June 11, 2011 | Vet Record Careers | i Vet Record Careers vetrecordcareers.com Lectures in the living room Webinars offer an opportunity for CPD in a live lecture format in the comfort of your own home, as Anthony Chadwick explains ABOUT five years ago, I realised I needed to know more about the internet for my busi- ness’s sake. As a referral veterinary derma- tologist and the owner of a two-vet practice, I saw that it could be an ideal way to promote my two businesses (I have recently sold my first-opinion practice). By January 2010, I had made good progress. We had two good websites that attracted clients to the referral and first- opinion practices, but I felt I needed to find someone with more understanding to get me to the next level. I attended my first internet conference, which was run by a man called Mark Anastasi. By the end of the day I had bought a course on how Google works, and, more importantly, had sat enthralled as an Australian, Steven Essa, told the audi- ence about his success using webinars to sell things. I had a ‘lightbulb’ moment and realised how effective a tool these could be in training vets and nurses. I bought his course and with his help ran my first ever webinar a month later, on pruritus in dogs and cats. I e-mailed my referring vets, and two days later I had 50 vets in my virtual lecture theatre lis- tening to me talking about one of my pas- sions, veterinary dermatology. The Webinar Vet was born with the motto ‘Veterinary education made easy’. Vets loved it, and I received many appreciative e-mails over the next few days. At about the same time, Ceva began to offer veterinary webinars too, and Idexx had also begun to run them for its veterinary cli- ents in the early evenings. Many vets told me that they had grown tired of going to evening meetings at the end of a long busy day. Mums with young children said how much easier it was to do their CPD when no travel was involved and they did not have to organise childcare. As a practising vet myself, I positioned my webinars to start around 9 pm, which allowed vets to spend time with their fam- ily before retiring to their office to cross off another hour of CPD. As the company has developed, more and more vets have told me that they have done more CPD in the past year than ever before, and that they no longer see 35 hours as a target to manage but a mini- mum requirement that they will comfortably surpass. What is a webinar? A webinar is web-based seminar or lecture, usually in the form of a PowerPoint presenta- tion that is presented by the lecturer in his or her study and, using the power of technol- ogy, is transmitted via the internet into the homes of the vets and nurses who have reg- istered for the event. Registration is an easy process, after which participants receive an e-mail link that they click on when the webi- nar is due to start. Webinars are usually recorded, and the recordings are placed on my website so that they can be viewed at a better time for those who are unable to attend. Recording also allows those who have attended to watch again and review the material. Since last March, the business has grown rapidly. We ran a couple of series of webi- nars and then started a membership scheme for vets, nurses and practices, whereby they pay a monthly subscription to have access to all live and recorded webinars. After a slow start, veterinary food and pharmaceutical Anthony Chadwick set up The Webinar Vet to allow vets to ‘attend’ CPD events without having to travel on 9 July 2018 by guest. Protected by copyright. http://veterinaryrecord.bmj.com/ Veterinary Record: first published as 10.1136/vr.g7138 on 1 December 2014. Downloaded from
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June 11, 2011 | Vet Record Careers | i
Vet Record Careersvetrecordcareers.com
Lectures in the living roomWebinars offer an opportunity for CPD in a live lecture format in the comfort of your own home, as Anthony Chadwick explains
ABOUT five years ago, I realised I needed to know more about the internet for my busi-ness’s sake. As a referral veterinary derma-tologist and the owner of a two-vet practice, I saw that it could be an ideal way to promote my two businesses (I have recently sold my first-opinion practice).
By January 2010, I had made good progress. We had two good websites that attracted clients to the referral and first-opinion practices, but I felt I needed to find someone with more understanding to get me to the next level. I attended my first internet conference, which was run by a man called Mark Anastasi. By the end of the day I had bought a course on how Google works, and, more importantly, had sat enthralled as an Australian, Steven Essa, told the audi-ence about his success using webinars to sell things. I had a ‘lightbulb’ moment and realised how effective a tool these could be in training vets and nurses. I bought his course and with his help ran my first ever webinar a month later, on pruritus in dogs and cats. I e-mailed my referring vets, and two days later I had 50 vets in my virtual lecture theatre lis-tening to me talking about one of my pas-sions, veterinary dermatology. The Webinar Vet was born with the motto ‘Veterinary education made easy’. Vets loved it, and I received many appreciative e-mails over the next few days.
At about the same time, Ceva began to offer veterinary webinars too, and Idexx had also begun to run them for its veterinary cli-ents in the early evenings. Many vets told me that they had grown tired of going to evening meetings at the end of a long busy day. Mums with young children said how much easier it was to do their CPD when no travel was involved and they did not have to organise childcare.
As a practising vet myself, I positioned my webinars to start around 9 pm, which allowed vets to spend time with their fam-ily before retiring to their office to cross off another hour of CPD. As the company has developed, more and more vets have told me that they have done more CPD in the past year than ever before, and that they no longer see 35 hours as a target to manage but a mini-
mum requirement that they will comfortably surpass.
What is a webinar?A webinar is web-based seminar or lecture, usually in the form of a PowerPoint presenta-tion that is presented by the lecturer in his or her study and, using the power of technol-ogy, is transmitted via the internet into the homes of the vets and nurses who have reg-istered for the event. Registration is an easy process, after which participants receive an e-mail link that they click on when the webi-nar is due to start.
Webinars are usually recorded, and the recordings are placed on my website so that they can be viewed at a better time for those who are unable to attend. Recording also allows those who have attended to watch again and review the material.
Since last March, the business has grown rapidly. We ran a couple of series of webi-nars and then started a membership scheme for vets, nurses and practices, whereby they pay a monthly subscription to have access to all live and recorded webinars. After a slow start, veterinary food and pharmaceutical
Anthony Chadwick set up The Webinar Vet to allow vets to ‘attend’ CPD events without having to travel
on 9 July 2018 by guest. Protected by copyright.
http://veterinaryrecord.bmj.com
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eterinary Record: first published as 10.1136/vr.g7138 on 1 D
companies have also shown an interest. Many hundreds of vets and nurses have attended the webinars, with a top audience of just under 1000.
Global audienceOf course, it isn’t just vets from the UK who attend. The internet is truly an interna-tional community where travel is no longer necessary. Attendees have come from far-flung places like St Helena, Chile, Mexico,
Thailand, Romania, Latvia, South Africa, America and Australia as well as Ireland, Spain, Germany and Greece, to name but a few. Cornwall and The Highlands, which are often remote from CPD centres, have also provided delegates.
Our webinars have mainly covered small animal issues, but have also featured practice management and equids; next month will see the delivery of our first pig webinar. We have also delivered training to
Suitably Qualified Persons with the help of the Animal Medicines Training Regulatory Authority. There have been many hours of CPD from world-renowned speakers.
Fifteen months from inception, it is good to see other companies getting involved in this burgeoning field. Some companies we helped have gone on to run their own webinars and traditional CPD providers are also seeing the potential. Webinars, I think, have made veteri-nary education that little bit easier.
Ten-minute chat
Tell us a bit about yourself.Having qualified in 1984, I co-founded AMCRS in 1990. It was the first dedicated referral practice in the UK, and the first to have an in-house brain scanner.
As a frequent guest speaker on my favourite topics – philosophy, comparative ophthalmology and neurology – I get to travel the world. Closer to home, I am a member of an actively gigging rock band, The Bruise Brothers, who may be seen at some of the smaller festivals later this summer, as well as being a current WKC British kickboxing champion, having scooped four gold medals at the British championships earlier this year. As a qualified motorcycle mechanic, my preferred mode of transport is my ex-army Harley. This year I managed to get my diving qualification in time to lecture on the SPVS Scubascene, and I have just enrolled on a three-year sound recording course.
What kind of music do you play?My musical interests emanate from punk rock days, and I have been in some sort of a band ever since then. I worked my way through vet school as a DJ on pirate radio, at private parties and as band support, to qualify without a debt, which was unusual even in those days.
The current act involves between two and five musicians, with a variety of sets ranging from original blues-based rockabilly-type stuff, through glam and rock variations to a more traditional party rock format. I play guitar and sing. My mum thinks we’re great, but opinion is divided. We are available for weddings, bar mitzvahs, funerals and biker parties, and have been known to play at
European veterinary congresses where I am lecturing.
How did you get involved in kickboxing?Kickboxing took off as a way of moving out of the festering slobbiness that follows retirement from physical sports, in my case rugby and American football. The discipline to go to the gym on a regular basis on one’s own tends to wane and was easily replaced by training with a return to aggressive physical contact and peer pressure.
Competing is a natural stage in a martial artist’s development, and I spent three years on the UK circuit getting a frequent bloody nose and the occasional medal. I moved into more traditional aspects of kung fu several years ago and, having turned pro two years ago, I teach ancient and modern Chinese martial arts at my own club in south Manchester. One aspect of the discipline involves traditional weaponry. I compete and demonstrate the applications of a variety of armaments, from broadswords and butterfly swords to spears, knives and horseback archery (I do not ride!). I have had a couple of stick fights and have a duel scheduled against a museum curator in Leeds to compare the Chinese and European forms of poleaxe. Cross training is a natural progression, and I have also had (and won) a couple of mixed martial arts fights.
However, at the age of 51, the fighting side must give way to a greater emphasis on self-defence and lifestyle. I pay more attention to diet and realise that my overall philosophy is a combination of Daoism and Confucianism. My life balance has adjusted to allow three-plus hours’ training every day. The various gyms are quite close to the practice so that I can remain on-call. Interns are not required to train, but it is encouraged!
What’s the best piece of advice you have been given? Do not live to regret not trying something (Humphrey Littleton).
What has been your proudest moment? Winning gold medals in both fight categories at the British Kickboxing Championships in 2005.
. . . and your worst? Playing American football for Edinburgh. I had got through the British team trials and had appeared as a centre-page spread in a national magazine. In a televised game I had scored two touchdowns and was just about to catch a long scoring pass, three or four metres away from a television camera. The ball went into my grasp and bobbled gently out. I have had nightmares ever since.
Pip Boydell is the founder and director of Animal Medical Centre Referral Services (AMCRS) in Manchester; he is a vet with many interests, from music to kickboxing.
on 9 July 2018 by guest. Protected by copyright.
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eterinary Record: first published as 10.1136/vr.g7138 on 1 D
