From 15 to 17 October, physiotherapists, practice owners, educators and leaders from across Australia gathered at the Pullman Cairns International for FOCUS26, the Australian Physiotherapy Association’s (APA) conference for the people shaping the future of the profession. It was the first FOCUS to open with a dedicated AI workshop. Over three days, the program ran across four streams (practice, education, business, and leadership and management), with more than 40 sessions, 600 delegates from practices across the country and plenty of insightful conversations that carried on well past the last session.

Key takeaways from the conference 

This year’s conference covered four streams: practice, education, business, and leadership and management. Here are some of the highlights that stood out to us: 

AI moved from side conversation to centre stage

This year, AI didn’t stay in one session. It came up across every stream, highlighting just how pivotal an AI-focused approach has become in recent months.  

“What can AI do today?” This was the theme for the pre-conference AI Workshop led by Julian Moore who is a leading AI strategist, Chief AI Consultant at Strategic Membership Solutions, and an advisor to UNESCO and the Australian Government on AI adoption. 

The workshop then split into two tracks. Belinda Lange ran “AI essential for practice: for the curious” for newcomers, and Barry Nguyen led “Building with AI: for the innovators”.

“AI in physiotherapy: where are we headed and what do we need to do now?” This was a panel discussion that featured Belinda Lange, Julian Moore and Mark Merolli.

“Artificial intelligence in physiotherapy: promise, practice and protection”, brought Leo Ng, Azmeena Hussain, Trevor Russell and Julian Moore together to weigh the opportunities against the risks.

In the concurrent sessions, the questions got practical:

• Barry Nguyen shared “A practical framework for safely introducing AI to new graduate physios”.
• Bruno Tirotti Saragiotto looked at accuracy, bias and how prompt design affects AI output.
• Michael Tong asked “Are we underutilizing AI in pain communication?”
• Heidi Kiely and Benjamin Weeks explored what generative AI means for graduate readiness and for building clinical reasoning.

The message across all of them was that AI is already in the clinic. The question now is how to use it well, safely and with clinical judgement in charge.

Building practices that last

The business stream was full of practical, numbers-driven advice for practice owners:

• Ben Corso who’s advice has also featured on our blog led a session titled  “Clinician to business owner: lessons in practical leadership”
• Natasha Ace lead two insightful sessions. Her first was “Beyond the break-even: a 90-day framework for 30% practice profitability”. Later her talk titled “From transactional to transformational” outlined career pathways that keep staff
• Trystan Conway, another splose blog contributor led the audience on “Designing scalable allied health businesses: systems, structure and leadership”
• Scott Willis presented a sobering view on the future of physiotherapy aptly titled “Avoiding our Kodak moment: why physiotherapy must adapt to survive”
• John Fitzgerald walked us through the nuances of succession planning with his session titled “Succession isn’t a plan – it’s a practice”
• Cate Boyd, Greg Nicolle and Dipthi Holloway covered private practice sustainability, simple digital marketing and whether commercialisation is a dirty word after all.

Running through all of it was a clear theme: a sustainable practice depends on strong systems and a team that wants to stay. The Business and Leadership Breakfast tackled this head-on with “Sustainable growth and attractive career pathways – managing burnout”.

Leadership starts with people

Some of the most talked-about sessions were about how we lead, not what we treat:

• “The hidden competitive advantage: why leading with emotional intelligence outperforms strategy”, by Dr Jade Scott ,made the case that how leaders show up matters more than any plan.
• “Why one is enough: from small actions to big impact” by Professor Robin Orr highlighted a similar case. 
• Winnie Wu spoke on leadership and psychological safety, and Nick Schuster on managing therapist turnover. Paula Harding and Sunita Bapuji shared practitioner perspectives from the PARC attrition and retention project.

With retention a challenge for so many practices, these sessions gave leaders practical tools they can use straight away.

Physio’s growing role in the community

The practice stream showed how far physiotherapy reaches beyond the treatment room:

• Michelle Whap of Cairns and Hinterland Hospital and Health Service shared how to embed cultural safety principles into everyday practice.
• Sessions on eating disorders, transgender pelvic pain, neurodivergent adults and recovery after severe TBI pushed the profession towards more inclusive, informed care.
• Professor Trent Twomey, President of the Pharmacy Guild of Australia, gave his invited keynote, “Power to the patient: rethinking prescribing to create healthier communities”.
• Jim Zouch asked whether Australians would choose physiotherapy over a free GP for musculoskeletal care while Kim Delbaere presented on the cost-effectiveness of a digital falls prevention program.

Investing in the next generation

The education stream was one of the busiest with a range of sessions covering:

• clinical placements, supervision and graduate transition programs
• First Nations ways of knowing and planetary health in the curriculum
• An acute care escape room for teaching
• New approaches to assessing entry-level and internationally qualified physiotherapists

Together they showed a profession that is putting serious work into training the people who’ll lead it next.

Insights beyond the sessions

FOCUS26 wasn’t all keynotes and breakouts. Some of the standout moments for us included:

• Mark Round’s keynote, “The yellow car: drive away stress instantly”, gave delegates a practical tool for managing stress.
• A lunchtime screening of “Referral Revolution” traced how Australian physiotherapy changed the profession.

Each day also started with yoga on the Pullman pool deck. The program ended with a poolside welcome reception and a sold-out Rainforest Escape conference dinner. The splose team was also pleased to host the after party at Mexicairns. 

Thank you

A huge thank you to the APA and the FOCUS26 Conference Committee for putting together a program this broad and practical. Thank you to every keynote, plenary and concurrent speaker for sharing their research, experience and honest lessons. Most of all, thank you to the delegates, especially the ones who took the time to visit our booth and chat with us. Your questions, ideas and energy are what made our time memorable at Focus 26. We look forward to continuing these important conversations, and can't wait to see everyone at future events.