Insights on the Veterinary Innovation Summit

During an interview at the annual Veterinary Innovation Summit presented by the North American Veterinary Community and Veterinary Innovation Council (VIC) in Kansas City, Missouri last month, Jennifer Wesler, DVM, DACVO, chief strategy officer of CityVet and VIC member, explains her role with VIC and how she got involved, where she sees this boutique conference going within the next 5 years, and what she likes most about the Veterinary Innovation Summit.

Below is a partial transcript

Jennifer Wesler, DVM, DACVO: VIC is Veterinary Innovation Council. It is a board of people. We're now about 20 people, but it started in particular, actually, it was January of 2016 and it was a group coming together saying, 'Okay, let's figure out how to go cut across the industry in the profession, and make sure that we are looking forward, looking to innovate in the profession and the industry.' And so it's a group of people just trying to make sure that we again, are moving the profession forward in a positive way, not afraid to have tough conversations, if, if people are sort of scared about topics, veterinarians sometimes are a little risk averse, and so it's trying to make sure that this industry is future and forward focused.

Veterinary Innovation Summit is an awesome sort of boutique event and as much as obviously, we want to grow and make sure we're reaching more people, I do hope that in 5 years, we still have this kind of very fun boutique event feel, and that we are continuing to just always up the ante. I mean, it's amazing right now, but the speakers that we're bringing in, the kind of conversations that we're having. I hope that, to be honest, we don't lose what we've got right now, we just continue to amplify and grow on it.