Date and time: Tuesday 9 June 2026, 4.00pm - 5.30pm AWST
Topic: Thinking Bee Odyssey: A serious game to sharpen the thinking skills behind evaluative judgement
Location: Centre for Social Impact, 3 Hackett Drive, Crawley, Perth 6009
Host: Sam Abbato | Visual Insights People 
Register online by: 8 June 2026

Event description:

Sound evaluation practice depends on more than rigorous methods. Sharp evaluative thinking provides a strong foundation for evaluative decision-making. The ability to make rigorous evaluative judgements about the merit and worth of programs is one of the most demanding cognitive tasks evaluators face, and one of the most discussed challenges in the field right now. Yet the core thinking skills that underpin those judgements are seldom articulated and practised explicitly.

At this interactive session, Sam Abbato introduces Thinking Bee – Odyssey, a board game designed to train nine core thinking skills in a collaborative, hands-on setting. Played in teams, the session centres on a real evaluative challenge: participants will work through a common scenario that requires them to apply critical, creative, reflective, and practical thinking to arrive at a defensible evaluative judgement.

The game also highlights what AI can't replicate — the collective intelligence that emerges when evaluators reason together, challenge assumptions, and weigh evidence in context.

You'll leave the session with:
• A clearer understanding of the thinking skills that underpin evaluative judgement, and how to further strengthen them
• Practice identifying and applying nine essential evaluative thinking skills in a realistic evaluation scenario
• Greater insight into your own thinking patterns, strengths, and blind spots (metacognition).
In an era where AI tools are reshaping how evaluation is conducted, the distinctly human capacity for evaluative reasoning has never been more important, or more worth investing in.

The session also includes time for networking. Places are limited — please register only if you can attend.

Presenter details 

Samantha Abbato of Visual Insights People is a senior evaluation consultant and an experienced trainer. She has many years of experience working in the community sector in evaluation, data infrastructure and measurement and organisational capacity building.

This free event has been organised by the WA Regional Network of the AES. Our seminar series provides an opportunity for you to meet with AES members and others in the evaluation community and to share and learn from the experiences of fellow evaluators. Please also check your email address is correct on your registration form before submitting.