Topics - 2026 guidED Conference

guidED is about taking you from where you are, to where you want to go next. Our Experts have been asked to tackle topics to support not only your leadership journey, but also the health of your practice team and business.

With workshop-style learning, our goal is to educate and inspire, while giving you the ability to determine in real time how you will implement what you are learning in a way that fits with your world. It's what guidED is all about.

This profession demands performance akin to that of high-level athletes—managing physical demands, sustained focus, emotional load, and repeated decision-making—without a clear system for preparation, recovery, or long-term capacity.

Consider what would happen if veterinary leaders thought less like crisis managers, and more like performance coaches, not just for others, but by starting with themselves.

In veterinary medicine, the demands placed on leaders and teams are high, constant, and cumulative. What if there was a science-backed, sustainable, and more effective way forward? The Durability Framework introduces a practical leadership model using the Veterinary Athlete lens to reframe veterinary work as a performance role, to accomplish just that.

What You’ll Learn:

How the Durability Framework, viewed through the Veterinary Athlete lens, helps leaders better understand and respond to the real demands of veterinary practice.
Practical strategies leaders can use to strengthen personal durability through simple, repeatable habits that support energy, focus, and sustainable performance.
How to extend those concepts beyond the individual by shaping team habits, clinic culture, and practice systems that support long-term durability.

Veterinary professionals are trained to diagnose disease, but rarely taught how to interpret the stories shaping their leadership, teams, and client relationships. Whether we know it or not, the narratives we tell ourselves and others profoundly influence burnout, communication, leadership, and professional fulfillment.

In this interactive workshop, anchored to the most recent evidence-based research, Dr. Vogelsang explores the power of story as a tool for finding meaning and to effect change. Drawing on the Hero’s Journey framework and real-world veterinary experiences, participants will learn how to recognize limiting narratives, reframe challenges, and intentionally shape their professional identity. You won’t leave with the ability to rewrite the universe Infinity Stones-style, but it’s the closest you’ll get in this timeline.

Through guided exercises and group discussion, attendees will leave with practical tools to communicate more effectively with clients and teams, lead with greater clarity and purpose, and take ownership of the next chapter.

What You’ll Learn:

To Identify the role of narratives in shaping professional identity, burnout, and decision-making in veterinary medicine
How to recognize limiting or maladaptive narratives in yourselves, your teams, and client interactions
Ways to leverage storytelling frameworks to improve client communication, team alignment, and leadership presence

Veterinary medicine is evolving in a landscape shaped by rising client expectations, workforce pressures, and economic uncertainty; in most cases, faster than practices have adapted. At the same time, the way clients perceive the value of care has fundamentally changed, influenced by their experiences outside of veterinary medicine, including how services are marketed, promoted, and communicated.

In this session, we’ll explore how proven strategies from retail, hospitality, and other customer-focused industries can be adapted to strengthen veterinary businesses without compromising clinical integrity or compassion. This session offers a fresh perspective on how marketing, client experience, and communication work together to drive trust, loyalty, and sustainable growth.

Together, we’ll unpack how pet owners experience your practice, across both in-clinic interactions and digital touchpoints, and why that experience matters more than ever. You’ll leave with practical ideas that can be applied immediately to attract the right clients, strengthen existing relationships, and create a more consistent, high-quality experience across every touchpoint.

What You’ll Learn:

Strategies” to attract new clients through clear positioning, effective promotion, and consistent messaging
Practical approaches to strengthen client relationships through communication, trust-building, and thoughtful marketing touchpoints
How to optimize your client experience, from first contact through follow-up, to support satisfaction and adherence
Methods to manage and elevate your digital presence, including your website, reviews, and online reputation

Even highly capable, thoughtful leaders can find themselves reacting in ways that don't reflect who they actually want to be, especially under pressure. In fast-paced, high-stakes environments, internal patterns, assumptions, and unseen commitments often drive how we communicate, make decisions, and lead without our awareness – and without delivering the outcomes we intend.

This two-part workshop is designed to help leaders recognize where they are operating on autopilot and develop the ability to respond with greater intention, clarity, and alignment in the moments that matter most.

Using the CORE Element™ Framework (Conscious Awareness----+ Ownership----+ Response----+ Expression), participants will learn a practical, repeatable process for interrupting automatic reactions and choosing more effective responses in real time. From there, the work goes deeper, exploring how values and underlying commitments shape behaviour, and ultimately determine the results leaders create.

Through guided reflection and structured exercises, participants will apply these concepts to real leadership challenges, gaining insight into where misalignment is creating friction and how to shift it. The result is not just greater awareness, but a clear, actionable path to leading in a way that is both effective and aligned.

What You'll Learn:

To recognize when you are operating on autopilot and identify the reactive patterns shaping your leadership
Strategies to respond intentionally in real time using the CORE Element™ Framework, replacing automatic reactions with aligned, effective leadership behaviours
The influence of your values and commitments, on your decisions, behaviours, and leadership outcomes
Practical approaches to realign your actions with values, and commitments, to create more effective, authentic, and sustainable results
Techniques to unpack a real leadership situation and pinpoint where misalignment is creating friction or dissatisfaction

With diligent intention, guidED is designed to be more than a series of lectures. It’s a space where participants are encouraged to engage fully - to reflect, contribute, challenge, and grow. Through thoughtful facilitation and a focus on connection, guidED fosters an environment grounded in trust, respect, and openness; an environment that requires active attention and care – so that individuals come together as a strong, empowered community. This leadership experience is where ideas are carried forward, and learning is translated into meaningful action.

As Conference Curator and Engagement Facilitator, Senani plays a central role in shaping the guidED experience – from over a year in advance, to long after the event. By connecting themes, conversations, and perspectives across the guidED pillars, she ensures that learning is not experienced in isolation, but as part of a larger, shared journey. As a result, participants feel supported to engage deeply, be their authentic selves, and move forward with clarity, confidence, and a renewed sense of purpose.

Senani weaves together the insights, themes, and conversations that emerge across sessions and throughout the moments in between. Whether attending for the first time, or returning year over year, you will notice that her presence is a quintessential part of what makes the guidED experience unique, and unparalleled. Our curated event sets the tone for participants to feel confident in how they show up, connect with others, and apply what they’ve learned beyond the conference, with Senani guiding those moments of reflection and intention throughout.