So you want to know what we've been up to?
There’s always something going on at camp Onswitch, so never a week passes by without one of us heading out to meet the great and the good. We thought it might be nice to open our diary up so you can see where we’ve been and what we’ve been up to. If there’s a conference we’ve attended that you want the highlights of, then just shout. It’s kind of a public service we offer – our bums get numb so yours don’t have to.
Coming soon....
22-23 / 10 / 2010 Our award winning* Alison speaking at the London Vet Show
Alison will be speaking about making first impressions really count. She should know, being top rated female speaker at last year's conference*, no less!
www.londonvetshow.co.uk/business-programme2/
24 / 5 / 2010 Northern Vet Show
Many of you are already booking for this event, so 'appen we'll see you at the Royal Armouries in Leeds for some Onswitch plain speaking.
5 / 3 /2010 Back to business
Wendy and Heather went back to college, hosting a business day for the fab students at the Nottingham vet school. Pictured is the team who won the prize for being the most consumer-focused, keeping the needs of pet owners in mind at all times.
5 / 3 / 2010 OnSwiss
Alison has just got back from Gstaad in Switzerland, where she met some lovely vets from Holland and Belgium, and ate rather a lot of cheese! It made a change to the usual Onswitch haunts of Lincolnshire and SW Scotland... hang on, it was cold and snowy... maybe not so much of a change! Looking forward to doing it all again next year, perhaps somewhere beach-related?....
4 / 3 / 2010 Up and running
Our Rebecca and her family are currently in training for Sport Relief. Her daughter India has talked the whole family into donning their running shoes for this excellent cause - she and her father are running 6 miles, whilst Rebecca and her two younger daughters are each running 3 miles on Sunday 21st March. www.sportrelief.com
26 / 2 / 2010 Vet school appointment
Alison has been given a 3 year appointment as Special Lecturer in Veterinary Marketing at Nottingham University. There'll be no snoozing at the back in those lectures!
24 / 2 / 2010 Customer service, all buttoned up
Excellent customer service should not be exceptional, so we are pleased to report that it is alive and well at John Whittaker International. Acquiring one of the great man's riding jackets recently, Wendy needed replacement buttons. After exhausting all the usual routes to buy some, she contacted the company direct to find out where she could source them. The next day Wendy received a packet through the post - shiny new, free-of-charge buttons. That's the way to do it!
12 / 2 / 2010 Booking now...
Everyone loves a good book, so we've decided to help the RCVS library conserve another title in their archive. The sportsman’s dictionary; or, the gentleman’s companion for town and country seemed rather appropriate somehow, and the poor chap is certainly in need of some major TLC! Find out more about the Adopt a Book Scheme at www.rcvs.org.uk/RCVSTrust
29 / 1 / 2010 VPMA Conference, Oxford Belfry
Amidst the industry news and latest veterinary developments, Alison managed to sit on a piece of chewing gum. Helpful colleagues suggested freezing the gum (trousers in freezer for 24 hours) and soaking in surgical spirits (trousers acquired strange smell), but the offending gum was only removed with a liberal application of vodka. Some of it even went on the trousers.
22 / 1 / 2010 Plane and simple?
This week, our Gudrun spent 3 hours fog-bound in a plane stack, waiting to land. In true Onswitch fashion, she got there in the end, finding a route through the haze! (Groan)
15 / 1 / 10 And the winner is...
Congratulations to John Barton of Barton Vets, Colwyn Bay. He is the lucky recipient of a case of wine, chosen at random from everyone who responded to our recent diet survey. So there's a few more calories, right there!
7 / 1 /10 Snow joke
Our Operations Director, Wendy, is managing operations fuelled by whatever she can find in the back of the cupboard. Icy roads have prevented her leaving the house for days, and vital supplies are running low. SHE NOW HAS NO WINE LEFT. It's serious.
23 / 12 / 09 Onswitch Latest Team Member
Onswitch won't be sending out Christmas cards this year, instead we are sponsoring a puppy at Canine Partners. Canine Partners help to transform the lives of those people with disabilities.To see the puppy we are sponsoring go to
http://www.caninepartners.org.uk/adoptapuppy
We will be posting updates on our website, www.onswitch.co.uk/news/pebbles.html, showing the progress of the puppy during its training.
10 / 12 / 09 Taylors Veterinary Clinic
Wendy visited the practice to hand over an Onswitch MOT after they won a Novartis competition at BSAVA. Taylors get a free Mystery Shop at their own practice as well as at 2 competitors, along with a web audit and a detailed practice business analysis. To find out more about our MOT, send us an e.mail, give us a call, or look out for your Spring Footfall.
8 / 12 / 2009 SPVS dinner, London
Alison attended the annual, and very fabulous, SPVS dinner, only to be struck by comedy disaster the following morning when she was locked out of her hotel room. Needing to collect her things and catch a train, hotel staff had to remove the door to let Alison in. You couldn't make it up.
December issue of VPMA magazine, page 40
Alison and Wendy are in the news again, this time featured in the veterinary press for the Large animal / Equine reception training days that they ran recently in Bristol and Lancaster. A grand day was had by all, thanks in no small part to the good food and good company at both venues. Hopefully more to come! www.vpma.co.uk
25/11/09 VetsWest Consulting Skills training
Alison and Caroline spent a day with nurses from the VetsWest group, coaching them in the key area of consulting skills. Surely learning isn’t supposed to be this much fun?.. www.vetswest.com
19/11/09 Veterinary Marketing Association
Heather Maggs spoke at a VMA seminar at Cookham, with a talk intriguingly titled ‘Sacred cows make the best hamburgers’. www.vma.org.uk
17/11/09 London Vet School
Alison sat on a panel of veterinary entrepreneurs at the Royal Veterinary College, London, answering questions and giving young, enthusiastic students the benefit of her experience and knowledge. www.rvc.ac.uk
13-14/11/09 Danish Vet Conference.
Alison ran two days of lectures and workshops for lots of jolly nice Danish people. Aside from the vet stuff, she learned some important facts about Denmark.
i.The people are all very lovely and welcoming
ii.They drink lots, dance even more and need hardly any sleep
As a result, Alison is now fluent in useful alcohol-related Danish phrases. Many thanks to everyone there, can’t wait to come back again.
12/11/09 VetsNow emergency care conference in Harrogate.
Wendy ran four very successful (and extremely enjoyable) sessions on consumer care, ably assisted by most of the Onswitch team with a group of actors playing the part of disgruntled pet owners. Then we sampled Betty’s famous Fat Rascals. At the tearoom. Obviously. www.vets-now.com/vet
11/11/09 Consumer behaviour lecture at Nottingham vet school
The students are now working on a business game, where points mean prizes. An Onswitch prize – what could that be? Could it be chocolate related perchance?
7/11/09 AVSPNI conference, Killadeas, Northern Ireland
Alison ran a very well-attended session, ‘Thriving through recession’. All in all it was great weekend – lots of lovely people (special thanks to Jo, and to Des for emergency airport transportation - long story..) and a very grand dinner. www.vetni.co.uk/vet
6/11/09 London Vet Show at Olympia
The Onswitch stand was very busy as usual, and we met lots of new friends, so hello to you all! We also hosted a management session with 300 vets, which is always fun. Looking forward to next year already. www.londonvetshow.co.uk/vet
25/10/09 Galloway Pony Club meet, sponsored by Onswitch
Thirteen classes were hotly competed by the members of this very active regional branch of the Pony Club. However, nobody from Onswitch actually sat on a horse – we felt it was safer that way!
15/10/09 Cambridge vet school talk
Alison’s session “What will your clients say about you to their friends?” was filmed, and is now on VetPulseTV www.vetpulse.tv.
Students learned about the importance of putting the owner first, with Alison’s mantra of ‘one owner, one chance, once a year’. Oh, and fou-fou dust.
9/10/09 BVNA Congress, Kettering
Over 1300 nurses attended this year’s congress, and Onswitch met a good percentage of them over champagne! We hosted a picnic on the Friday (of course), and then our 10-strong team held the famous Big Chat on Saturday, where over 200 nurses came and aired and shared their thoughts and feelings. Keep an eye out for our review of the main issues, and in the meantime you can see photos in the next VNJ
www.bvna.org.uk
7/10/09 Nottingham Vet School’s 1st ever business lecture for Year 4 vet students.
Alison is a visiting lecturer at the UK’s newest vet school, and gave the first lecture in consumer behaviour for their 6-month business module. Onswitch are heavily involved in shaping the curriculum, as Nottingham are currently the only vet school to cover business practice in their veterinary training. After four years of planning, we’re rather chuffed that it’s now happening.
www.nottingham.ac.uk/vet
1/10/09 RCVS meeting in Lincoln
Alison gets papped asking a question from the audience about client choices. See more in the October 19th issue of Vet Times.
www.vbd.co.uk
More news, as it happens.