Utility Bar

  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Pawcurious: With Veterinarian and Author Dr. V

Celebrating the truth that pets make people better.

  • RSS
  • LinkedIn
  • YouTube
  • Google +
  • Goodreads
  • Pinterest
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Home
  • About
    • Bio
    • FAQ
  • Speaking
  • Pet Expert
  • Writing
  • Books
    • All Dogs Go to Kevin
    • Press
  • Blog
    • Picks of the Litter
    • Popular Posts
  • Contact
You are here: Home / Be The Change / The start of a beautiful conference

The start of a beautiful conference

October 1, 2012 by Dr. V

When Mike Arms asked me to speak at the first ACES International Conference here in San Diego last weekend, of course I said yes. One, I always like the opportunity to get to speak about social media, one of my favorite topics. Two, I was honored by the invitation to contribute to a really exciting endeavor. And three, well, I really just wanted to go to the conference.

Helen Woodward Animal Center has been running ACES conferences for years, a series of lectures designed to help shelters and rescue leaders figure out a more effective business model for rethinking how the sheltering world should work. This year, for the first time, Helen Woodward decided to take the conference out of the center, move it to a hotel conference center, and invite speakers from all over the country and participants from all over the world.

The conference kicked off with Jill Rappaport, Today correspondent and major animal advocate. She turned a successful career as an entertainment reporter on its head by deciding to devote her life to animal advocacy starting with her “Bow to Wow” makeover series in some on New York’s most dire shelters, and then grew it from there. She was great.

And then, of course, Mike got up and did that thing Mike does when he makes everyone cry and sniffle, including me, despite the fact that I knew exactly what he was going to say and what he was going to make someone get up and do. What can I say? The man knows how to work a room. Then I went to my talk with panelists Marcie Grube and Lon Jones from Helen Woodward, and Bev Van Zant from Iams.

As you know if you’ve ever been to a social media conference, everyone, including the speakers, insists on taking pictures and Tweeting during the talk. I don’t remember what I said, I think I babbled about the Maasai guy who tried to buy me and showed some pictures of Brody and Koa in a manner tangentially relevant to the topic, but everyone else was great.

Lon brought along a couple of co-presenters for moral support, which is always welcomed.

The rest of the talks were also stellar. Jessica Gercke from Helen Woodward and Dave Koontz from Sea World and one other guy whose name escapes me at the moment gave a great presentation on making friends with the media, which I could really use as I’m still honing my creative skills to get the word out about Estelle. I need to get that dog adopted, man. It’s killing me.

I made poor Steve Dale pose for pictures like the starstruck celebrity fan that I am (he was very gracious, by the way.)

And I got to admire the view of Mission Bay from the parking lot while I pondered the relative ease of getting Brody to do stand up paddleboarding as opposed to surfing.

So who could complain? We lucked out. We had the most beautiful weekend, right before temperatures rocket up again this week up to 100+. I got to watch a delegation from Abu Dhabi sign a memorandum of understanding to improve the lives for animals in their country. I witnessed what I think is the germination of a new breed of animal welfare conferences, one that is willing to challenge the status quo and shake things up even if it means creating some lively debate- which there was. I loved seeing people so fired up and wanting to change the way business is done, and this conference gave them extremely concrete tools in order to do so. Be the Change at its finest, the world over.

And we even had tamales, real ones, from TJ. Thank you, awesome Bahia Resort employee, for getting those over.

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)

Filed Under: Be The Change, Daily Life Tagged With: ACES, Helen Woodward, Mission Bay, tamales

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Tamara says

    October 1, 2012 at 6:24 am

    Nice that you could attend something close to home 🙂 I also appreciate that shelters are looking at new ways of doing business, to ensure that the animals are well-served. That’s what matters most.

    • Dr. V says

      October 1, 2012 at 8:24 pm

      It was exciting to see people from all over the world in agreement: something needs to change.

  2. amanda parks says

    October 2, 2012 at 12:25 pm

    i think you should adopt estelle. 🙂

Primary Sidebar

Picks of the Litter

Popular Posts

  • Much Love to the Cat Guys
    Much Love to the Cat Guys
  • Flash Mountain
    Flash Mountain
  • Painting the Roses Red
    Painting the Roses Red
  • Guest Post: The Cat’s Guide to Surviving a Zombie Apocalypse
    Guest Post: The Cat’s Guide to Surviving a Zombie Apocalypse
  • Pudgy pups strike again- why the story of Obie bothers me
    Pudgy pups strike again- why the story of Obie bothers me
  • Minimizing the Stress of Euthanasia
    Minimizing the Stress of Euthanasia
  • World's Most Adorable Degenerate Produce
    World's Most Adorable Degenerate Produce
  • Is It OK To Text a Vet Friend For Free Advice?
    Is It OK To Text a Vet Friend For Free Advice?

Posts by Topic

Posts by Date

Footer

On Instagram

No images found!
Try some other hashtag or username

On Facebook

On Pinterest

  • Game of Thrones Houses
  • Is It OK To Text a Vet Friend For Free Advice? – Pawcurious: With Veterinarian and Author Dr. V
  • How Not To Kill Your Cat This Easter
  • Infographic: "42 Funeral and Burial Rituals from Around the World"
  • Throwing a dog friendly Bark Party is the best way to meet new neighbors! Check out my tips for a successful dog meet-up and giveaway, sponsored by @StateFarm!
  • Terms
  • Privacy
  • Advertise
  • Contact
  • PR, Giveaways, and Brands
  • © Copyright 2009-2025 Pawcurious, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
  • Web Design by Moxie Design Studios
Scroll Up