On October 1st 2024, Convene attended and sponsored the inaugural CGI Governance North conference. We’d like to thank the Chartered Governance Institute UK & Ireland for putting on such an engaging and informative conference for governance professionals in the North of England.
The topics on this year’s agenda included governance code updates, board diversity, AI, crisis and risk management and much more. The conference offered insights and debate into these crucial governance topics, as well as networking opportunities.
The day started with a talk on the changes to UK Company law and what comes next, focusing specifically on the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 and key developments.
This was followed by a panel on using the evolving governance environment to influence change. This discussed the impact of code evolution across a variety of sectors and how governance professionals can stay on top of evolving regulatory developments.
This panel featured Riverside Housing, a customer of Convene, who we support in achieving good governance. Our Board Portal is designed to create a good governance structure for Boards by making communication easier and more seamless. It offers a range of features including an Agenda Builder, a Document Library and a built-in Audit Trail, to ensure that your organisation is efficient, transparent and accountable.
Next, there was a panel on crisis management, discussing crisis planning through the lens of organisational risk culture and risk monitoring. This spoke about the role governance professionals play in risk management and how they can best support their board.
After a short break, there was a session on navigating difficult conversations in and out of the boardroom. It covered hard conversations like ‘how do I raise an ethical concern?’, ‘how do I disagree with someone diplomatically?’ and ‘how should I prepare for a tough performance review?’.
Then there were some breakout sessions, which included a session on board diversity, recruiting, attaining and retaining talent, and then a panel on helping to create the right governance career and career development.
After lunch, there were more breakout sessions which focused on the conflicts that arise in the role of a governance professional and how to develop resilience towards them, and achieving the optimal structure and model for subsidiary governance.
This was followed by a discussion on neurodiversity, disability and the socio-economic diversity conversation. Then there was a panel talk on risk management practices, risk appetite and maintaining the right balance.
After another short break there was a talk on AI in governance and how organisations should be thinking about AI in terms of efficiency and risk management. This looked at how governance professionals should approach AI with their board.
The conference ended with a closing keynote on resilience, and the key role it plays for any leader and organisation.
We’d like to again thank the CGI for creating this conference, and for bringing together governance professionals in the North of England to share their experience and insights with governance in a variety of sectors. We’d also like to thank everyone who attended for their engagement and participation in this discussion of governance, and its future.
