Workshops

Animal Care Expo 2024 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 Wednesday, May 15 and will include lunch. Learning Labs are an additional fee.
• Main Stage - Join us as we all convene together for three main stage sessions where we'll discuss some of the biggest topics and trends in the animal welfare field today.
• Coffee Chats (Sponsored by PetSmart Charities) - Start the final morning of the conference with coffee, breakfast, and Q&A! On Saturday, May 18 pick from one of several topics and bring some questions that you've been pondering throughout the week to ask a panel of experts.
• 2024 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.
  • All Animals Big and Small - Workshops dive into the work being done and best practices for the many animals that shelters and rescues may interact with, including wildlife, rabbits and horses, plus how to care for these animals and communicate with the public about them.
  • Behavior - Workshops give tips, tools and resources to support the behavioral and enrichment needs of dogs and cats in shelters, rescues and the community.
  • Career Skills - Workshops support individuals at any level of their career with important skills and knowledge to elevate their ability to make an impact in the field of animal sheltering and welfare.
  • Cats - Workshops focus on strategies for bolstering your impact for cats, assessing community needs and building community support for cat programs.
  • Engage for Change - Workshops that feature ways to collaborate and engage with different stakeholders to find common ground, drive change and advance progress in the animal welfare field.
  • 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.
  • Leadership - Workshops support leadership skill-building and address current and future challenges of animal welfare work.
  • Marketing and Resources (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 - Workshops highlight best practices in adoptions, rescue, transport, fostering, RTO, pathway planning, and emerging practices and trends.
  • Veterinary Medicine - 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 Fundamentals (Sponsored by Petco Love and PetSmart Charities) - Content providing essential skills and knowledge with an emphasis on returning to the basics in animal welfare work.
• Spotlight on Global - Content exploring animal welfare issues and topics from an international perspective, considering information and experiences of people and organizations not based in the US.
• Spotlight on Inclusion - 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.

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.