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Angela Bohlen went to her first Global Ethics Summit last year with a colleague from Duke Energy. “I attended with a colleague and we agreed that we were glad we stepped away from our day job,” she said afterward. “This was my first time at this conference. It was very well done, and I learned a TON.” That’s not the review most people expect from a professional conference, and it’s the one Ethisphere hears most often from first-timers.
The 18th Global Ethics Summit (GES) runs March 30 through April 1, 2027, at the Omni Atlanta Hotel at Centennial Park, with a full virtual option for anyone who can’t be there in person. If you’ve never gone, or you went once and are deciding whether it earns a second trip, here are seven reasons to book it, and what to do with the reasons you’re hesitating.
1. It’s the most senior room in ethics and compliance
Last year, 65% of the in-person crowd was director-level or above, and 39.7% were C-suite or senior leadership, drawn from more than 550 organizations and 123 speakers. Regulators shared the stage with chief ethics and compliance officers, general counsel, and the people who brief boards for a living. “Great experience, full of great professionals with really impressive profiles,” said Luis Flores of Hitachi Energy after attending. “We will definitely be back for upcoming years.”
2. The 2027 theme is Human-Centered, AI-Assisted
That’s the title of the opening plenary, and it runs through sessions on AI governance, AI-assisted investigations, third-party monitoring, board reporting, and training. It’s built around one question: what to automate, what to govern, and what stays human. Attendees rated AI and technology in compliance the top topic in last year’s session survey, so the 2027 programming is answering something the room already asked for, not guessing at what might land.
3. You leave with something to use, not something to file away
The format is built for that on purpose: 90-minute breakout blocks, closed-door peer conversations, hands-on workshops, and member-led case studies that walk through how a program actually got built, not how it looks in a slide. Last year’s standout sessions were the applied ones, including “From Fear to Trust” on retaliation and “Could AI Be Your New Investigations Partner?” The average session scored 4.7 out of 5 across 575 survey responses, and 90% of attendees said they left with a practical takeaway. “Such a great conference, direct value add to my day-to-day responsibilities,” said Dianne Ramos of Guardian Life Insurance.
4. People show up, and they talk
Compliance is a field where candor is scarce, and GES measures for it. Last year’s summit scored a Net Promoter Score of 75 with zero detractors, up 18 points year over year, and a 95.5% in-person show-up rate, meaning the people who register for this one don’t quietly bail. Attendees rated the overall experience 9 out of 10. Those numbers don’t come from good catering. They come from a room that’s capped on purpose, where everyone agrees that what’s learned here leaves, and what’s said here stays.
5. The Super Early Bird rate closes at the end of September
Register before Sept. 30 and an in-person pass runs $2,495, with a member rate of $1,295 for organizations in the Business Ethics Leadership Alliance (BELA). Miss that window and the price climbs in three more steps between now and the Summit. A virtual pass is $1,095 at the Super Early Bird rate, or $650 for BELA members. If your organization already belongs to BELA, check your seat allocation before you assume you need to buy one: most member tiers come with at least one comped in-person pass and several virtual ones, and an unused seat is money already spent. Bringing a team costs less per head too, with discounts built in for groups of three or more.
6. Virtual is a real program, not a consolation prize
If you can’t travel that week at all, the virtual pass carries live keynotes, moderated Q&A with speakers, and full replay access, built for the screen rather than just streamed at it. “I attended virtually and thought the technology platform was stellar and the production quality was superb,” said Nancy Phillips of KPMG. It’s a legitimate way to get the content. It is not, by design, a way to get the off-the-record conversation that brings people back year after year. If you can be in Atlanta, be in Atlanta.
7. One trip covers more than the Summit
GES week runs industry roundtables over breakfast, plenaries, breakout panels, and an evening reception on the first day, a full day of workshops and member case studies on the second, and morning sessions and peer exchanges on the third, all inside a single hotel. That same week also carries the gala celebrating that year’s World’s Most Ethical Companies® Honorees, so a single flight to Atlanta can cover your peer benchmarking, your Summit sessions, and the industry’s biggest recognition event in one pass through security.
The Objections, Answered Directly
“I already go to the bigger conference.” That one is volume and certification. This is the room where the people setting the direction for their own programs compare notes with each other, and plenty of people do both.
“No budget.” The Super Early Bird rate holds through Sept. 30, and it’s the lowest price the 2027 Summit will offer. If your organization holds a BELA membership, part of your seat may already be paid for.
“I’ll just do it virtually.” That’s a legitimate way to experience GES, especially for your entire team. But ask anyone who’s done both, and the reason they keep coming back in person isn’t the keynotes. It’s the content and conversations (like peer-to-peer sessions) that don’t get replayed.
The quieter objection is the one nobody says out loud: that three days out of the office is a lot to justify when the job already has enough fires in it. As Pete Blumberg, VP and Chief Compliance Officer at FedEx, put it: “Everyone in this field benefits from everyone else’s innovation … and I think it is one of the most important things that either compliance leaders do, or people who aspire to be compliance leaders, is learning all the time.”
Registration for the 2027 Global Ethics Summit is open now at attendges.com. The Super Early Bird rate runs through Sept. 30, and it’s the cheapest this year will get.
Author Bio
Bill Coffin | Editor-in-Chief, Ethisphere Magazine, Ethisphere
Bill Coffin is an internationally recognized writer and editorial leader in the fields of ethics, compliance, insurance and risk management. His work has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, BusinessWeek, Forbes and Fortune, as well as Compliance Week, National Underwriter, Risk Management, Best’s Review and other B2B media. Previously, Bill served as Director, Senior Editor at AIG, leading content strategy for one of the world’s largest insurance companies.
