The AASV held its 42nd Annual Meeting in Phoenix, Ariz. March 5 – 8, 2011. The meeting, held at the Pointe Hilton Tapatio Cliffs Resort, drew 930 total attendees including 525 paid registrants and 130 students. The participants represented 22 countries. Attendees were offered the opportunity to visit a record 73 technical tables.
The participants were presented with numerous educational sessions including 9 pre-conference workshops, two general sessions, three break-out sessions, research topics, industrial partner sessions, student seminars and poster sessions. The conference consisted of 24 hours of educational sessions, 15 student presentations and 54 poster presentations eligible for over 20 hours of continuing education credits.
The AASV Foundation also held its annual fund-raising auction during the Annual Meeting. The lively auction raised approximately $64,282 to support Foundation programs including student travel stipends, research projects, scholarships, student externships, summer internships, awards and other opportunities to enhance the personal and professional aspects of swine veterinary medicine. Auctioneer, and AASV Executive Director, Dr. Tom Burkgren called the auction with the assistance of ISU veterinary student Shamus Brown. A new addition to this year’s auction was the raffling of a piggy bank donated by auction chair Dr. Warren Wilson. Attendees purchased chances to guess the value of the coins contained in the bank. The raffle raised $650 and was won by Dr. Joe Connor who guessed the exact value of the coins at $25. The auction was a great success and fun was had by all. The Foundation wishes to thank all those that participated in the auction by bidding on items and those that donated items to the auction.
In addition, fourteen AASV committees met on Saturday morning and the Board of Directors convened at the close of the meeting on Tuesday afternoon.