For nearly three decades I've taken complex ideas and made them matter — in classrooms, boardrooms, conference halls and workshops. I don't just present. I work to change the way people think.
"The best educators don't teach subjects. They teach people how to think."
I spent 27 years at the front of classrooms at Aquinas College, Perth — and in that time I learned something most presenters never do: the difference between an audience that listens and an audience that changes.
That distinction drives everything I do. Whether I'm delivering a keynote to 500 people or facilitating a workshop with a leadership team of eight, I bring the same forensic attention to how ideas land, how rooms shift, and how understanding deepens.
My background in education isn't a limitation — it's a methodology. I know how adults learn, how groups resist, and how to move people past the point of polite nodding into genuine engagement. That's a rarer skill than most speakers will admit.
High-impact seminars for staff, students and parents. Every session is tailored to your audience and context — never generic, never a repeat performance. Topics listed below.
See topics ↓Half-day and full-day workshops for staff teams and students. Structured for real outcomes — built around producing resources and frameworks your team can use immediately. Topics listed below.
See topics ↓Looking for AI strategy, knowledge capture, or organisational consulting? That work lives on the Strategic platform — built specifically for it.
strategic.corporatecapture.ai →A full-day seminar for teachers of Years 7–9. Not theory. Not generic PD. The strategies, frameworks and hard-won insights from 27 years of classroom experience — specific, practical and immediately usable.
Every section of the day addresses something real — from the moment you walk in the door to the moment a lesson falls apart and you need to bring it back. Delivered with energy, wit and the kind of specificity that only comes from someone who has lived it.
All pricing includes printed resource materials. Travel and accommodation outside Perth negotiable. GST not included.
A full-day seminar for whole-staff or cross-curricular teams. Every teacher, in every subject, uses language to instruct, question and assess. Most of us have never been taught how to audit that language — or what it costs students when we get it wrong.
Full-day seminar for middle school teachers. See the complete program above — including the 12-section outline, pricing and what's included in every booking.
View full program ↑A full-day whole-staff seminar on the language demands of curriculum — what they are, why they matter, and what every teacher in every subject can do about them. Covers lexical density, reading ages, abstract concept teaching, and practical classroom strategies including AI-assisted accessibility tools.
View full program ↑All teachers face every single day feeling that they've got more to do than they've got time to do it. Burnout is real, it's everywhere, and it's growing. The challenge for the teacher who can't reduce external expectations is to work smarter, more efficiently, and more strategically. This seminar will cover:
Smartphones and devices have not been good for the human brain. Concentration spans and memory skills have both been significantly reduced, especially in younger people and those who already find learning concepts and retaining knowledge a challenge. This seminar focuses on:
Students who struggle with reading often become resistant to trying. They tire of the struggle and their self-esteem suffers. There are ways to help get students re-engaged with their reading that facilitates enjoyment and real progress. This seminar will focus on:
If you've never worked with a roomful of boys or find the ones you've got in front of you a challenge, there are definitely strategies you can use to make things easier for you and more productive and enjoyable for everyone. The key is first to understand who boys are, how they learn and why they behave the way they do. This seminar focuses on:
Parents are a mixed lot, so it's important to develop a range of strategies for how to engage with them and elicit their support. Some parents don't know how to work with teachers, and it's our job to teach them — because it's what their children and our students need from us. This seminar focuses on:
Dealing with a teenager at home can be stressful and frustrating, but as I've often said to parents, their first teenager isn't my first teenager. In fact I've encountered thousands, all unique and all special in their own way. This seminar — expressly tailored for parents — is designed to:
A practical seminar covering every text type in the ATAR English comprehension section. Delivered live to student groups, this session covers:
The clip below is taken from a live seminar delivery — a taste of what the session looks and sounds like in the room. The seminar itself is a live booking. The companion module — written lecture, presentation slides and a 20-question concepts review — is free and available now at modules.corporatecapture.ai.
This seminar is an intensive review of:
This seminar is an intensive review of:
Unlike the Seminars, the Workshops are designed for smaller groups. They are much more focused on producing resources for the staff or students who attend them. All workshops can be tailored to suit available time, audience, desired content focus and budget, and can be paired with modules that unpack the content in more detail and consolidate concepts through a reflection and validation process.
Teaching ATAR English for the first time can be a daunting experience, but it need not be. A workshop is offered that can work through:
These topics can be extensively covered in their own rights, so all are available as standalone workshops with module support.
Teaching ATAR Literature for the first time can be a daunting experience, especially given that most of us end up teaching it in isolation. A workshop is offered that can work through:
These topics can be extensively covered in their own rights, so all are available as standalone workshops with module support.
Becoming an English HOLA for the first time can prove quite challenging, and sometimes those challenges keep coming! Having worked as an English HOLA at two different schools (one all-boys, one co-educational), I learned a great deal about what generally does and doesn't work well — a lot of it through trial and error. The focus of this workshop is:
Though my experience in running a department is in the English context, the knowledge and skills outlined above are pertinent in all learning areas.
The Student Workshop for ATAR English is designed to complement seminar content or as a discrete experience. The workshop can be run as a full-day, half-day or smaller blocks that focus on one exam section only. It focuses on modelling and producing:
The Student Workshop for ATAR Literature is designed to complement seminar content or as a discrete experience. The workshop can be run as a full-day, half-day or smaller blocks that focus on one exam section only. It focuses on modelling and producing:
More than anything else, English Departments require a well organised scope and sequence for all programs that is owned and supported by all team members. Creating them can be time-consuming, and a lot of time can be lost working out the parameters required for effective collaboration.
This one-day workshop is designed to ensure that an English Department ends the day with:
The workshop is built around a specially designed AI template that makes the whole process significantly faster and easier than it might otherwise have been.
These intensive workshops are designed to allow a team of teachers to work together and establish the protocols and structures necessary for effective and accurate marking. The workshop is designed to facilitate:
Whether you're booking a seminar or exploring a workshop — start here. Mike responds personally to every enquiry.
Mike is based in Perth, Western Australia and available for engagements nationally. International enquiries welcome.