Dispatches from SCCE 2021

Well, it happened: the Society of Corporate Compliance & Ethics has hosted its first in-person conference in two years, with more than 600 people schmoozing, learning, and awkwardly leaning in for hugs at the Aria Hotel in Las Vegas.

Hundreds more compliance professionals watched the SCCE conference virtually from the comfort of their own homes, and of course they count as part of the compliance community too. Still, the energy and enthusiasm of the in-person crowd was great, even from behind a mask.

I’ll have some follow-up posts in days to come about specific sessions I attended, since they created lots of food for thought. Meanwhile, following are some dispatches from social media to give you a flavor of what’s been happening here.

The conference opened with a session titled “Canceling the Compliance Culture” (a nifty turn of phrase), about how to reinvent compliance as a business function more engaged with the modern workforce and the challenges it faces.

 

And this is a glimpse of what the conference looked like for compliance professionals watching from home.

 

One session on compliance officers serving on corporate boards, which is a great idea we have discussed on Radical Compliance many times before.

 

An excellent point here about corporate culture and internal reporting.

 

Day 2 opened with a keynote presentation from violinist Kai Kight, talking about creativity and inspiration. Which we sorely need for FCPA training that sticks in employees’ minds.

 

The importance of documentation, people. We’ve talked about this.

 

The competition for these awards must be fierce.

 

An excellent session on artificial intelligence, moderated by yours truly.

 

Finally, a word about attending an in-person conference these days generally. This was my first big event post-pandemic. I was a bit apprehensive, and wondered how weird it would be to socialize as much as possible while wearing a mask. Both of those uncertainties vanished pretty much as soon as I arrived on scene, and I’m enormously glad I attended. I will absolutely attend more in-person conferences as they come along.

Also, SCCE implemented a wristband system to let attendees know how comfortable everyone was with physical distance. Green bands meant you’d be happy to do hugs, high fives, and whatnot; yellow bands meant talking but no physical contant; red bands meant stay away.

This was the pile of wristbands at the end of the conference. It speaks volumes about just how happy everyone was to be together again.

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