Registration is now open for the American Horse Council’s 2018 Annual Meeting and National Issues Forum.
Registration information, along with a tentative schedule is available on the AHC website here.
The theme of the National Issues Forum will be ‘Let’s Capitalize On It!’ and will focus on ways the equine industry can learn and grow from both equine and outside industry segments as well as expanding technology beneficial to both humans and equines.
“We are really looking forward to our National Issues Forum this year,” said AHC President Julie Broadway. “We have some exciting and engaging speakers lined up to talk about a variety of issues such as public perception of an industry, emerging technologies that benefit our industry and our horses, how other sports segments grew their youth pipeline, and of course a deeper dive into the results of our 2017 Economic Impact Study.”
The forum will kick off on Tuesday, June 12 with speaker Luis Benitez, director of the Colorado Outdoor Recreation Industry Office, where he will give an overview of his roles and responsibilities, as well as explain how other states could adopt a similar model. Following Benitez will be a panel titled ‘Survey Says’ and will examine various data trends within the equine industry over the past several years. The morning will also include a youth engagement panel, ‘Building the pipeline of future horse enthusiasts,’ and will feature representatives from the PGA ‘First Tee’ program and the Outdoor Industry Association’s ‘Outdoor Nation.’
The afternoon session will start with Dan Ashe, president and CEO of the Association of Zoos & Aquariums (AZA). The organization is a nonprofit association dedicated to the advancement of zoos and aquariums in the areas of conservation, animal welfare, education, science and recreation. Noted author and journalist Fran Jurga will also be speaking on emerging technologies in the equine industry. Also speaking will be Anne Poulson, Dr. Yuval Neria and Dr. Prudence Fisher from the Man ‘o War Project and Columbia University Medical Center presenting their methodology and findings from their clinical research to determine the effectiveness of EAAT on military veterans suffering from PTSD. Also include panels of Congressional representatives, and equine aftercare, followed by round table discussion on topics of interests.
New this year, vendors will be set up to provide live demonstrations of emerging technologies including health monitoring sensors for horses and virtual reality demonstrations.
The AHC’s Annual Meeting will take place Sunday (June 10) – Wednesday (June 13). Various committees of the AHC will meet on Sunday and Monday. The Annual Meeting and National Issues Forum will take place on Tuesday and are open to both AHC members and non-members; we encourage anyone involved in the equine industry to attend to learn about new developments and how they can become involved.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact the AHC at [email protected] or 202.296.4031.
(American Horse Council)