The accounting profession is at an inflection point. AI, automation, and intelligent systems are not just changing how work gets done—they are redefining what it means to lead, advise, and create value. 

In this opening keynote, Dr. Shawn DuBravac challenges California CPAs to rethink their role in a world where technical expertise alone is no longer enough. Drawing on real-world examples across finance, professional services, and adjacent industries, he explores how emerging technologies are reshaping decision-making, career paths, and the expectations placed on trusted advisors. 

Key Takeaways: 

• How AI is changing the CPA value proposition faster than most firms realize 
• Practical steps to remain relevant, credible, and indispensable over the next decade 
• A practical approach to lifelong learning that fits busy professionals

Can you lead the room in under two minutes? In this bold, interactive session, executive coach Colleen Hauk challenges participants to command attention, speak with authority, and deliver unforgettable impact through live coaching, practical tools, and high-stakes exercises that transform presence in real time. 

In this session, Nicholas Williams will share lessons from leading six CPA firm acquisitions, helping owners retire while securing client continuity. Attendees will explore strategies for succession planning, maximizing firm value, and navigating the transition process, insights designed to support both current leaders and the next generation of firm owners. 

Learning Objectives: 

• Identify key strategies for succession planning that maximize firm value and client continuity. 
• Evaluate different approaches to structuring CPA firm acquisitions and owner transitions. 
• Determine best practices for integrating new clients and staff into an existing practice. 
• Recognize the challenges and opportunities of retirement planning for CPA firm owners. 

This interactive breakout session helps firm leaders move from considering offshoring to building a practical, customized strategy. Through a facilitated working session and strategy workbook, attendees will work through key decisions, including whether offshoring is the right fit, which model and destination to choose, and which roles to offshore.

By the end of the session, participants will have a clear, high-level strategy tailored to their firm, along with defined priorities, potential challenges, and immediate next steps to guide their progress after the summit.

This introductory session allows students and young professionals to step into the role of forensic accounting professionals as they follow the money through common financial investigation tasks. Through hands-on exercises, participants will review data, expense reports, invoices, and interview techniques to explore how forensic accountants identify issues, evaluate evidence, and support financial investigations.

As firms expand beyond compliance-based services, workforce-related issues are becoming a growing area of client need — and a valuable opportunity for accountants to deliver more strategic guidance. From hiring and retention challenges to labor costs, employee classification, and workforce planning, clients are increasingly looking to trusted advisors for insight that connects people strategy to business performance.

This session will explore how CPAs and accounting professionals can use workforce insights to deepen client conversations, uncover advisory opportunities, and provide practical value — whether or not their firm has a formal CAS or HR advisory practice in place. Attendees will gain examples of common workforce-related client challenges, learn how HR and payroll data can support more strategic discussions, and understand how these services can evolve over time as you scale your CAS framework.

Whether your firm is just beginning its advisory journey or looking to enhance an existing CAS offering, this session will provide practical ideas, examples, and next steps to help you expand your role as a trusted advisor.

Learning Objectives:

• Identify common workforce-related challenges clients face and recognize how those issues can create opportunities for broader advisory conversations.
• Discuss how payroll, HR, and workforce data can be used to generate insights that support more strategic client guidance.
• Explain how workforce advisory can serve as an entry point for firms that are newer to advisory services, while also complementing more established CAS practices.
• Recognize practical client conversation starters and service opportunities related to hiring, retention, labor costs, compliance, and workforce planning.
• Apply examples and scalable approaches for incorporating workforce-related advisory support into client service models, from informal guidance to more structured CAS offerings.

The Silver Tsunami is creating both risk and opportunity for advisors. Discover how to help clients prepare for transition, increase business attractiveness, and protect wealth during one of the largest generational shifts in history. Gain frameworks to elevate your role from compliance to strategic advisory. 

Learning Objectives:

• Identify the demographic and economic forces driving the “Silver Tsunami” and their impact on small business continuity.  
• Recognize the key indicators of business attractiveness and transferable value that determine a client’s transition readiness. 
• Evaluate common operational, financial, and leadership gaps that place client businesses at risk during succession. 
• Apply advisory frameworks to guide clients through proactive exit planning and long-term value protection. 
• Determine the initial steps clients should take to strengthen their business in preparation for ownership transition. 

Looking for your next internship, first job, or CPA Exam strategy? Join this high-energy, interactive networking experience designed to connect students and CPA candidates directly with firm recruiters, industry leaders, and CPA Exam prep experts. Through a series of structured networking rounds, participants will gain career insights, build meaningful professional relationships, receive real-time feedback, and walk away with actionable next steps for their career and licensure journey.

Join CalCPA President & CEO Denise LeDuc Froemming and CalCPA Chair Miklos Ringbauer for a special Town Hall at the CalCPA Members Club Summit as they explore the issues shaping the accounting profession, business climate and policy landscape in California and beyond.

This engaging conversation will provide timely updates, expert perspectives and insights into the trends, challenges and opportunities affecting CPAs, finance professionals and business leaders today. Speakers and discussion topics will be announced closer to the event.

Whether you're attending the Summit in person or tuning in via livestream, you'll gain valuable context on the forces influencing the profession and what to watch in the months ahead.

Within many high achievers lies an extraordinary story. In this deeply personal and courageous session, the speaker reveals what she once kept hidden: that buried trauma fueled her success and her unhappiness. 

From the outside, her successful career in accounting reflected discipline, drive, and results. Internally, however, emotional stability and joy remained elusive. Long-term stress, an addiction to achievement, and a pattern of relationship challenges ultimately led to the realization that she was living with complex post-traumatic stress disorder (C-PTSD). While the majority of individuals experience at least one traumatic event in their lifetime—making these experiences ordinary—few have the opportunity to fully process them, and even fewer understand how they unconsciously continue to shape behavior, relationships, and performance. 

Attendees will gain insight into how C-PTSD can manifest as anxiety, depression, addiction, and relationship struggles—even in high performers. This is not a clinical talk. It is an honest one. Participants will be invited to reflect on how their own life experiences may be influencing the way they work, lead, and define success. They will leave inspired to redefine what it truly means to become ExtraOrdinary. 

Learning Objectives: 

• Recognize how common adverse life experiences can contribute to mental health challenges. 
• Identify how survival patterns may simultaneously drive success and undermine well-being. 
• Explore actionable strategies for navigating personal challenges and applying self-discovery principles to chart new paths in both career and life. 

Have you ever wondered why some clients sabotage financial progress even when the numbers are clear? The answer is rarely logical — it’s cultural, emotional, and deeply somatic. 

In this session, Felina Danalis, M.A., S.E.P. unpacks the hidden influences that shape money behavior: family systems, cultural norms, intergenerational trauma, migration stories, and gender conditioning. Participants will learn how these forces impact financial decisions, money shame, risk tolerance, procrastination, and client resistance. 

By blending somatic psychology with cross-cultural insight, Felina offers tools to understand and de-escalate emotionally charged financial interactions while staying regulated and confident. CPAs will gain language and frameworks to better serve diverse clients — and clarity about when to refer clients for trauma-informed support. 

What really holds us back from change? And how do we overcome the fear and inertia that keep us from becoming who we’re meant to be? 

In this candid and deeply human keynote, Patrick Mork shares the story of how he walked away from a high-flying Silicon Valley career—including co-founding Google Play—to start over in Chile as an executive coach and entrepreneur. From navigating a painful divorce to leaving behind prestige and stability, Patrick unpacks what it means to make a real leap—one rooted in courage, humility, and radical reinvention. 

Drawing on the powerful frameworks from his best-selling book Step Back and LEAP, as well as his experience living in 11 countries, speaking 4 languages, and working across 7 industries, Patrick reveals the mindsets, habits, and tools that helped him rewrite his story—and that anyone can use to do the same. Through raw stories and actionable strategies, your audience will walk away inspired to face discomfort, step outside their comfort zones, and begin crafting a career—and life—driven by meaning and joy. 

Key Takeaways: 

• A mindset shift about what it takes to make bold, lasting life and career changes 
• Practical tools to overcome resistance, step outside comfort zones, and move toward a purpose-driven life