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 | PROGRAM | SPEAKERS | REGISTRATION | HOTEL & TRAVEL | SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES
 Preliminary Program Agenda
Monday, November 16, 2026
11:00 AM – 4:30 PM
Registration opens
10:00 AM – 12:00 PM
Board of Directors’ Meeting [Invitation]
2:00 PM – 2:30 PM
Conference Welcome, Introductions and Opening Remarks
2:30 PM – 3:15 PM
Opening Keynote Session
Elena Loukoianova, Deputy Chief Knowledge Management Unit, IMF
3:15 PM – 4:15 PM | Panel Presentation
When geopolitical shocks and technological acceleration collide, government financial leaders find themselves caught in a fiscal tornado. As artificial intelligence promises to transform public financial management (PFM)—from automated revenue forecasting to early-warning debt monitoring—governments are left asking: is there a transformative engine driving these systems, or just clever marketing behind the curtain? (We’re definitely not in Kansas anymore.)
Drawing on insights from digital PFM implementations across 35+ countries, Doug pulls back the curtain on AI in the public sector. This narrative-driven session demystifies where AI delivers genuine, measurable value in domestic resource mobilization and fiscal risk analysis, and where high-tech hype outpaces institutional reality. The talk explores how finance leaders can navigate the "yellow brick road" of digital modernization without sacrificing fiscal sovereignty, data governance, or public accountability.
Join us for a brisk, story-driven journey through the myths, mechanics, and practical future of AI in public finance. You will leave with a clear roadmap to navigate disruption with wisdom, courage, and fiscal resilience.
4:15 PM – 5:15 PM
HealthX
Karl Hoffman, the CEO of HealthX Partners
5:15 PM – 6:00 PM
Informal Gathering in Lounge
Tuesday, November 17, 2026
8:00 AM – 4:30 PM
Registration opens
8:30 AM – 9:30 AM
Networking Breakfast
9:30 AM – 10:00 AM | Keynote Session
Critical Infrastructure
Ms. T.C.A. Kalyani, Controller General of Accounts of India
10:00 AM – 11:00 AM | Panel Presentation
Twenty Years of the Open Budget Survey: Insights and Impact
Elena Mondo, Lead Technical Advisor, Open Budget Survey
Jennifer Anderson Lewis, Lead for Transparency & Integrity, Inter-American Development Bank
Oluseun Onigbinde, Global Director and Cofounder of BudgIT
For twenty years, the Open Budget Survey has tracked how budget transparency, public participation, and oversight have shifted worldwide. This session uses that record to examine where stronger transparency links to real change in how governments manage public money, where gaps persist, and what makes reforms stick. Drawing on the latest OBS results, including the new Latin America and Caribbean report, it surfaces concrete examples and gaps, and introduces our new, more frequent OBS process.
11:00 AM – 12:00 PM | Panel Presentation
When Good Management Isn't Enough: Integrating Results, Resources, and Risk in Government
Doug Webster, Principal and ERM Practice Lead, TFC Consulting, Inc.
Government organizations have become increasingly sophisticated in financial management, strategic planning, performance management, risk management, and organizational change. Each discipline provides leaders with better information and stronger management capabilities. But specialization also creates a leadership challenge: how do executives reconcile multiple legitimate—and sometimes competing—perspectives into coherent decisions?
This session introduces Dynamic Value Management (DVM), a leadership system for continuously maximizing stakeholder value in the face of change. Building on earlier work in value-based management, DVM provides a common framework for integrating existing management disciplines rather than replacing them.
The session will examine three interlocking elements: a Current State Assessment that distinguishes what government organizations do, what they are required to do, and what stakeholders need; the Three R's—Results Sought, Resources Available, and Risks Acceptable; and Three-Directional Governance, which connects top-down direction, bottom-up feedback, and horizontal coordination.
Using a practical public-sector scenario, participants will explore how these elements can help government leaders respond when resources, risks, requirements, or stakeholder expectations change. Particular attention will be given to the role of government financial leaders as partners in enterprise leadership—contributing well beyond the management of financial resources to help leadership teams balance results, resources, and risk.
12:00 PM – 1:00 PM
Networking Lunch
1:00 PM – 2:00 PM | Knowledge Circle Session
Natural resource contracts are more than legal agreements. They establish the framework for revenue sharing, reporting requirements, audit rights, cost recovery, investment commitments, and dispute resolution. In doing so, they shape the information governments can access, the assurance they can obtain over reported results, and the quality of the decisions they make.
2:15 PM – 3:00 PM
Critical Minerals
Odysseus Bostick
3:30 PM – 3:45 PM
Break
3:45 PM – 4:45 PM | Knowledge Circle Session
Reliable public finance depends on reliable information. This session examines how governments transform reported costs, production figures, and revenue data into credible decision-making tools through contract audits and compliance reviews.
5:15 PM – 6:30 PM
Networking Reception
Wednesday, November 18, 2026
8:30 AM – 9:30 AM
Networking Breakfast
9:30 AM – 10:00 AM
Welcome
10:00 AM – 11:00 AM | Panel Presentation
Closing the Gap Between Oversight and Implementation
Kofi Aboagye, Senior Partner/Senior Manager, Internal Audit, NKAKA and Partners/Ghana Export-Import Bank
This proposal speaks directly to the challenge of implementation. Why strong oversight frameworks, sound analysis and well-evidenced findings routinely fail at the last mile. It identifies the gap between what is reported and what is actually decided and done. The session offers a practical, transferable approach to closing that gap, so that the intent behind financial oversight is converted into implemented action and reduced risk.
11:00 AM – 12:00 PM | Panel Presentation
Using AI and Digital Twin Technology to Strengthen PFM Decision Making
Carlton Harris, Senior Vice President, End to End Enterprise Solutions
Michelle Burnett, Vice Chair, HUBZone Contractors National Council
Stephanie Betancourt, PMP, LSSBB, VP of Strategy & Operations
Nelinia “Nel” Varenas, MBA, Founder & Leader, Strategic Value+ Solutions, Manufacturing Finance & Operations Executive
Governments face growing risks from disasters, cyber threats, aging infrastructure, and economic uncertainty. This session explores how Digital Twin technology can help public-sector leaders model potential impacts, evaluate investment decisions, and improve financial planning. Attendees will learn how real-time data, predictive analytics, and AI can support risk-informed budgeting, strengthen resilience, and improve stewardship of public resources in an increasingly complex environment.
12:00 PM – 1:00 PM
Networking Lunch
1:00 PM – 2:00 PM | Panel Presentation
From Resource Data to Better Decisions: Building Institutions That Deliver Results
Laura Robinson, President & CEO, Swale House Partners
Data alone does not create public value. Governments require strong institutions capable of transforming information into effective oversight, policy, and financial management. This session focuses on the institutional capabilities needed to manage growth in resource-rich economies.
2:00 PM – 2:15 PM
Break
2:15 PM – 3:30 PM | Knowledge Circle Session
Critical Minerals and Public Value: Using Economic Data to Evaluate Value Creation
As demand for critical minerals continues to grow, governments face important decisions regarding processing, infrastructure investment, downstream industries, and offtake arrangements. This session explores the economic and financial information needed to determine whether these investments create sustainable public value.
Thursday, November 19, 2026
8:30 AM – 9:30 AM
Welcome Remarks & Networking Breakfast
9:30 AM – 10:30 AM | Keynote
Cashless Economy as the Anchor of Real-Time Fiscal Governance
Maqbool Ahmad Gondal, Auditor General of Pakistan
Dr. Abeerah Waqar, Director, International Relations & Coordination, Office of the Auditor General of Pakistan
Pakistan is moving to a cashless economy. The PM's initiative drives digital payments through apps, QR codes, and pilot localities, creating traceable and structured financial data. SAI Pakistan integrates and audits that data in real time, turning the audit into live accountability. This case study explains how economic data can be integrated and produces real-time fiscal insights for decision-makers. This is Pakistan’s public-sector financial management model for data integration policies.
10:30 AM – 11:00 AM
Closing Remarks
Adjourn
Knowledge Circle Summit
Held at Hunton, Andrews, Kurth, 2200 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington, DC
1:00 PM – 4:00 PM
Roundtable Discussions
Roundtable 1: Petroleum Contract Audits, Revenue Assurance, and Public Finance Decision-Making
Petroleum revenues depend on the quality of the data used to verify costs, production, pricing, taxes, royalties, state participation, and contractual obligations. This session will focus on how governments are using audits, contract oversight, and interagency coordination to gain confidence in reported revenues and manage fiscal risk.
Participants will discuss what information is most useful, what data is difficult to obtain or evaluate, and what governments need now to strengthen petroleum revenue assurance. The discussion will also consider how technology, data analytics, and better document management can make audit and oversight responsibilities more manageable.
Roundtable 2: Enhancing In-Country Minerals Processing Capacity
Many governments are exploring ways to capture more value from minerals and critical minerals through domestic processing, refining, manufacturing, and downstream industries. These decisions often require public investment, infrastructure commitments, energy planning, incentives, and long-term market analysis.
This session will focus on how governments evaluate processing opportunities through a public finance lens. Participants will discuss what data helps determine whether processing creates public value, how governments assess infrastructure and power requirements, and how production, processing, and offtake arrangements connect to fiscal and economic outcomes.
Roundtable 3: Building While Growing — Managing Institutional Capacity During Resource Sector Expansion
Resource sectors can grow faster than the institutions responsible for managing them. Governments may face increasing demands for licensing, regulation, audit, revenue collection, legal review, public investment analysis, and state-owned enterprise oversight while still developing staff, systems, and institutional memory.
This session will focus on how governments build capacity while continuing to manage expanding natural resource sectors. Participants will discuss how to prioritize scarce expertise, retain knowledge from advisers, improve coordination, and use data systems to strengthen institutional performance.
4:00 PM – 6:00 PM
Reception
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