The voluminous programme sent to all well before the event helped accelerate discussion. Focused intros from the excellent cast of speakers – Tim Hoad, Raj Thamotheram, Ali Gill, Morgen Witzel, Richard Phelps and Ann Graham – offered first hand experiences and new approaches to consider. So passionate and over flowing were the ideas being quite literally thrown around, the event could have been twice as long as the scheduled two hours. Afterward, many had to be escorted from the already closed Crimson bar, reassured that of course we would be moving forward, of course we mean business.

So what are the next steps? How are we moving forward?

• First up, an invite-only Accounting for People 2.0 Group has been set up on HubCap for delegates and those who are interested in carrying the conversations forward. If you want to get on, all you need to do is ask.
• As food for thought, we have the AfP 2.0 ebook, a special Edition of the forthcoming Human Capital Handbook 2011 featuring original seen-here-first pieces from Tim Hoad, Michael Reddy, as well as Professor Robin Roslender, Editor, Journal of Human Resource Costing and Accounting; and Chris Hodge, Head of Corporate Governance at the Financial Reporting Council. Login to the HubCap library to read or download it yourself. (Incidentally, HubCap has an Accounting for People bookshelf full of related reading material from academics and business leaders worldwide).
• Between now and November 18th, when the Taskforce will meet again, we’ll be busy setting up the committee and research structure – follow the AfP 2.0 website for more on that.
• After that, it’s heads down to create the AfP 2.0 People Reporting Framework, to be submitted to the UK Gov next year….

But that’s not all.

Yes, we’re in this to change reporting law. We feel the time is not just overdue, but finally right to do this. After last night, we know others feel the same way too.

But the long term goals are wider. We already have many people actively helping to shape our ideas from around the world. We plan to help them change reporting law where they are too.

More: we want to change the way people think and talk about people and business. And doing this means going right down to where people learn to think and talk about people and business – namely at the curricula and text book level. Like all people who want to change things, we want to do so so that the next generation will look back on us favourably.

There are many other things happening of course, but I can’t divulge more here. There are websites and groups where you can read it all yourself – more, get on board and have your say. Just don’t think you’re entering a talking shop.