The Summit Story: Celebrating Five Years of Achievement

A need for community collaboration was the driving force for this event

Every journey starts with a single step … and when Larry Evans, President of PetLynx Corporation, stepped forward to open the lines of communication amongst all sectors of the companion animal industry, people noticed!

Evans and his team at PetLynx established a long-term goal to set the industry on a course of  collaboration, in effort to to create and sustain a healthy community for pets and people. This was achieved by organizing an event that would – for the first time in history – bring representatives from ‘competing’ industries into one room, to work together for a common goal.

Today, as the 2010 International Summit for Urban Animal Strategies draws near, we invite you to take a look back to reflect on how this important event has evolved and continues to foster collaboration and communication amongst all sectors of the companion animal industry.
 

“At the first Summit – called the 2006 Banff Care in the Community Summit – the 50 delegates, session leaders and sponsor representatives who were in attendance clearly indicated that they required clarity of thought on how to manage urban animals,” explains Evans. "The overriding consensus was that a lack of reliable statistics and information was hampering municipal leaders and legislators in their efforts to develop effective urban animal strategies. Clearly, there was much work to be done and participants went back to their respective communities with a renewed sense of hope.”

“I was privileged to be one of the delegates at the inaugural Summit,” explains retired City of Calgary Animal Service Manager, Jerry Aschenbrenner. “Having worked in this industry for more than 15 years, I had personally shared in the struggle. Getting all of these people in one room together was an extraordinary achievement! It helped us recognize that all sectors of the companion animal industry were working in isolation … without realizing that 85 per cent of the challenges that each of us were facing were shared concerns. Bringing everyone together opened the doors to all kinds of new opportunities … and the doors keep opening wider!

“I am thrilled to see that what started out as Larry Evan's vision – to pull together ‘industry thought leaders’ from across North America – has consistently grown to reflect the solid and progressing thinking of various people. With each successive year there is greater strength to the initiative,” concludes Aschenbrenner.

This year, the International Summit for Urban Animal Strategies, Wednesday, 13 October to Saturday, 16 October 2010 turns the focus on homing animals in our communities. 

Join your executive level peers and contribute to the formation of homing strategies. Register now.

Posted by Terri Perrin, Online Communications Editor