This month sees the return of the AHDA Conference, after a two-year absence. Bryan Lovegrove, AHDA secretary general, highlights the event

Arrangements are now picking up a pace for the AHDA Conference, which is to be held on January 23 and 24. Existing bookings have been transferred to the new date and for those of you who haven’t yet booked – there’s still time to join us.

Alongside a fantastic line-up of expert speakers, the exhibition hall will be full to the brim with a wide range of industry-specific businesses keen to showcase their products and services to conference attendees.

The Monday evening of the conference sees the return of our popular gala dinner, which provides a platform for the annual AMTRA Awards ceremony, a charity prize draw with a fantastic selection of prizes donated in aid of Alzheimer’s Society and topped off with comedian Andrew Ryan providing the after-dinner entertainment.

The second day of the conference focusses on a wide range of topics relevant to today’s world in animal health and welfare and SQPs attending the seminars and workshops across the two days will be eligible for accreditation of up to 60 CPD points.

What’s more, AHDA members benefit from free entry to attend the Tuesday sessions! For more information about the conference and to book tickets visit www.ahda.co.uk.

The work within AHDA has been as busy as ever and we are pleased to be launching our programme of work around enhancing responsible prescribing.

During the Conference AHDA will be focusing on recent work that has been looking at the introduction of a prescribing record, the introduction of compulsory CPD, proving the need to prescribe and encouraging a greater take up of animal health plans.

We start day one with the keynote speaker John Millward who is head of the Inspections & Enforcement Division of the Veterinary Medicines Directorate, who we are delighted to welcome and look forward to hearing what the future holds for the VMD, particularly as the consultation around the latest veterinary medicine regulations starts to gather pace.

Following the very successful introduction of the workshop for delegates last time around, we will be repeating this again on the Monday with a choice of two workshops in the morning and two in the afternoon. The theme of these workshops matches up with detailed work that an AHDA working group has been focused on for a number of months.

The second day of the Conference always has a particular buzz to it with an increased number of delegates arriving and then off to their respective presentations on either farm animal topics or companion/equine topics, and sometimes a mixture of the two. All of the programme details and the event can be found on the AHDA website.

The refurbished Hilton Metropole will provide the perfect setting for our event, and we hope all delegates and guests enjoy your time at the AHDA Conference and having the opportunity to meet up again after the challenges that we have all been faced with over the past two years.