Reflections on the 2019 ICVPME Conference in Auckland, NZ

By John Mathe, ASA

AUCKLAND, NZ–The 11^th annual International Conference on the Valuation of Plant, Machinery & Equipment (ICVPME) was held in Auckland, New Zealand on Sept. 9-11, 2019. Conference speakers represented major international and national valuation organizations and leading companies from across the world, including the Forum’s partners: ASA, IVSC, RICS, CAS, TAQEEM, IIBV, IACVS, CICBV–and many others.

American Society of Appraisers (ASA) speakers at the event included: Johnnie White, CEO, ASA; Craig E. Akins, ASA; David Crick, ASA; Roger J. Grabowski, FASA; Lee Hackett, FASA; Brad Hartsburg, ASA; Rod Hyman, ASA; Gregory W. Kort, ASA; Norman Laskay, ASA; Alexander N. Lopatnikov, ASA; John Mathe, ASA; Mona L. Miller, FASA; Paul C. Osaji, ASA; Samuel Shapiro, ASA; and Jeffrey S. Tarbell, ASA.

Conference attendees had the unique opportunity to discuss the changing valuation regulation and standards and learn about various valuation cases covering all disciplines and asset types. The conference agenda included professional roundtable discussions, multi-discipline workshops, and training opportunities.

John Mathe, ASA, authored the following blog about the Conference:

The ICVPME Conference had delegates from almost 20 countries, over 30 speakers, representing around 18 Valuation Professional Organizations (VPO)’s globally.

Delegate engagement and satisfaction was one of the highest and attendance stayed almost full right up to the last session.

We have a repertoire of almost 30 presentations, some of which will be converted into articles for display in the ASA Machinery & Technical Specialties (MTS) & Business Valuation (BV) journals.

Work has already started on the next conference slated to be held in Riyadh in 2021 (TAQEEM) which looks to become a major appraisal conference event for European, Middle Eastern, African, Asian and North American VPO’s alike.

Instrumental to the success of the conference were the following: Alexander Lopatnikov, ASA; Rod Hyman, ASA; Rick Berkemeier, ASA; Alhanouf Alabood, TAQEEM; Jeffrey Tarbell, ASA; and of course Lee Hackett, FASA; and Les Miles, FASA (whom incidentally are two of the original founders of the event).

Keynote speakers comprised Roger Grabowski, FASA (D&P); Robert Brackett, (IACVS); Professors’ Alastair Marsden and Abdul-Rasheed Amidu (Auckland University); and Professor Haisu Wang, (Zhongnan University).

Topics were as diverse as Cryptocurrency (Singh and St. John) to Hemp (Shapiro) to Cost of Capital Tool Kit (Marsden).

The Australian Chapter of the ASA continued to support the event by sponsoring a Wine Tasting Reception which was one of the highlights of the conference networking events.

Given this conference takes around two years to organize and is completely organized and run by volunteers from five continents, it is an incredible achievement of what has been lauded by many as one of the ‘Must Attend’ conferences on the global appraisal calendar. Conference chairman, Mr. Alexander Lopatnikov stated: “This was one of the most successful and enjoyable conferences held in the 22 year history of the biennial event.”