Workshops

Animal Care Expo 2025 will feature nearly 100 professional development workshops and learning opportunities over a variety of tracks. Leaders and experts in animal welfare will provide attendees with insight into trending topics, best practices and tools they can use within their own communities and organizations.

Educational opportunities include:

• Learning Labs - Daylong sessions (8:30am – 3:00pm) which allow for a deeper dive into specific topics. Learning Labs will take place on Tuesday, April 15 and will include lunch. Learning Labs are an additional fee.
• Main Stage - Join us as we all convene together for main stage sessions where we'll discuss some of the biggest topics and trends in the animal welfare field today.
• Workshops- 2025 Workshop tracks include:
  • Access to Care (Sponsored by Petco Love) - Workshops cover approaches and best practices for animal welfare organizations, service providers and veterinary professionals on how to ensure equitable access to animal health and pet care resources; and share innovative programs and research on community outreach and pet support services.
  • Behavior (Sponsored by Virox)- Workshops give tips, tools and resources to support the behavioral and enrichment needs of dogs and cats in shelters, rescues and the community.
  • Cats (Sponsored by Hill's Pet Nutrition) - Workshops focus on strategies for bolstering your impact for cats, assessing community needs and building community support for cat programs.
  • Community Engagement (Sponsored by PetSmart Charities)- Workshops focus on building relationships, partnerships and coalitions through collaboration and programmatic work to find common ground, drive change and advance progress in the animal welfare field.
  • Expanding Our Reach - Workshops that explore engaging audiences to promote your message, including programs that address systematic barriers, enhance mental health awareness, and focus on educational outreach, with a particular emphasis on wildlife content.
  • Field Services (Sponsored by National Animal Care & Control Association) - Workshops support professionals such as field officers, outreach staff and humane investigators who provide a wide variety of community services including lost pet services, cruelty investigations, outreach/education and enforcing ordinances, laws, and regulations.
  • Global Spotlight (Sponsored by Battersea) - Workshops exploring animal welfare issues and topics from an international perspective, considering information and experiences of people and organizations based outside of the US.
  • Leadership and Career Skills (Sponsored by DocuPet) - Workshops support leadership skill-building and address current and future challenges in animal welfare, providing individuals at any career stage with essential skills and knowledge to enhance their impact in the field of animal sheltering and welfare.
  • Marketing and Fundraising (Sponsored by TrueSense)- Workshops provide tools, insight and guidance into the many different ways organizations across the country share their work, engage with their communities and raise funds for their animals.
  • Progressive Programs - Workshops feature exciting programs that can be implemented to make a difference in your community through partnerships to meet today’s challenges in animal sheltering, fulling community needs.
  • Shelter Operations (Sponsored by CDE Animal Cages) - Workshops highlight best practices in adoptions, rescue, transport, fostering, RTO, pathway planning, and emerging practices and trends.
  • Veterinary Medicine (Sponsored by Maddie's Fund)- Acquire RACE continuing education credits in workshops discussing some of the latest trends in shelter and community medicine and ways to increase access to veterinary care for people and pets in need.

Workshops that highlight specific themes throughout the conference will include the following spotlight designations:

• Spotlight on Inclusion (Sponsored by Petco Love)- Content focused on increasing equity in access to care services, community-centric programs and community-based solutions inclusive of underserved, underrepresented and historically marginalized communities; and on creating a more diverse, just and fair animal welfare movement.
• Spotlight on Wildlife- Content focused on the work being done and best practices for the many animals that shelters and rescues may interact with, including wildlife, plus how to care for these animals and communicate with the public about them.

A Note on content from speakers, presenters and vendors

As the host of Animal Care Expo, the HSUS endeavors to invite speakers, presenters and vendors who are knowledgeable in their subject areas and/or provide useful products and services for the animal welfare field. Please note that views expressed, and materials distributed by speakers, presenters, and vendors are solely those of the presenters and not of the HSUS or the Humane Society family of organizations.