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This blog originally appeared on Workiva.com on September 13 2023.

Amplify 2023 is in the books! For three days, Workiva turned Nashville into the epicenter of all things accounting, finance, environmental, social, and governance (ESG), and audit and risk. Reporting and compliance professionals united to ignite their knowledge, inspire one another, and find new and better ways to tackle the challenges they’re facing.

More than 2,000 attendees joined us in Music City from Sept. 19–21, making Amplify 2023 the largest in-person Workiva event ever. Here are some highlights of this year’s sights and soundbites.

Amplify day 1 highlights

Workiva CEO Julie Iskow kicked off Amplify by shining a light on the real stars of the show: the thousands of accountants, analysts, auditors, controllers, CFOs, CSOs, and others in the spotlight right now, as regulations, risks, and technology collide at a rapid pace. With the convergence of data, people, and processes around financial reporting and compliance, the need for assured integrated reporting is now.

“In a time where the demand for transparency continues to grow in scope, and complexity, and importance, the roles that you and your teams play are more visible, more critical, and more strategic than ever,” said Julie. “You have increasingly more responsibility to provide both internal and external stakeholders with information that significantly impacts business decisions and outcomes.”

Chief Technology Officer David Haila introduced a new level of intelligence to the Workiva platform, including Workiva Generative AI.

“In the next decade, few trends will be more impactful than artificial intelligence. It will be your co-pilot for producing content, a creative partner for brainstorming new ideas, a research assistant surfacing insights from your enterprise data, and a workhorse automating tasks at a scale never thought possible through manual effort,” said David. “And now, it’s a key component of Workiva.”

Workiva Gen AI has been baked into the platform across documents, spreadsheets, and presentations. You can now use prompts in the platform to conduct research, brainstorm ideas, or get a head start on disclosures and other content—with a level of security and context you can’t get from off-the-shelf gen AI tools. Workiva Gen AI is currently accessible to customers in North America. Learn more about Workiva Gen AI and if your organization is eligible.

The Workiva product team unveiled several new and upcoming platform features that will simplify work across financial reporting, ESG, and governance, risk, and compliance (GRC). Just a few of the latest innovations include:

• XBRL^® Tagging Outliers, which financial reporting teams can use to identify tags that would make them stand out from peer organizations and aid in the XBRL review process
• Automated Table of Contents that will easily populate and automatically update with any changes to the outline and headings of your document 
• Smart Links, a revolutionary new linking capability that will allow users to not only share data points to colleagues regardless of what workspace they’re in, but also name, tag, and catalog links for easy discoverability across teams 
• ESG Readiness Assessment that identifies the frameworks that might be most relevant to your organization with a few simple inputs about your company  
• GRC Workflow, a powerful status manager that helps you assign tasks, automate data entry, and guarantee accurate reporting with clear transitions like “Send for Review” 

Amplify is the place where meaningful conversations happen–whether it’s diving deep into proposed regulations or sharing best practices from across the profession. The SEC, GRC, and ESG Pro Groups held their quarterly meetings on site during Amplify.

The 2023 Workiva Partner and Customer of the Year Awards were announced at a special reception during Amplify on Tuesday. These annual awards recognize Workiva’s partners and customers from around the world across a diverse set of categories and industries. Check out the complete lists of Customer Award winners and Partner Award winners. 

Amplify day 2 highlights

Former PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi opened Amplify day 2 by inspiring the crowd with lessons learned as she rose the ranks from the office of the CFO. The bestselling author of My Life in Full talked about what it was like blazing a trail as a woman in the C-suite, how she helped transform PepsiCo with her Performance with Purpose approach, and of course, her beloved New York Yankees.

One piece of advice from Indra: Regardless of deflation or inflation, geopolitical uncertainties, or disruptive technologies, “There's only one skill that will enable companies and individuals to be resilient and manage through these incredible upheavals. And that is a love for lifelong learning. This is not an option. It's a survival skill in today's job market or maybe even life.” 

Sessions were in full swing on Tuesday, and attendees packed the breakout rooms to try to solve their toughest financial reporting, ESG, and GRC challenges. Topics from over 60 sessions included: 

• How companies are combining ESG and GRC
• Solving for the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD)
• What the future of internal audit holds with IIA President and CEO Anthony Pugliese
• IPO readiness and determining the right timing, team, and tools 
• The role of automation in financial reporting 
• Building audit-ready climate disclosures from data to calculations to reports

Amplify day 3 highlights

The Amplify Hub was bustling all week, as attendees took a break from sessions to network with peers and explore technologies, test drive different Workiva solutions and features, check out what’s new from our partner network, and talk directly to the people behind the products. 

Throughout the week, the Off the Books podcast crew was busy recording live in the Amplify Studio. Conversations ranged from how to approach internal audit with a global perspective, the benefits and potential challenges of gen AI, new SEC regulations, and what’s top of mind as 2024 nears.

Next year, we’ll trade cowboy boots for hiking boots, as we meet in the Mile High City. Amplify 2024 will be held in Denver, Colorado, Sept. 9–11. Bookmark this page for updates.

Keep the momentum going from Workiva Amplify 2023

Want to virtually experience the excitement and insights of Amplify? Register for a free Amplify account and you can stream select sessions until Oct. 31, 2023.