Vets: Stay, Go, Diversify Live!

We were delighted to attend the inaugural Vets: Stay, Go, Diversity (VSGD) Live event.

The VSGD event took place on Saturday 28 and Sunday 29 April at CodeNode, a community events venue in the City of London.

Members of RCVS Council and the College’s Officer Team took part in a number of talks and workshop/panel discussions.

On Saturday:

• Niall Connell, RCVS Council member and Junior Vice-President elect, gave a talk called ‘Discovering life after ill-health retirement’ about how he has continued to work in the veterinary sphere after his multiple sclerosis diagnosis in 2010.
• Chris Tufnell, RCVS Senior Vice-President, who runs the College’s ViVet innovation project, gave a presentation entitled ‘Playing our part in world progress through science, innovation and caring’.
• Rob Pettitt, Senior Lecturer in Small Animal Orthopaedics at the University of Liverpool, delivered a talk on behalf of the College’s Mind Matters Initiative titled ‘Mind over surgical matter’ in which he talked about his own experiences of mental ill-health
• Chris Tufnell joined RCVS Council member Danny Chambers and the BVA’s Simon Doherty and Gudrun Ravetz in a Q&A panel session titled ‘What have the RCVS and BVA ever done for us?’

On Sunday:

• Professor Stuart Reid, Chair of the Mind Matters Initiative, joined RCVS Council member Jo Dyer in a workshop titled ‘We are all human: healthy minds for medics and vets’.
• Chris Tufnell, representing the ViVet programme, took part in a workshop called ‘Practice makes perfect: Starting a veterinary business’.
• Danny Chamber and Chris Tufnell took part in a panel discussion titled ‘Advocating for the profession in practice’.

In addition to our involvement with the programme we also had a stand at the event where we  promoted our ViVet innovation programme and the recently launched Edward Jenner Leadership programme.

To find out more about the event please visit the Vets: Stay, Go, Diversify Live website.