Future: Forward Conference 2026
11-13 May 2026
Campbelltown Catholic Club, NSW
Flourish 2026 is CEnet's education conference, the third in a series that began with Future:Forward 2024 and 2025. This year the conference grows into a full three-day program across three interconnected themes: AI & Learning, Cyber Safety, and Data Insights.
The theme, Technology in Service of the Human Spirit, reflects the conviction at the heart of Catholic education: that every decision about technology should be tested against its capacity to help young people, teachers, and communities flourish. Flourish 2026 is not a technology conference that mentions education. It is an education conference that takes technology seriously.
CEnet's flagship platform cechat runs as a thread throughout the conference, grounding the program in practice rather than theory.
Who Should Attend
• Classroom teachers ready to deepen their AI practice
• School leaders making decisions about AI governance and adoption
• Diocesan directors, system leaders, and diocesan staff shaping the AI agenda
• IT professionals from systemic Catholic education offices and independent schools
• eLearning coordinators, digital learning leaders, and technology integration staff
• Curriculum and pedagogy specialists
• Anyone who wants to understand what responsible AI looks like in a Catholic school
One conference. One audience. One purpose.
Agenda
Day 1: 11 May 2026 ’Ground’
Day 1 establishes the values, context, and intellectual ground for everything that follows. Delegates will hear from world-class researchers and practitioners, engage with live provocation exercises, rotate through dedicated Cyber Safety and Data Insights sessions, and finish the day with a conversation about what technology means for families, students, and the Catholic mission.
Day 2: 12 May 2026 ’Action’
Day 2 is where the ideas of Day 1 meet classroom reality. A live keynote and demonstration opens the day, followed by the Mini-Symposium — teachers from across Australia's Catholic schools sharing the AI agents and tools they have built and tested with real students. The afternoon moves into hands-on building, ethical debate, and a live synthesis from the AI in Education Podcast.
Day 3: 13 May 2026 ’Integration’
Day 3 is a half-day designed for the delegates who are ready to go further. It runs as two parallel streams — registered in advance — before converging for a joint close.
