Lessons From Oklahoma’s First Public Finance Forum

What do public finance practitioners actually care about right now? Not what a survey says. Not what a report projects. What they said, out loud, in the room, when given the chance to finally talk to each other.

Last April, Alexandra Edwards, Deputy Treasurer for Debt Management at the Oklahoma State Treasurer's Office, organized the first event of its kind in the state, bringing everyone from billion-dollar state issuers to one-bond-a-year school districts into the same room. No one in Oklahoma had ever done it before.

In this episode of Full Disclosure, Alex shares what came out of that room including the sessions that generated the most energy, the concerns that kept resurfacing across very different types of issuers, and the practical takeaways worth knowing in public finance.

If you're managing debt, structuring issuances, or just trying to keep up with what your peers in public finance are actually dealing with, this is the closest thing to being in that room yourself.

What Attendees Will Learn:

• Why the Forum was needed and why "no dedicated in-state gathering" was a problem worth solving
• How the Forum was created from scratch pulling together legislative updates, a cybersecurity session, a tech demo, and peer networking into one credible full-day event
• What the room revealed including the sessions that generated the most energy, the topics that kept resurfacing in hallway conversations, and what that says about where public finance priorities are heading in 2026
• A blueprint for other states on where to start if you wanted to replicate the Forum elsewhere
• A look inside real day-to-day debt management on how Alex balances issuers ranging from billion-dollar state deals to a school district's single annual bond, and where tools like DebtBook actually earn their place in that workflow