Hill's Veterinary Academy: Vetty Award
NAVC · 2022 · Sponsored education & elevated learning experiences
Goal
Sponsored education that felt intentional and premium, not “just another session block” on the grid.
My Role
Run-of-show, room flow, speaker logistics, and cross-functional handoffs so production disappeared behind the content.
Recognition
NAVC Vetty Award, 2022.
The Challenge
Rise above interchangeable rows of sessions with logistics so smooth the learning, not the fire drills, gets remembered.
Sponsored education at large veterinary meetings can feel interchangeable: rows of sessions, competing for the same calendar slots. Hill’s Veterinary Academy was designed to rise above that noise: a learning experience that felt premium, intentional, and worth a practitioner’s time away from the exhibit hall. The hard part is logistics that stay invisible, so the content and the environment shine, not the fire drills behind them.
What I Did
Build the spine: scheduling, rooms, speaker readiness, and compliance checkpoints, so faculty could focus on the room.
I focused on the operational spine that lets great education happen: clear ownership between marketing, medical affairs, and events; realistic room sets and traffic plans; and contingency thinking for the things large conferences throw at you (AV hiccups, schedule compression, last-minute speaker changes).
- Partnered on run-of-show design so registration, room turns, and breaks supported learning instead of frustrating it.
- Coordinated speaker logistics, rehearsal windows, and on-site support so faculty could concentrate on the audience, not the headset.
- Kept sponsor narrative and compliance checkpoints embedded in the workflow: smooth handoffs, no surprises in the room.
Results
Vetty recognition: proof the attendee journey mattered as much as the slide deck.
NAVC honored the program with a Vetty Award in 2022: external confirmation that we’d delivered education practitioners valued, not just collateral they tolerated. For Hill’s, it reinforced a model: invest in the attendee journey as carefully as the slides, and the experience earns its place on the conference calendar year after year.