Steering Committee

4. To agree the major steps for the next 12 months

5. To agree a budget

6. To agree a date and location for the next meeting

7. Any other business