Our most recent meeting was a round table format during which we had the Key Account Holders' Association, which are a group of the most successful veterinarians in Florida, discuss their personal experience with veterinary practice ownership and answer questions. The meeting was a huge success and we wound up with every seat filled, in addition to students sitting and standing in the rows. Due to the overwhelmingly positive response we will likely hold a meeting like this some time in the future. We would definitely hold the meeting a room that can accomodate more people as the topic was very popular, more so than we had anticipated. We would also probably lengthen the amount of time we held the meeting as there were questions we were not able to answer in front of the audience since we ran over the allotted time.

The meeting was organized so that there were the five individuals from the Key Account Holders' Association sitting in the front of the room. For each question almost every person on the panel gave their personal opinion, sometimes the same opinion, sometimes a different opinion. For a variation on this meeting we would possibly consider having veterinarians who are more oriented towards large animal medicine, since all of the individuals speaking at this meeting were currently running small animal hospitals. Overall this was an excellent meeting that encouraged people who never planned on being business owners to consider the perks of owning a practice.

Sandra Anderson
University of Florida C/O 2012
VBMA National Liaison