Visit our many sponsors and exhibitors at the Trade Exhibition Hall. Giveaways and Prizes on offer!
5:00 AM
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Drop in and visit the Tech & Knowledge hubs during the breaks - no registrations required.
8:15 AM
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This session demonstrates how Explicit Direct Instruction (EDI) can enhance students’ ability to analyse and evaluate in Senior Business and Accounting. Drawing on the QCAA syllabuses, participants will explore how deliberate modelling, guided practice, and structured writing scaffolds build confidence and precision in extended response tasks. The session will showcase practical examples — such as evaluating business strategies, analysing financial controls, and assessing economic policies — to highlight transferable teaching approaches across Commerce disciplines. Attendees will engage in a hands-on activity to design their own short EDI lesson sequence and will receive adaptable templates, annotated exemplars, and marking guides. The focus is on helping students move beyond description to higher-order judgment, improving performance in both internal and external assessment contexts.
10:05 AM
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In this session, delegates will engage in a hands-on activity that will teach 4 different leadership styles. Participants can expect a high energy session, the blueprint of which they can take with them to their Senior (or Junior) Business classrooms.
10:05 AM
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8 Ways of Aboriginal learning is a flexible pedagogical that enables educators to embed a First Nations approach to education through process. This presentation will use Junior Economics and Business as the basis of teaching teachers the how of Aboriginal thinking and values.
10:05 AM
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This panel brings together CPA Australia members to explore how ratios and industry benchmarks are used to evaluate financial health, understand operational trends, and support strategic decisions. Speakers will share contemporary examples from their professional journeys, illustrating how accountants turn numerical indicators into meaningful advice. Tailored for Queensland high school teachers delivering senior accounting, the session highlights practical stories that help bridge the gap between theoretical concepts and the real-world work of accounting professionals.
10:05 AM
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This session will explore the Australian Taxation Office's curriculum-aligned teaching resources designed to support educators in delivering engaging and practical lessons on taxation and financial literacy. Covering Years 7 to 10 Economics and Business, the session will highlight key learning areas such as economic literacy, consumer and financial literacy, and interpreting and analysing financial data. Educators will gain insights into strategies for teaching taxation concepts, including income tax, superannuation and financial scams. The session will introduce the free Tax Super + You platform, which provides over 1000 online and print resources mapped to the Australian Curriculum v9.0 and senior curriculums. Attendees will leave with practical tools to enhance student understanding of Australia's tax system and financial decision-making.
10:05 AM
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Laws of Attraction: Gamifying and Physicalising Legal Studies Legal Studies is often unfairly branded as a "dry" marathon of dense readings and complex Latin maxims. But how do we bridge the gap between heavy case law and high student engagement? Research shows that the most effective way for students to encode knowledge isn’t through passive reading, but through fun, movement, and active play. In this interactive session, we’ll move beyond the textbook to explore a suite of high-energy strategies designed to get your class moving, laughing, and thinking. From physical "human court" simulations to competitive gamified terminology challenges and creative roleplay, you’ll discover practical ways to help students navigate the legal landscape. Whether it's turning the legislative process into a collaborative game or using kinetic hooks to anchor difficult concepts, these methods ensure that the knowledge "sticks"—not just for the assessment, but for life. Join us to build a toolkit of "legal play" that transforms your classroom into a dynamic hub where the law is lived, not just read.
10:05 AM
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By Term 4, Year 12 students are practically vibrating with the urge to leave the building. Introducing a new analytical tool while keeping them focused and skill-building can feel a bit like herding eels! This interactive session shares a memorable (and highly engaging) approach to preparing students for their external exam using a unique case study — complete with a guarantee that no one will complain about the “homework” needed to prepare for the lesson. Come ready to roll up your sleeves and help solve a real client problem. You’ll create a Force Field Analysis, a SWOT, and apply Kotter’s 8-Step Model — all in a way that actually sticks. You’ll leave with practical ideas to energise your classroom, think a little differently, and help your students build analytical skills without them even realising how hard they’re working.
11:25 AM
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Integrating AI into business education is most powerful when students are guided to think critically about how and why they use these tools—not just what the tools can produce. This workshop demonstrates how AI can be embedded meaningfully into business subjects by using SQL coding as an accessible example of AI‑supported problem‑solving. Teaching students to generate SQL code and develop database skills with AI is only meaningful when the assessment design requires them to critically reflect on, evaluate, and justify how AI is used in their learning. In this session, I outline how two database courses were redesigned around this principle, embedding Gemini AI into interactive Colab notebooks and aligning assessments with supporting lecture and tutorial structures to develop students’ AI literacy. The assessment requires students to document their use of AI, prompt development, evaluate and validate AI-generated SQL, and reflect on the role of AI in their problem-solving processes rather than accepting outputs at face value.
11:25 AM
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How do you know your Economics and Business assessment program is good? Is student curiosity provoked? Is the achievement standard used effectively to assess subject-specific skills? In this workshop, we will jump into hands-on activities that ignite a deep dive into the Years 7–10 Economics and Business achievement standards. With a clear lens on middle-years learning, you will interrogate a sample Economics and Business investigation to test its alignment to the achievement standard and use these insights to reflect on the design of year-level appropriate assessment within your own contexts. The workshop includes a brief tour of the QCAA planning app and assessment literacy courses to build professional capacity in designing quality assessment.
11:25 AM
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What do high school students really think about accounting — and how can educators reshape those perceptions? Join Dr Bronwyn McCredie and Dr Natalie Elms from QUT as they present research and practical strategies to challenge outdated views of accounting. The session will share key findings from a study involving a survey of 409 high school students and seven focus groups conducted across 36 regional and metropolitan schools in Queensland. Participants will gain evidence-based strategies for engaging students and reframing accounting as a dynamic, purposeful, and evolving profession.
11:25 AM
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Financial Basics Foundation offers free, ready-to-use financial literacy education resources to support teachers and build students’ real-world financial skills. This session will showcase practical tools to boost engagement in Economics & Business without adding to teacher workload. We’ll explore Cashed Up, our new series of on-demand online short courses where students earn financial literacy micro-credentials while teachers remain in the driver’s seat. We’ll also introduce Cashed Up Boot Camp, a flexible option that allows students to self-enrol and learn online with support from specialist FBF educators. The session will cover the refreshed ESSI Money Game, an award-winning, interactive simulation where students earn, save, spend and invest, experiencing real consequences in a safe and entertaining way. We’ll also highlight MoneyIQ, a library of quick animated videos designed to help teens navigate the financial responsibilities that come with growing independence. All resources are free and fully mapped to the Australian Curriculum.
11:25 AM
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If we want students ready for the Brisbane 2032 economy and beyond, we must rethink how Business is taught. Too often, classrooms prioritise terminology and assessment performance, while industry demands initiative, commercial judgement, strategic thinking and leadership confidence. In this practical, thought-provoking session, Janette Comish introduces a “Capability-First” framework that shifts Business education from content delivery to enterprise development — without increasing workload or disrupting syllabus alignment. Drawing on her experience across school leadership, VET and business, she connects classroom practice with real-world application. Participants will explore how to embed commercial thinking into existing units, strengthen engagement and subject uptake, develop entrepreneurial mindset, and prepare students for real career pathways — not just assessment success. Aligned with Building Business Futures, this session equips teachers to deliberately build strategic thinking, initiative and leadership capability in today’s Business classrooms.
11:25 AM
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The growing use of artificial intelligence — by both students and the legal profession — makes it essential to understand its practical and ethical implications for legal research. AI does not think or reason; it predicts and generates text. It is also trained to design its outputs to appear convincing and trustworthy, even when there is no factual basis. As these tools become more visible and accessible, we need to consider how research is taught and which skills and ethical capabilities students require to navigate this changing landscape. This session will explore these common pitfalls, including AI hallucinations, and consider how they can expose students to the use of gen AI responsibly. The presentation will also touch on current expectations around AI use in professional legal contexts, reinforcing the importance of academic integrity and transparency. Traditional legal research skills will be shared, along with tips and strategies, such as prompt engineering and data security, to help teachers feel more confident when supporting their students with their legal research in the era of AI. Designed for secondary teachers, it will offer practical strategies that strengthen students’ legal literacy, critical thinking and ethical research habits.
12:15 PM
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This session explores how our school supports student development of analysis and evaluation in Senior Business, aligned to the 2025 syllabus version.
12:15 PM
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Assessment conditions within Units of Competency can be complex, and schools often juggle multiple VET programs across diverse training packages. In this session, Michelle Fitton will provide clear, practical guidance to help schools confidently interpret and meet these requirements. She will explore how equipment, resources, policies, and procedures contribute to creating compliant, realistic learning environments—and how schools can strengthen their existing delivery practices with simple, achievable strategies. Drawing on extensive experience supporting school-based VET, Michelle will highlight common areas of confusion and offer straightforward solutions that support high-quality training and assessment. The session will also demonstrate how simulated business environments can streamline compliance and enhance learning without requiring significant additional resources. This presentation is designed to uplift and empower VET teachers, Heads of Department, and school RTO partners by providing clarity, tools, and confidence to meet assessment condition requirements effectively and sustainably.
12:15 PM
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This session bridges the gap between classroom theory and real-world accounting practice. Drawing on his experience as both a professional accountant and educator, Robert McDowall FCPA demonstrates how realistic financial scenarios can transform student engagement and understanding. Participants will explore a series of fictional business case studies designed to reflect authentic challenges faced by small enterprises across diverse industries. The presentation will highlight practical metrics and ratios that mirror real-world conditions, helping teachers guide students toward meaningful analysis rather than textbook abstractions. Attendees will receive ready-to-use Excel templates aligned with QCAA Senior Accounting curriculum requirements, enabling immediate classroom application. By combining industry insights with practical tools, this session equips educators to deliver lessons that are relevant, rigorous, and relatable—preparing students for the business realities of tomorrow.
12:15 PM
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Some issues and concepts taught in Junior Economics and Business are deceptively complex and require deliberate unpacking and scaffolding for students to fully grasp them. This hands-on, practical workshop offers a clear four-step process for explicitly teaching any investigative issue or concept. Beginning with a targeted cognitive verb—such as 'explain', 'analyse', or 'compare'—the process guides students in selecting aligned thinking tools and language to support deeper understanding. This structured approach not only increases the likelihood of student success but also creates rich opportunities for differentiated instruction. By combining the right verb, the right tool, and the right language, teachers can strengthen students’ critical thinking and academic literacy, leading to more confident and capable Junior Economics and Business learners.
12:15 PM
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Learn how to build low code chatbots, design system instructions, chose the appropriate AI model settings and handle edge cases whilst maintaining academic integrity. This session presents the method of implementation and evaluation of results of the CQU University School of Business and Law deployment of 26 chatbots. The chatbots were human-centered designed for student engagement, teaching assistance and administrative support. This session is designed for anyone interested in what chatbots have to offer and is set at a basic level of IT skills such that any teacher can deploy a chatbot and explore the technology.
12:15 PM
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Teaching the QCE Business curriculum through real-world fundraising events brings enterprise to life. The four major fundraisers — World’s Greatest Shave, Funky Hair Day, Ice Bucket Challenge, and RU OK Day Colour Run — are student-driven and linked to once-a-term business stalls. Each event gives students practical experience in marketing, budgeting, teamwork, and community engagement. They design posters, write emails, and develop fundraising strategies that connect directly to QCE syllabus concepts such as promotion, innovation, and stakeholder relationships. These authentic projects empower students to transform creative ideas into meaningful business ventures that support both learning outcomes and community causes.
2:40 PM
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The Sustainable Island board game is an experiential exercise that helps students explore the benefits and challenges of stakeholder collaboration as a management strategy working towards sustainable practices. Set within the context of tourism, Sustainable Island challenges students to consider various impacts of tourism from a range of stakeholder perspectives; make decisions about the most appropriate solution; and apply the consequences. In a post-AI Business World, human relations will be ever more valuable, and it will become even more important for stakeholders to take each other into account for industries to be able to build a long-term future. The Sustainable Island game gets students to walk a mile in stakeholders’ shoes, considering pros and cons from one stakeholder’s perspective, while taking into account the concerns of other stakeholders. We will demonstrate the game to illustrate how students take on the role of the stakeholder, and explain how this thought-provoking game can complement the curriculum by considering stakeholder competition and collaboration.
2:40 PM
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Two teachers from a Sunshine Coast school discuss the lessons learned from their first-time implementation of a real market experience with Year 9 Junior Economics and Business students. In the course, 53 students, in small groups, participated in a semester-long program in which they funded, designed, produced and sold their own product at the Eumundi Markets. The teachers share their operational strategies, suggestions for contextual adaptations and assessment strategies. They provide honest insights into the many challenges, wins, and lessons learned from the experience. This session hopes to inspire other teachers to embark on their own journey in embedding entrepreneurial learning in Junior Economics and Businesss.
2:40 PM
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This session introduces educators to how sustainability reporting can be taught through authentic, experiential learning. Participants will receive a brief overview of our course linking accounting practices to sustainability issues in business. We will discuss how the course builds student literacy in sustainability concepts, reporting frameworks, and real‑world ESG issues to link. The session will then highlight how practical class activities such as analysing Modern Slavery Statements and the Harvard Sustainability Management Simulation: Net Zero help to engage students with real business challenges. Educators will see how the simulation was incorporated into the course, how it supports student learning across multiple weeks, and how it forms the basis for later assessments. The session concludes with a walkthrough of the simulation experience and discussion of how similar approaches can be adapted for a high school business context.
2:40 PM
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Cooperative learning, when deliberately and effectively structured, is one of the most powerful pedagogical approaches available to Business teachers. Research consistently shows that it enhances academic achievement while fostering positive interpersonal relationships, increased social support, and improved self-esteem. Crucially, cooperative learning should not be mistaken for simple group work. When students engage in tasks without clear structure or defined roles, they are merely working in groups. True cooperative learning requires a set of explicit conditions—most notably positive interdependence, individual accountability, and equal participation. This practical, hands-on workshop will introduce a range of cooperative learning tools with broad application across Business classrooms. Participants will see firsthand how these strategies enrich learning: students gain exposure to diverse perspectives, engage more deeply through discussion, debate, and challenge, and benefit from increased opportunities for peer tutoring. Attendees will leave with ready-to-use tools that promote richer thinking, stronger collaboration, and more effective student learning outcomes.
2:40 PM
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This workshop explores the broader criminal justice process, aligning with Unit 1 of the Legal Studies syllabus, with links to Units 3 and 4. Through an exploration of the process from arrest to sentencing, this session examines elements of criminal law, the stages of a trial, and the role and selection of juries, while also considering how law reform responds to the evolving needs of Queensland’s diverse community. Participants will leave with a range of resources readily available for use in the classroom. Designed for educators, the workshop offers practical strategies and showcases potential field trip opportunities around Brisbane that could help deepen student understanding around these important legal concepts.
2:40 PM
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Conference Delegates are invited to join us to formally close out the 2026 BEAQ Conference with Drinks and Canapes, and network with Industry leaders, peers, colleagues, sponsors and exhibitors. Win - an accommodation package by Rydges Southbank!! Registration is essential to ensure we have adequate catering (including dietary needs).
3:30 PM
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