Students, educators and practitioners can register for the 7th Annual Fraud and

Forensic Accounting Education Conference in Atlanta from May 15-17 is available now.

The two-and-a-half-day conference, hosted by Georgia Southern University and the Porter Keale Moore accounting firm, will cover a wide range of topics regarding the latest developments in forensic and fraud accounting.

The conference intends to have 35 to 40 speakers who are experts in the fields, J. Charles Williamson, conference chair and director of GSU’s Center for Forensic Studies in Accounting and Business, said.

Past speakers have included national experts from universities, government agencies, law enforcement and accounting agencies.

This year will offer panel discussions of expert witnesses and speakers involved in all sides of fraud, prosecution, investigation and defense, Williamson said.

GSU’s School of Accountancy at Georgia Southern University is AACSB accredited and offers an interdisciplinary undergraduate-level fraud examination minor and a graduate-level forensic accounting concentration.

Students that are even the least bit interested in fraud should consider attending, Don Berecz, former conference chair and GSU lecturer, said.

“Fraud permeates all aspects of society. We have students from criminal justice, psychology, health and restaurant management majors who participate in the program,” Berecz said.

The conference will have a strong emphasis on “cyber-fraud” including cloud computing, mobile device fraud and even e-filing fraud, Williamson said.

“We seem to get a lot of positive feedback from attendees. Hopefully more students will be able to attend this year because it really is a great networking opportunity for COBA students,” Williamson said.

The conference is designed around general and breakout sessions that allow attendees to pick and choose their interest as well as the opportunity to earn 20 continuing professional education hours.

CPE hours can be earned by current practitioners and put toward recertification.

“The breakout sessions allow attendees to specialize their experience. There are at least three speakers to choose from per break out session,” Berecz said.

The conference will be held at JW Marriot in Buckhead. Early bird rates of $195 for students, $495 for academia and $595 is available now at www.pkm.com/news/ fraud-conference.