A snapshot of BSAVA Congress so far

8 April 2016

BSAVA Congress 2016 is off to a flying start with a winning combination of unparalleled scientific excellence, educational endeavour and technological innovation, not to mention exciting entertainment.

Many of the world’s leading veterinary professionals are sharing their expertise and insight.

Keynote speaker Mark Beaumont, the ultra-endurance athlete and documentary maker, talked to delegates about his adventures that have seen him travelling to 130 countries, breaking world records, dramatically capsizing when rowing across the Atlantic and the work that goes into organising an expedition of such magnitude.

Congratulations to all the 2016 BSAVA Award Winners – recognising outstanding contributions in the field of small animal veterinary practice

While the exhibition hall continues to be the place to launch new companies, brands, products, systems and services, with more than 30 first time exhibitors taking part.

Hundreds of exhibitors enjoyed thousands of face-to-face conversations with even more delegates than last year – 6,557 on the second morning and growing.

A snapshot of what’s been happening on the exhibition floor?

With over 200 exhibitors and thousands of delegates there are endless experiences and interactions going on in the exhibition. Here are a couple of highlights from the last two days:

PetSavers chairman Pedro MatÍn Bartolomé took on Anna Rathe, Norwegian competitor in the European GT4 Championship at the racing car simulator on the concourse at BSAVA – guess who won? (Anna) (Petsavers racing simulator pictured)

Almost 1,000 juice boost smoothies were given out on day one at the Protexin Veterinary stand, which showcased its latest joint health supplement for dogs, Dasuquin.

At the Bayer stand delegates were encouraged to stop and stare at a pug with the chance to win a Go Pro camera. The current leader managed a whopping 15 minutes without blinking, to show humans how pets feel when they have dry eye syndrome.

Delegates were invited to the Ceva stand to play ‘catch a germ’.

What the delegates are saying

Elizabeth Bloom is a vet nurse and one of a team of seven who travelled from Sweden to visit Congress. She has been impressed by the sheer size and scale of the event.

“Some of us have been before many years ago and really enjoyed it, to come here again and be all together is wonderful and we aim to have a lot of fun,&” she said

“The lectures are great and it’s hard to choose, there’s so much choice and so much to see and it’s wonderful to see that even if you come from another country we all work in the same way.&”

Alex Beech is in his final year at Nottingham and attended Congress for the first time, using it as a revision session

He said: “You get access to the newest knowledge and treatments, the most recent papers and early evidence of changes that will affect our work. There’s a whole stream on the exotics field which offers great revision opportunities and there’s the social side to meet people that we have met throughout the course.&”

Abi Waddington is looking forward to a career in internal medicine once she finishes her final year at Nottingham. She returned to the BSAVA Congress for a second time to help her prepare for her exams and was busily attending as many sessions as possible.

“I came last year and really enjoyed it, I’m back because there are lectures about everything that we’re going to be examined on, it’s the perfect way to get all the really important points in under an hour. It’s also good networking and I have a job interview here tomorrow.&”

Vet nurse Susanne Nielsen visited Congress for the first time after her bosses bought her a ticket as a Christmas gift to celebrate five years as a practice.

“It was a great gift, very unexpected,&” she said. “It’s a very big Congress with a lot of people and it has been great, I’m very impressed.&”

“We’re mostly here to listen to lectures for the whole four days, some just for the nurses but it’s also important for us to know what vets know so that even though we’re not making the diagnosis we know why they are doing so.&”