SPVS-VMG Congress 2022

21-22 January 2022

Call to Participate

Introduction to SPVS and VMG

The VMG is the professional association for all those in leadership and management roles in the veterinary sector.  With an inclusive and diverse membership spanning all clinical and non-clinical veterinary roles, the VMG aims to inspire and empower veterinary leaders and their organisations to learn, share, and grow. It also advocates on their behalf within the industry and beyond.

With effective leadership so essential to the sustainability and future success of the sector, the VMG is working to develop 21st century veterinary leaders and managers. It does this through the creation of outstanding training and development, such as SPVS—VMG Congress. It also offers an ILM-accredited, globally-recognised suite of modular courses leading to a Certificate and Diploma in Veterinary Leadership and Management, together with a range of ‘real-world’ short courses for its members.

SPVS is a not-for-profit organisation for professionals within the veterinary industry which provides a wide range of excellent advice, guidance and support for its members.

SPVS aim is to facilitate a culture of support and community for practice owners and veterinary leaders through the development of industry leading provision and representation. Supporting students through to retirees, SPVS is dedicated to supporting veterinary professionals through each stage of their career.

SPVS offers a wide range of member services and support including its bespoke ILM Qualifications which are specifically designed for veterinary professionals, a CV reading service for students and recent graduates, a very popular supportive and informative email discussion group, relevant and forward looking non-clinical CPD and SPVS/VMG Congress, its Salary and Fees surveys and much more.

Our Congress

SPVS-VMG Congress will take place over two days from 21-22 January 2022 at ICC Wales in Newport, Wales, providing quality Continuing Professional Development (CPD) to those within the veterinary sector.

It is the largest non-clinical veterinary conference in Europe and typically presents five streams of lectures per day focussing on topics such as:

• Leadership and management
• Wellbeing
• Marketing
• Digital Technology
• Finance
• Customer Care

Lecture content provides delegates with a mixture of in-practice case studies and practical steps, combined with more blue-sky thinking and innovations.

Speakers at the event are drawn from a wide variety of backgrounds:

• Veterinary professionals working in practice
• Veterinary business specialists with experience in a particular sector eg. marketing or finance
• Academics and experts from outside of the industry presenting on areas relevant to those within e.g sustainability or psychology

Please click here for the programme for our 2021 Congress  to give you a flavour of the range of topics we cover and speakers we attract.

Attendee Demographics

Each year over 500 delegates attend the event. These are predominantly a mixture of vets and practice managers, but the event also attracts veterinary nurses, receptionists, finance and administrative staff along with those in the veterinary industry but not working in practice. At this year’s event, 36% of attendees were at director / owner level.

Again, Congress predominantly attracts small animal practitioners, but also sees referral, large animal and equine team members attending (the past few years have seen lecture streams dedicated to the latter two sectors).

Current situation

Business landscapes are changing and the veterinary world is certainly no exception. A profession with a strong heritage is now having to respond to an increasingly VUCA world in order to continue meeting patient and pet needs effectively, whilst remaining profitable. In addition to the inevitable challenges faced by Covid, a number of challenges and opportunities have recently presented themselves, some of which are summarised below with links for further context.

• Rapid corporatisation of veterinary practices
• Shortage of Vet Surgeons and Vet Nurses
• Veterinary tele-medicine
• Equality and diversity – is there gender discrimination in the veterinary profession?
• Mental health
• The rising cost of veterinary care and its affordability
• Forces affecting the veterinary profession
• Client and professional expectations of veterinary practice
• Veterinary leadership

Opportunity

We’d like to hear from anyone who feels they could contribute a session at the event. If you would like to be involved, please get back to charlotte.lodge@keystone-group.co.uk with a title and short synopsis (up to 150 words) on what you’d like to present.

Please note:

• Each lecture session will be approx. 50 minutes long, to include a Q&A session with the audience
• We are looking for the programme to be a combination of practical advice along with blue sky thinking. Please don’t feel bound by the topic areas mentioned above, we’d love to hear from you if you can present on an area not covered in the past but would be relevant to the attendees
• If you work for a commercial organisation or have a service which you sell to veterinary practice then we accept this is, at least in part, why you would like to speak at this event. However, your session should not be a pure sales pitch and that you keep any ‘pitch’ to an absolute minimum
• There will be limited slots available so not all suggestions may be included in the programme. Please make any suggestion as interesting and relevant as possible to enhance your chance of being selected

Next steps

Please get back to charlotte.lodge@keystone-group.co.uk by 31 July 2021 with your proposal. We will review all suggestions received and get back to you to discuss further during August.

We will launch the event to delegates in early summer but will announce the full programme in September 2021.

Questions/further details

For further information please contact Keystone Conference and Event Management who manage the event on behalf of SPVS and VMG.

charlotte.lodge@keystone-group.co.uk

07863 813 757