For the first time, next-generation veterinary professionals can attend the world’s largest continuing education conference for free
Compassion-First Pet Hospitals has partnered with the North American Veterinary Community (NAVC) to cover registration costs for all veterinary students who wish to attend Veterinary Meeting & Expo (VMX). VMX, the world’s leading veterinary conference will be held January 18-22 at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida.
On average, approximately 735 veterinary students have attended VMX over each of the past six years. With the free registration, NAVC anticipates seeing well over 1,000 veterinary students have the opportunity to attend VMX 2020, a more than 35% increase.
VMX offers many opportunities for professionals to learn about new techniques and technologies being introduced in the veterinary industry. It attracts more than 17,000 members of the veterinary community from more than 50 countries. Attendees not only have the opportunity to network with other professionals from all over the world, they also have access to hands-on workshops and interactive sessions that will teach them skills that are necessary for success in their veterinary career. There are over 900 topics to choose from to help attendees decide which sessions suit them best.
“Today’s students carry significant debt, with the average cost of veterinary school ranging between $77,000 and $277,314. This makes attending conferences a bit cost prohibitive,” says Ryan Buck, Chief Operating Officer and Executive Vice President of Compassion-First.. “By providing free registration to VMX, our goal is for every veterinary student to feel empowered to expand their learning into new and innovative areas, expand their knowledge of the profession as a whole and spend time with thought leaders in animal medicine.”
The veterinary profession is growing with employment rates in the veterinary industry projected to increase almost four times faster than all occupations according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). In fact, the BLS projects 54,300 new jobs in the veterinary field will be created between 2018-2028, a 19 percent growth rate compared to a projected 5.2 percent growth rate for all occupations during this same time.
“Today’s students are the future of our veterinary industry. We need to do all we can to support them. VMX provides students and veteran practitioners the opportunity to keep learning from the world’s leading experts in veterinary medicine and to network and learn from each other,” said NAVC Senior Vice President of Events & Exhibits, Dan Valha. “By providing our students with free registration to VMX, we not only help them keep learning from the best of the best, but we also open many new doors for them as well. We are so grateful to Compassion-First for their incredible gift and support of our next generation of veterinarians.”
The NAVC provides continuing education and training to approximately 500,000 veterinary professionals each year through a variety of initiatives. VMX, its largest program, was named to Trade Show Executive’s Fastest 50 this year which recognized it as “One of the Elite Events” of 2018.
