Topic Descriptions 2025

This document includes the following: 

• Ethics course description
• Computer lab descriptions
• Workshop & Concurrent Session descriptions.

Please do not sign up for sessions that say FULL. If you sign up for a session that says FULL, you will be moved to another session at the discretion of event management. All sessions will be recorded and will be available after the event. We appreciate your cooperation!

Ethics Course

Workshop 1a & 2a -  Transparency, Trust, and Ethics in BC’s Healthcare Finance

Strengthening accountability in complex systems

Robert Ryan, BA, CGA, CPA Professor, Okanagan College

This seminar offers CPAs working in the healthcare field a practical and thought-provoking exploration of ethical responsibilities in a complex and evolving sector. Participants will examine current ethical challenges specific to healthcare finance, including transparency in public fund management, conflict of interest, data privacy, equitable budgeting and the responsible use of emerging technologies. Through real-world case studies, interactive discussions, and updates on professional standards, this session equips finance professionals with the tools to navigate ethical dilemmas with integrity and accountability, ensuring compliance with regulatory expectations while supporting public trust in the healthcare system.  

This seminar meets the CPA requirement for 4 hour ethics as required every three years by CPA BC. The seminar consists of a 3.5 hour online session, with short breaks every hour along with a pre-reading and a writing assignment.

Bio

Robert Ryan is a professor at Okanagan College and a seasoned financial executive with over two decades of experience spanning financial services, wood products, and property development. Before transitioning into education, He served in senior leadership roles including Controller, CFO, and CEO, bringing a practical and strategic lens to business decision-making.

In addition to teaching, Robert continues to provide financial guidance to entrepreneurial property development ventures, ensuring close alignment with real-world financial challenges and innovation. He has a deep professional and academic interest in value creation through ethical leadership, design thinking in business, and behavioral finance—areas that directly intersect with current issues in healthcare finance and policy.

Robert brings a unique blend of executive insight and academic perspective to discussions on ethical governance, fiscal accountability, and strategic foresight meaningful for the healthcare sector.

Outside of work, Robert values time with family and remains committed to lifelong learning and community engagement.

Computer Labs

Frank Byl, PowerConcepts Training

Bio

Frank Byl has been a career educator and a Microsoft Master Instructor for over 26 years. He has helped thousands of people and hundreds of companies to be able to better utilize the Microsoft tools that they are using every day. He has a passion for learning and exploring new ideas and new tools and finding ways to make work more rewarding. You will find his presentations engaging and practical. Come prepared to practice and experiment along with Frank to discover new and better ways to accomplish your goals. Frank loves to explore nature and technology and prefers to do that while sailing his fully solar-powered sailboat whenever he has the opportunity.

NOTE ABOUT CONNECTING REMOTELY: Participants connecting remotely should have two monitors or two devices, so that they can watch on one screen and practice on the second screen. The second device must be a tablet or another computer, a phone will not be sufficient. A link to download any required files will be provided prior to the workshop and at the start of the workshop.

RECORDING OF LABS: We will record the presentations and allow the videos to be accessed via the conference website after the conference closes for those who wish to review the presentations or for members that were not able to attend.

Computer Lab 1d: Excel Functions and Data Collection

Key skills for building advanced (multi-argument) functions, using name ranges, understanding, and using new spill functions and key principles for data collection. This will be an updated version of the Excel Top Ten Functions that was done in the past with greater emphasis on some of the thirty new functions and features added to Excel in the last year.

Computer Lab 2d: Power Query

Excel’s Power Query tools allow for automated uploading of data from multiple sources and types. We will work with real (sanitized) data in various forms including PDF, Text files, CSV, and Excel formats to show how data can be automatically uploaded, converted, and organized into useful Excel tables. Further to creating the original query, participants will learn how to append and remove data using the same queries. Power Query will be utilizing some of the skills and functions taught in the first session.

Computer Lab 1d & 2d: Power Pivot

Many times, data is not provided in a single table but is in multiple tables that are related. Perhaps a table of Physician Info, Client Info, and Service Info. While related, each table contains unique information. Power Pivot allows users to connect those tables and create meaningful reports and even charts. This workshop will provide data sets to be used in the workshop. For continuity, that data will be the same data that was created in the Power Query workshop so that participants will understand the full flow of data from raw data to final reports. The final portion of the presentation will be devoted to a presentation on PowerBI that will demonstrate the potential, benefits and challenges of using PowerBI to present data. The presentation will use similar data as was created from the Power Query so that participants can again note the progression of information compilation and presentation.

Computer Lab 1e: OneNote

This tool, that is provided in the Office 365 suite, is poorly understood and utilized and has great potential to streamline administrative tasks and information gathering, especially for the operation of teams that meet on routine basis. Participants will be encouraged to work in groups of two or three. Instructions and a video will be provided prior to the workshop so that participants can create OneNote files that can be shared with peers prior to the OneNote workshop so that they can experience the collaborative capabilities of OneNote. If they do not connect with peers prior to the workshop, they will be able to easily join the workshop on their own and work on their own. This workshop would also provide an alternative to the Excel training series for staff that would like computer training in something other than Excel, as per their job and skill requirements.

Workshops & Concurrent Sessions

DAY 1: Thursday, September 11, 2025

Workshop 1b: UBC Faculty of Medicine

Part 1: Health Policy & Health Economics

Dr. Steve Morgan, Professor, UBC School of Population and Public Health

Dr. Morgan will review historical data on Canadian health care spending, with attention to previous eras of economic crisis. He will then discuss the potential impact of a Trump-induced recession on health spending overall and on the specific segments most likely to see financial tightening as a result.

Bio

Dr. Steven G. Morgan is an economist and professor of health care policy at the University of British Columbia. His research and teaching focus on health system financing and the coverage and pricing of health care technologies. Dr. Morgan has published over 200 research papers and regularly provides policy advice to governments in Canada and around the world.

Part 2 Priority Setting in Health Care

Dr. Craig Mitton, Professor, UBC School of Population and Public Health

This session will outline key economic and ethical principles that underpin robust resource allocation decision making prior to diving into an explicit, criteria-based framework for determining how best to allocate scarce health care resources. Illustrative case examples will be provided.

Bio

Dr. Craig Mitton works as a Professor in the School of Population and Public Health at UBC and is a Senior Scientist at the Centre for Clinical Epidemiology and Evaluation at the Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute. His research focuses on methods to support priority setting and resource allocation in health care and in this Craig has worked with over 100 health service delivery organizations across Canada and overseas. He regularly consults with governments and health authorities and in 2004 published “The Priority Setting Toolkit: a guide to the use of economics in health care decision making".

Workshop 1c: Value-Based Care and Practical Applications

Dov Klein, Anand Shah, and Ben Feist of Deloitte

As both the pace of innovation and pressures on the health system rapidly increase, how governments pay for the future of care delivery continues to come under sharp focus. With system pressures growing, typical strategies and stop-gaps no longer seem to meet the moment for a system struggling to provide some of its basic functions. Today’s patients are older & more chronically ill but are served by health systems designed to treat acute episodic illness in its most expensive infrastructure.

Using funding as a tool to enable a more value-based and patient-focused system has long been studied. Economic incentives are powerful tools but what we pay for, how we pay for it and why requires carefully understanding the keys to success, the potential unintended consequences and, what options are available.

This discussion will provide participants with an overview of value-based care and related concepts and the role of leaders in making these models successful. We will also engage in discussions on practical next steps that we as finance professionals can collectively take after the session today.

Workshop 2b: Budgeting Tool and Finance Module

Workday demos

Content coming soon!

Workshop 2c: Indigenous Trauma and Equity Informed Practice

Noelle Saemerow, Associate Consultant, Len Pierre Consulting

About the Course

This session is for organizations wanting to support safer services and professional practice with Indigenous clients, colleagues, partners and communities.  


The course aims at expanding our social perceptions on the missing context not usually covered in other ‘trauma-informed’ workshops. It centers Indigenous perspectives on the change required to go beyond being “informed” and to move towards culturally safer and equity-oriented organizations and services.

Main learning outcomes:

• Explore the relationship between colonialism, state violence against Indigenous peoples, and 
• Indigenous-specific trauma today 
• Identifying common trauma-responses in the workplace environment 
• Assembling list of strategies to respond to trauma in a culturally safe way 
• Embedding equity-oriented approaches to working with Indigenous peoples

Bio

Noelle Saemerow (she/her) is an Indigenous Cultural Safety Consultant with Len Pierre Consulting. Noelle is a proud Métis woman. She was raised in Kamloops, and now lives on the ancestral, unceded and traditional territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations, colonially known as Vancouver. She holds a BSc in Health Science from Simon Fraser University. Noelle works in Indigenous Health, supporting systems change and strategic initiatives. She feels incredibly grateful to learn from Knowledge Keepers, Elders, Community, friends and colleagues.

DAY 2: Friday, September 12, 2025

Concurrent Session 1a: How do Geopolitical Economics Impact Me Personally?

Managing Risk in Turbulent Times Without Sacrificing Future Returns

Nick Milau, BBA (Fin), FMA, CIM, FCSI Senior Portfolio Manager, RBC Dominion Securities Inc.

As tariff threats, trade wars and geopolitical tensions rise, investors are facing extreme uncertainty. But there is an antidote: at the Milau Private Wealth Management Group we’re finding increasingly diverse investment opportunities to help investors thrive in this time of unprecedented uncertainty.

Learn how the Milau Private Wealth Management Group of RBC Dominion Securities is helping their clients navigate this tumultuous time. Nick will cover a range of topics including:

• Attractive 'real' yields and niche opportunities in the bond market
• Preferred shares - Lock in 6-7% dividends before they're gone
• Private Credit - 7-9% yields with better credit protection
• Private Equity - Greater diversity, more long-term growth opportunities, better valuations
• Pockets of opportunities in the equity markets.

Bio

Nick's commitment to providing superior financial advice has been recognized by his appointment as the Senior Portfolio Manager & Wealth Advisor at RBC Dominion Securities. Nick holds the Chartered Investment Manager (CIM), Financial Management Advisor (FMA) and Fellow of the Canadian Securities Institute (FCSI) designations.

A dedicated athlete, Nick played for the Canadian National Rugby Team from 1998 to 2001, has served on the Bayside Rugby Club executive committee and today coaches youth rugby and soccer teams in South Surrey. Nick supports many local charities but most of his philanthropic efforts are geared towards fundraising for families with autism where he has been recognized as the top fundraiser in Canada for the Walk Now for Autism Speaks organization. Nick is a proud father of an autistic son, so he knows the challenges and joys autism can bring to families. Nick and his wife, Martina, live in South Surrey with their daughter and three boys.

Concurrent Session 1b: Demystifying Automation and AI  

Yvette Jones, KPMG

Join us for an insightful session where we will explore the transformative power of automation solutions and artificial intelligence (AI), to streamline and modernize the finance function, financial close process, reporting and related areas such as capital assets to enable significant efficiencies. We will focus this discussion on practice applications of these technologies in your finance function, bringing real-life use cases, ideas and opportunities to drive value. Gain valuable insights on how to navigate and implement these innovations to enhance efficiency and drive success in your finance function.

Don't miss this opportunity to stay ahead of the curve and equip yourself with the knowledge to lead your organization through the next wave of financial transformation.

Concurrent Session 1c: Healthcare Capital Projects

Dr. Sharat Chandra, FHA

Content coming soon!

Concurrent Session 2a: Understanding AI & its Applications for Healthcare

Workday

Content coming soon!

Concurrent Session 2b: Block Chain Technology: What You Should Know

RBC

Content coming soon!

Concurrent Session 2c: Surviving the Storm: Mastering Emergency Preparedness/Response and Business Continuity Planning

Sharon Cook, Chief Nursing Officer and Vice President Quality Assurance, Park Place Seniors Living

In Canada, scientists predict that climate change will continue to increase the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events such as heat waves, heavy rainfalls and related flooding, droughts, forest fires, serious winter storms, hurricanes, and tornados; that may increasingly strain emergency management capacities and budgets across Canada (Public Safety Canada – An Emergency Management Framework for Canada – 2017).  

This presentation shares the approach Park Place Seniors Living has taken to strengthen our preparation and response to emergencies and disruptions.  

Bio

Since January 2021, she has served as Chief Nursing Officer and Vice President of Quality Assurance at Park Place Seniors Living, where she oversees clinical practice support, policy development, care delivery and quality management.  Sharon’s professional experience spans the entire healthcare continuum, providing her with a broad-based understanding of various sectors. Her expertise includes acute care, where she managed complex situations in hospital settings, community health, mental health/ addictions, and long-term care where her leadership contributed to creating integrated care solutions that address the unique needs of vulnerable populations. Additionally, her work in assisted living and long-term care has given her critical insights into aging populations and the unique challenges they face, from chronic disease management to ensuring a dignified quality of life.

Sharon is currently a Director on the Board for SafeCare BC, where she actively contributes to initiatives aimed at improving workplace safety and care standards for the seniors’ care sector in British Columbia.

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