A year of firsts for dvm360® conferences

The dvm360^® booth in the exhibit hall is shown during the Fetch dvm360^® Conference.

This year brought a number of inaugural events for dvm360^®, and overall, 2022 was not short of conferences for the team. From coast to coast, each conference took us throughout the country to new locations and debut program launches.

The dvm360^® editorial team covered in-person events that included Fetch in Charlotte, NC; Directions in Veterinary Medicine (DIVM) in Indianapolis, IN; Fetch in Kansas City, MO; the Atlantic Coast Veterinary Conference^® in Atlantic City, NJ; and and Fetch in San Diego, CA.

Fetch Charlotte

Our year kicked off with a new location for our Fetch dvm360^® conference in Charlotte, North Carolina. This conference took place April 22 to 24, and featured a wide variety of lectures to choose from, including feline medicine, dermatology, integrative medicine, and much more.

The dvm360^® editorial team interviewed more than 20 faculty members from the conference on their respective lecture topics. Fetch Charlotte also featured a karaoke event for attendees to participate in some after-show fun.

“Charlotte has a special place in my heart, so I [was] excited to be part of this experience for the first time that Fetch [was] in the Queen City,” said Fetch faculty member Charles D. McMillan, DVM, in a previous dvm360^® interview. After the success of the first conference of 2022, Fetch Charlotte is scheduled to return next year in March.

DIVM

The DIVM conference, held June 24 to 25, in Indianapolis, Indiana, was an inaugural event for a smaller, single-track version of veterinary conferences. For a more intimate approach, the conference focused on topics specifically in pain management.

In a dvm360^® interview, keynote speaker Matthew Brunke, DVM, DACVSMR, CCRP, CVPP, CVA, said, “I’m thankful it’s a small gathering. I like the fact that it’s a single track. Sometimes when you go to the bigger meetings, you [think], ‘I wanted to be in so-and-so’s lecture, but there’s only so many spots. And how do you get into every room or learn all that?’”

He added, “So by having a nice, focused group, where it’s just one powerhouse presenter after another...I’m not missing out because I’m not in somebody else’s lecture room.”

From the success of this single-focused conference, DIVM is set to return in 2023 covering 3 unique topics in 3 new conference locations.

Fetch Kansas City

The Fetch dvm360^® conference in Kansas City, Missouri, was a returning conference for us, and it featured the launch of our first gamified continuing education (CE) program, dvm360 Unleashed!, during which attendees could answer Jeopardy!-style questions to earn CE credit. Fetch Kansas City took place August 26 to 28, and the game show was unveiled in place of the second-day keynote presentation and the third-day Lunch & Learn session.

“Gamified learning actively engages participants to interact, which is known to increase memory recall and comprehension,” Adam Christman, DVM, MBA, chief veterinary officer of dvm360^®, said in an interview.

Check out our coverage of these conferences and other industry conferences here.