The Small Practitioners Interest Group (SPIG) is a discussion and networking forum for members in small teams to share experiences, issues and challenges they face. The group meet four times a year. All are welcome.

In December 2025, we ran our final IIA NZ SPIG session featuring Rodney Young as our wonderful speaker. The topic was "Emerging Technology and Small Teams - Exploring how AI and other technologies can be leveraged effectively in smaller audit teams."

Our first 2026 session is the second instalment to Rodney's December workshop, exploring how emerging technologies can be effectively leveraged by small internal audit teams and will build on the foundations established in Part 1.

Disclaimer: Attendance at Part 1 is not required. All relevant resources from the first session will be made available to participants in advance to ensure everyone can fully engage with the content.

Further details, including the topic and session summary for Part 2, will be shared as soon as possible.

Speaker: Rodney Young (IIA NZ Committee Member / Gallagher Group Manager Risk and Assurance)

PART 1: Overview:

Small internal audit teams are being asked to cover more with fewer hands while AI changes the speed and shape of assurance. This SPIG workshop is a practical deep-dive into how AI and adjacent tools can lift capacity across the entire audit lifecycle. Observe internal audit AI agents in action and also learn how to build you own AI agents as you interact in a live demonstration of AI agent creation. Participants will also receive a toolkit of guidance documentation, templates, ready-to-use checklists, and starter use cases for application back in the workplace.

BIO

Rodney Young is a Certified Internal Auditor with more than 20 years' leadership experience across New Zealand's private and public sectors, spanning internal audit, risk, quality assurance and policy. A long-time IIA member (since 2015), Rodney has led functions in complex tertiary-education environments and is now GM Risk & Assurance at global technology company Gallagher Group. He holds a Bachelor of Business (Marketing and International Management) and Master's degrees in Adult Education and in Leadership Communication. Passionate about practical, value-adding audit, Rodney champions simple, modern ways of working, including safe, standards-aligned use of emerging technologies to help teams deliver measurable outcomes for their organisations and communities.

IIA NZ Event Overview and Refund Policy: https://iianz.org.nz/Site/terms-and-conditions.aspx

If you require assistance with registering, please contact events@iianz.org.nz