Inside Elevate 2026: What governance, legal, compliance, audit and risk roles will learn
Boards want clearer answers. Regulators expect stronger proof. And AI is rewriting core workflows faster than teams can update them. Elevate 2026 is where the people shaping the next chapter of governance, audit, risk, legal and compliance come together to share what’s actually working.
This isn’t theory. It’s the workflows, lessons and real examples you can use immediately — from teams solving the exact challenges you’re facing right now. If you want to move faster, strengthen oversight and stay ahead of what’s coming, Elevate is the room you need to be in. Register today and join us in Atlanta, GA, April 22–24, 2026. Until then, here’s a preview of the sessions shaping this years' experience, organized so you can quickly find the ones that connect directly to your day‑to‑day work.
For board administrators and governance professionals
Ever wonder how other governance teams keep pace with rising expectations? How they reduce last‑minute scrambles, tighten coordination or run meetings with fewer manual steps? Or how AI can support your workflow without losing your signature style and structure?
Find your answers in these sessions:
Diligent Boards mastery levels 1- 4
A progressive, hands‑on training series designed to take you from essential board administration workflows to governance excellence. Across levels 1–4, you’ll learn how to publish board books, manage agendas and director access, expand collaboration with pre‑publishing and CEO sign‑off, leverage Smart Minutes and evaluations, and operate with automated reviews, best‑practice templates and continuous director education.
Beyond note‑taking: AI‑powered meeting minutes
Turn notes and transcripts into accurate, professional minutes in minutes — aligned to your own templates and approval process. See how AI supports consistency, reduces rework and helps governance teams finalize minutes faster without sacrificing control or quality.
GovernAI skills lab: Master AI‑powered tools that transform your governance work
AI promises to transform governance work, but only if it’s applied effectively. This interactive skills lab cuts through the hype and shows you practical ways to make GovernAI a true productivity accelerator. Through live training and real workflow scenarios, you’ll learn how to build board materials in minutes, extract insights instantly, generate first‑draft minutes and turn meeting inputs into action‑ready next steps.
Developing director training plans
A structured approach to building, maintaining and evolving director education programs. Learn how to identify skills gaps using evaluations, align training to governance priorities and create repeatable training plans that support long‑term board effectiveness.
All in favor? BoardEffect approvals and polls in action (Training)
Learn how to collect responses, share updates and manage collaboration using approvals, surveys and polls — all without leaving the BoardEffect platform. This hands‑on training session shows nonprofit administrators how to streamline decisions and keep engagement high between meetings.
Hear how Elevate creates space for real connection and practical exchange among governance and compliance leaders. Renee Wardlaw, Senior VP and Chief Administrative Officer at Bristol Bay Native Corporation, shares why the peer relationships, sense of community and open conversations she finds at Elevate keep her coming back.
For general counsels and corporate secretaries
Is your entity data accurate enough to defend under scrutiny? Do you have the visibility you need across complex, cross‑border structures? And how are legal teams using intelligent automation without compromising oversight?
Start here:
Building data excellence in entity management: A foundation for confident compliance
Create a single, reliable source of truth for your entity data. This session covers practical strategies for strengthening data governance, improving accuracy and building reporting that stands up to regulator, auditor and internal scrutiny.
Navigating cross‑border entity complexity in an uncertain regulatory landscape
Explore practical approaches for managing multi‑jurisdiction entity portfolios amid regulatory digitalization and shifting requirements. Learn how leading teams maintain transparency, consistency and control across borders.
Career acceleration: Your path to corporate secretary certification
Hear from newly certified professionals about the pathways, benefits and resources that support career progression. This session provides real‑world insight into certification journeys and how they translate into day‑to‑day impact.
AI in corporate governance workflow workshop
See how legal and governance teams apply automation to document review, policy updates and repeatable workflows — while maintaining oversight and control. This workshop focuses on practical AI use cases that save time without introducing risk.
Watch Susanne VanSligtenhorst, Director of Corporate Governance and Assistant Corporate Secretary at Discovery Silver Corp., describe how Elevate helps her explore AI-supported board meeting prep and minutes, meet Diligent experts in person and strengthen the governance processes she’s accountable for.
For compliance leaders
Pressure is mounting — more obligations, more scrutiny, more need for defensibility. Which parts of your programme need the greatest lift? How do you stay transaction‑ready all year, not only when a deal hits? Where can automation extend your coverage without increasing headcount?
These sessions will help:
Compliance masterclass: Preparing your program for an IPO (or big transaction)
Clear, practical steps to strengthen policies, training, disclosures and controls ahead of major transactions. Learn how to prepare your compliance program for heightened investor, regulator and auditor scrutiny.
The integrated integrity journey: Building a unified compliance and ethics program
A maturity roadmap for connecting policy, training, third‑party risk and speak‑up into a single, coherent compliance and ethics ecosystem that scales with your organization.
AI‑driven compliance agent: Closing the gap between risk and readiness
See how automated monitoring, policy updates, approvals, distribution and attestations support an always‑audit‑ready posture. This session shows how AI agents reduce manual effort while extending compliance coverage.
Compliance speak‑up workshop
Practical guidance on case handling, transparency and building trust in reporting channels. Learn how to strengthen speak‑up programs that employees trust and regulators respect.
For audit and risk leaders
You’re juggling huge datasets, more scrutiny and tighter timelines than ever. How do you validate insights generated with AI? Where can automation speed up testing without adding risk? And what does future‑ready ERM actually look like for organisations moving fast?
Dive into these sessions at Elevate:
Auditing the AI: Hands‑on lab with ACL AI Studio
Work through real‑world scenarios to validate AI outputs, test for bias, compare results to ground‑truth data and build a defensible framework for assurance using ACL AI Studio.
Top 10 ACL Use Cases
A fast‑paced walkthrough of high‑impact analytics scenarios including fraud detection, duplicate payments, access controls, SOX testing and policy compliance.
ERM outgrowing your spreadsheets? Master the shift to AI‑first risk management
Hear how organizations moved from fragmented spreadsheets to continuous, AI‑powered ERM. Learn practical strategies to improve risk identification, assessment accuracy and board‑level reporting.
AI for proactive risk identification: The next frontier in third‑party risk management
See how organizations surface reputational, sanctions and ESG risks earlier using AI‑driven monitoring so teams can act faster with stronger evidence.
For a CISO’s view, watch James Wade explain how attending Elevate with no prior deployment gave him the chance to validate AI‑powered audit and risk workflows, understand internal auditors’ expectations and ultimately adopt Diligent to support continuous, data‑driven assurance.
Elevate: Where big ideas become bold strategies. What will you take away?
The work you do shapes how your organization makes decisions, manages risk and compliance, and moves forward. Elevate is your chance to step away from the day‑to‑day and sharpen the way you approach it. Come for the sessions. Stay for the conversations. Leave with clarity, confidence, an AI roadmap for your role, and a few new ideas you didn’t expect.
See you in Atlanta, April 22–24, 2026 — register today.
Watch this quick video to get a feel for the Elevate experience, governance, risk, compliance and audit leaders share why they keep coming back — from AI skills and roadmap insights to networking that truly moves their work forward:
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