Member Discount
Current MBITE members receive a discounted rate, so make sure you have the confirmation email with your Membership ID.
Perkins Funds
Reminder to check on Perkins Funds availability to assist with financial obligation.
General Information
Date: October 3rd, 2025
Location: Bethel University
Anderson Center
2 Pine Tree Drive
Arden Hills, MN 55112
Breakout Sessions
Marketing and AI in the Classroom: Engaging Students with Future-Ready Tools – Dr. Molly Wickam (Bethel University)
Join Dr. Molly Wickam as she shares practical, classroom-tested marketing projects from the college-level marketing course she teaches at Bethel University that are adaptable for high school classrooms and aligned with Minnesota’s marketing frameworks. This session will explore how generative AI tools can support student work in personal branding, blogging, retail trends, social media content creation, and writing marketing plans. Molly will also demonstrate how she uses the AI Assessment Scale to promote ethical and purposeful student use of AI. Teachers will collaborate to share their own marketing projects and gather fresh ideas from peers. You’ll leave with numerous ideas and links to resources that will help you refresh your marketing instruction for our new world of AI.
Business Leadership, Resilience & Corporate Culture After 9/11 – Dr. Molly Wickam (Bethel University)
This professional development session equips secondary and post-secondary business educators with strategies for teaching business resilience, leadership, corporate culture, and how businesses respond during a crisis through the lens of the September 11th attacks. Dr. Molly Wickam recently participated in the 9/11 Memorial & Museum’s Educator Institute and learned how to support today’s teachers, many whom were not alive or are too young to remember the events of 9/11, in teaching and learning about 9/11. It includes a brief multimedia mini-lecture followed by an electronic gallery walk featuring images, quotes, videos, and Minnesota-specific connections to 9/11. Educators leave with classroom-ready tools on crisis management, the New York Stock Exchange, corporate communication, and entrepreneurship.
AI in Action: Integrating AI Tools for Effective Business Instruction – Amy Kienberger, Jodi Bang, Ashli Schmaltz (Bloomington Public Schools)
In this hands-on session, Bloomington Public Schools’ digital learning specialists—alongside a computer science specialist with a business education background—will model how to design “AI-ready” classrooms without diluting essential skills. We’ll focus on three pillars: (1) building a shared classroom language with students (clear definitions, disclosure/citation expectations, and usage norms), (2) applying a simple AI integration framework to decide when to prohibit, permit, or require AI, and (3) creating systems that extend and enhance engagement while preserving core knowledge and practice in writing, analysis, research, and spreadsheet/modeling. Examples from marketing, entrepreneurship, and personal finance show how to balance innovation and future-ready skills with evidence of learning. Participants leave with a common-language starter, sample assignment language, and a planning checklist they can use immediately.
Get Your Students Competing in Junior Achievement’s Company of the Year Competition – James Iliff (St. Paul Public Schools)
Want to have your students compete in an entrepreneurship competition that could change their lives? 🤔💡 Join us to discover how St. Paul Public Schools is empowering students to succeed in Junior Achievement’s annual Company of the Year competition. 🚀
Get ready to unlock the secrets to launching a winning entrepreneurship program that fosters innovation, creativity, and business acumen. In this session, you’ll learn:
✨ What it takes to thrive in the Company of the Year competition
✨ Proven strategies and best practices from St. Paul Public Schools’ program
✨ How to access our comprehensive curriculum and resources to get your program off the ground
Leave with the tools and inspiration you need to unleash your students’ entrepreneurial potential and send them soaring!
The Marketing Momentum: Launching High School Students into a Thriving Marketing Career – James Illiff (St. Paul Public Schools)
Get ready to take your students from ‘I’d like to be a marketer’ to ‘I’m a marketer!’ 🚀 Join us for an engaging and informative presentation that will demystify the marketing career pathway and provide actionable strategies for high school business teachers.
Our dynamic trio – a seasoned marketer, a current marketing student, and a passionate educator (that’s me!) – will share insights, experiences, and best practices to help you launch your students into a thriving marketing career.
Discover the skills and knowledge required to succeed in marketing, explore real-world examples and case studies, and learn how to design high school classes that put students on the pathway to success. Whether you’re a seasoned educator or just starting out, this presentation will equip you with the tools and inspiration to ignite a passion for marketing in your students and set them up for a bright future in the field. 💡
Leading with Values — Ryan Goulart
In this dynamic session, Ryan Goulart, business leader and mentor at think2perform, invites participants to explore the transformative power of values-based leadership. Drawing from his work with the Future Leaders Academy—a program designed to cultivate emotionally intelligent and morally grounded young leaders—Goulart will guide attendees through practical strategies for aligning personal values with leadership decisions.
The Future Leaders Academy, an 18-month initiative for Minnesota youth ages 16–23, emphasizes emotional intelligence, goal-setting, and mentorship to prepare students from underrepresented communities for lifelong leadership. Goulart’s session reflects the Academy’s core belief: that leadership begins with self-awareness and grows through intentional practice. Whether you’re a seasoned professional or an emerging leader, this session offers tools to lead with clarity, purpose, and integrity.
Scrolling Smarts: Helping Students Evaluate Financial Advice on Social Media – MCEE
Financial advice is everywhere on TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram – but how can students tell what’s sound guidance and what’s just hype? In this session, teachers will learn strategies to help students critically analyze the financial messages they encounter online. Using evidence-based criteria and real-world examples, participants will explore how to guide students in distinguishing between healthy and harmful financial advice. Educators will leave with classroom-ready tools, activities, and a framework that empowers young people to make informed financial decisions in a world flooded with influencer “tips” and viral money hacks.
Virtual Enterprise in Business and Marketing Education – Andrew Werner (Minnetonka High School)
Join Minnetonka High School’s facilitator and students to learn more about Virtual Enterprises (VE), the delivery model for business and marketing education. VE empowers students, uncovers their strengths, and fuels their passions as the classroom becomes a business. Through this immersive work-based experience, student’s work in departments to manage day-to-day functions, produce key deliverables, assess growth, make decisions, respond to challenges, and participate in a variety of business-related events and activities, both in-person and through VE’s global marketplace. VE breaks the mold by connecting students around the world, transforming teachers into facilitators, and turning the classroom into a vibrant workplace. Join the excitement and learn how you can bring VE to your school or career center!
Advanced Placement Business with Personal Finance – Josh Bauer, Sauk Rapids HS & Jackie Schiller, MN BPA and MN DECA
This 30-minute advisor session will introduce advisors to the exciting new Advanced Placement (AP) Business with Personal Finance course. We’ll explore how this innovative program combines essential business concepts with practical financial literacy skills, preparing students for success in their future careers. The session will cover the course’s five main topics and how they will integrate with DECA. We’ll also address how this course can help develop critical thinking, problem-solving, and decision-making skills that are valuable in any career path. We’ll discuss the benefits of taking an AP-level business course, such as potential college credit and a industry certification.
Registration Deadline
Payment and Registration is due no later than Wednesday, September 24th, 2025. Registrations that cannot be paid online must be organized with MBITE President Justin Wittrock. Please contact him at jwittrock@isd465.org.