7:00 a.m. - 8:00 a.m. - Registration and Breakfast
8:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.:
Welcome Energizer
Top Performer Toxicity
Speakers: Kristine McCormick, CVPM and Paula Ferguson, CVPM
High-performing but toxic employees are among the most challenging problems leaders face. While they may deliver results, the damage they inflict on workplace culture, morale, and liability risks can be devastating. This interactive session provides leaders with the tools to identify red flags early, set and enforce clear boundaries, and make the tough—but strategic—decisions necessary to protect their teams without compromising quality care.
Participants will learn practical strategies for documenting behavior (not just performance), clarifying expectations in writing through handbooks, job descriptions, and evaluations, and implementing effective disciplinary processes. We'll also explore how to evaluate the broader cultural impact of toxic high performers, including why delaying termination often worsens the situation and why redundancy in critical processes is essential.
Real-life (anonymized) case stories—ranging from bullying to theft to medication mishandling—will bring these lessons to life with humor and candor. An interactive roundtable role-play exercise will enable attendees to practice effective communication and boundary-setting techniques, ensuring they leave prepared to address toxic behavior directly.
Networking Break
Employment Law Refresh
Speaker: Jennifer Shoaf Richardson
Stay ahead in the fast-moving world of workplace compliance. This session will provide a comprehensive review of the latest developments under Title VII, the ADA, the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, the FMLA, and state whistleblower laws.
Looking ahead to 2026, we'll explore some of the most pressing challenges for employers, including managing employee speech both inside and outside the workplace, keeping handbooks aligned with the National Labor Relations Act, applying progressive discipline effectively, and drafting employment agreements that address new rules around non-competes.
To put these concepts into practice, attendees will work through interactive hypotheticals grounded in recent case law, gaining practical strategies to navigate compliance and mitigate risk in their organizations.
Sponsored Lunch Program
Leading a Diverse Veterinary Team: Managing Across Backgrounds, Experiences, and Perspectives
Speaker: Jill Brecklin, CVPM
As managers, we meet and lead people from all different backgrounds spanning multiple generations. These individuals have varying levels of experience and bring diverse perspectives from their lives, education, and beliefs. Leading a team is challenging enough, but making each person on your team feel heard, appreciated, and valued is an even greater feat.
What can we learn from these diverse and unique teams? How can we adapt our training styles and communication techniques and help evolve our practices for the future? We should ask them!
This presentation will feature a panel of experts from diverse backgrounds and experience levels, sharing their knowledge and insights into the inner workings of their team dynamics. Before this session, each participant will survey their team members with questions relating to how they see your organization's diversity, what training techniques they feel are the most effective for them, how they think management can communicate with each individual, how well they feel valued, and how well they see themselves functioning as a team.
Managers attending this session will leave with the tools to help them understand their employees, offer new ways of encouragement and praise, improve communication, help ensure training is accessible for everyone, review their employee benefits package, and take the first steps in improving their workplace culture with a seamless blend of collective ideas.
Networking Break
Application Stations
Application stations give attendees the opportunity to create tool kits they can take back to their practice and immediately implement.
Triumphs and Blunders
The good, the bad and the ugly disrupter “mini case studies” will be shared in this no holds barred session. Predetermined presenters will share the entire story – from the reasons why they decided to make a change to the final outcome (whether good or bad). Audience discussion and dialogue will add another meaningful dimension to this program.