The University of Tennessee hosted our second annual VBMA Business Symposium November 14, 2009. In the morning, Dr. Carol Mase hosted The Elephant in the Room: Hitting the Ground Running. This stimulated some excellent discussion between veterinary students and practitioners attending about what skills are needed by new practitioners to be effective contributors to the clinical setting. That afternoon Mr. Jon Dittrich discussed the economics of veterinary medicine in a recession and Mr. David McCormick talked about the No-Lo Profit Practice and why it matters. All speakers were excellent.
The main problem that occurred dealt with attendance. We had approximately 70 people registered to attend and only about 25 showed up. This is due to the fact that most registered were students that had just completed or were completing several weeks of midterm exams. To correct this, we are considering hosting the next symposium in January 2011, at the beginning of the semester, so that students will not be overwhelmed by tests and will be more likely to attend.