Russ: Hi, I’m Russ Capper with The BusinessMakers Show and I’m here to talk about the 13th annual Houston CPA Society Energy Conference, and I’m joined by Brian Baumler, Audit Director and head of the energy practice at PKF Texas, and Chair of the conference; Brian, good to see you.
Brian: Good to see you too, Russ. Thank you.
Russ: You bet, and also David Butler, the Manager of Energy Valuations at HSSK, the Vice Chair of the conference; David, good to see you as well.
David: Glad to be here, Russ.
Russ: Ok, tell us about the conference.
Brian: Well Russ, as you know this is the 13th annual conference we’ve had. Attendance has over the years has grown substantially. The focus of the conference is really geared towards energy and energy related businesses, focusing on really trends in the industry and where things are going. It’s going to be an interesting dialogue this year with the change in the economics going on in the space here recently. It’s focusing on both upstream, midstream, and also downstream perspectives on what’s going on in the industry but also introduces the CPA profession by offering up a number of the Big Four representatives and the energy practices that they lead.
Russ: Ok, who should attend and why should they attend?
David: I think anybody who’s involved in accounting, or finance, taxation, and even valuation ought to attend because this, first and foremost, is a conference for grownups. We’re not going to sugarcoat things, we’re not going to give you a rosy crystal ball that will assure you that everything in the future is gonna be fine. We don’t know that. What we do know is that the industry is facing some pretty significant challenges; we’re seeing a lot of resilience and creativity, and how companies manage their call structure and how they manage their drilling program and so forth. So, that’s the sort of thing that people should expect to hear and hopefully they’ll be able to take some of that back to their jobs, and we’ve made sure that we’re covering topics in financial reporting, SEC reporting, taxation, as well as the interaction of the energy industry with the capital markets.
Russ: Ok. When is it and where is it?
Brian: Well, it’s actually going to be held this year on Tuesday, August 25th, 2015. It will be at the Norse conference center located over in the City Center.
Russ: Ok. So I guess when you said a while ago it’s been growing every year just like the industry has, but I suspect also that this whole cost accounting thing could be real important this year, and to think the event is really well attended, right?
Brian: Absolutely. Last year we were very fortunate, we were sold out. We had about 325 attendants, in attendance; represented across both the industry spectrum as well as a number of the representative CPA firms and practices in the energy space here in Houston and we’re expecting at least that this year.
Russ: Ok, sold out, wow. Ok, so how do you register?
Brian: Well, I think you can register in a number of different ways. One is, you can go to the website at houstoncpa.org; register online. There’s also a form you can download. You can go ahead and fill out the form and send that in. It’s $300 for non-members, $250 for members and if you want to send a small group then we’re offering also some discounts for small groups. You can also call directly and use your credit card online; it’s 713-622-7733.
Russ: Ok, Brian, David, thanks a lot; August 25th, Norris Center, City Center.
David: Absolutely.
Brian: That’s correct Be there.
Russ: Be there.