GUEST BLOGGER
Andi McNeal, CFE, CPA
ACFE Research Director

In my 16 years on staff at the ACFE, I have enjoyed and learned from countless interactions with our members at live and virtual events, through emails and phone calls, in our online community, and by working on projects together. One of my favorite opportunities to connect has been the Women’s Networking Reception at our last few ACFE Global Fraud Conferences.

These receptions cap off a very busy Sunday with a fun evening of swapping stories, hearing inspiring ideas and laughing together over a glass of wine with some of my fellow female fraud fighters. I always walk away with new resources and perspectives to help me grow and move forward, which makes them all the more valuable to me.

When we made the difficult-but-necessary call to move our ACFE Global Fraud Conference to a fully virtual format for 2020, I was especially saddened that we wouldn’t have our in-person Women’s Networking Reception this year. However, we quickly set up a networking channel dedicated to women in the anti-fraud profession as part of the virtual conference.

While I certainly wished we could be together in person in Boston, the conversation and connection in the online format was fantastic. And it showed us that we don’t need to wait for in-person events; we should find ways to keep this group connecting and networking year-round.

So this week we launched a new group in the online ACFE Community called “Women in the Anti-Fraud Profession.”

The group is open to all ACFE members, regardless of gender and no matter how related (or not) your current role is to fraud. We are excited to offer this group in the community as a place to discuss common challenges, ask questions, share ideas and resources, and support each other as we navigate our own professional journeys. We’ll cover topics like confidence vs. competence, how to be noticed by leadership, naming and sharing your goals, getting started in your anti-fraud career and so much more.

This new group will be our first step in providing even more offerings for women in our profession. We are also busy planning our first-ever Women’s Summit for March 4, 2021, where we’ll hear from experts and dive even deeper into some of the topics that affect so many of us in our professional and personal lives.

We’re already seeing a lot of interest in the new group, and I can’t wait to connect with so many ACFE members online. And this group will include members from around the world — beyond just those who are able to attend our in-person conference — so we’ll have the opportunity to create a truly global version of our previous women’s networking efforts.

It might not be quite the same as laughing and sharing over fancy cheese and a drink on a Sunday evening, but I’m looking forward to chatting with friends — new and old — in this new group for women in the anti-fraud profession.

ACFE Members, please note, you will need to use your ACFE login information to access the group.

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