Turnaround Management Association (TMA) Europe held its ninth annual conference in Rome on 9 and 10 June. Partner at Karanović & Nikolić,Maja Jovančević Šetka, attended the conference as a board member of TMA Serbia. The conference, entitled "Increasing performance through turnaround culture and values", gathered over 130 turnaround practitioners, investors and other professionals that are involved in distressed environments, giving them a chance to participate in well informed all-around discussions on the associated issues. The first day was kicked off by the meetings of presidents and board members of associations within TMA networks. Throughout the rest of the conference, the speakers and participants discussed the economic business environment in Europe and areas of potential investment for the global investment community. Panel sessions focused on some of the major challenges the industry faces – from equity cram-down to European NPL resolution efforts. Speakers, including a representative of the Serbian Ministry of Finance, discussed the current efforts in the Europe's hardest hit markets and the innovative regional and market specific solutions for managing and resolving distressed assets. Other discussions also covered the specific issues involved in the turnaround of SMEs, including the role a founding entrepreneur plays in a turnaround, as well as on the latest trends, techniques and tools for SME debt restructuring. Furthermore, an interesting panel workshop was held on the topic of how to measure and manage organisational culture, which is shown to be one of the top four risk factors associated with performance improvement in turnarounds. The conference has also seen a launch ofTMA Network of Women(NOW) in Europe. TMA NOW is an affinity group within TMA, created originally in US to foster female leadership by creating the premier business development and networking group for women in the turnaround community. For more information on the conference seehttp://www.tma-europe.org/annual-conference/detail-16.asp?ItemID=395 | 