NAVC maps out 2026 education lineup beyond VMX

CURRENT FULL VERSION: NAVC is signaling that its education strategy for 2026 extends well beyond VMX. A new calendar of upcoming programs, highlighted by Today’s Veterinary Practice, points readers to a free reptilian CPR webinar through VetFolio and to HiVE Midwest, an in-person CE event designed for veterinary support staff. That fits with NAVC’s broader messaging after VMX 2026: the nonprofit wants to be seen less as a once-a-year conference organizer and more as a year-round education platform. (todaysveterinarypractice.com)

That shift has been building for some time. NAVC says it now hosts more than 50 events annually and serves a community of more than 685,000 veterinary professionals, while VMX 2026 drew nearly 29,000 attendees. In its post-VMX recap, NAVC framed HiVE, VetFolio, NAVC Media, and advocacy work through NAVC Embrace as parts of one connected portfolio, rather than stand-alone offerings. Registration is also already open for VMX 2027, reinforcing the idea that NAVC is keeping professionals engaged continuously, not just around a January meeting. NAVC’s own VMX preview also showed how broad that tent has become, spotlighting “Champions of Care” sessions on extending animal healthspan through preventive medicine and dental care, rehabilitation and mobility, exotic animal medicine, and expanding access to care in rural and underserved communities. (navc.com)

The event calendar gives that strategy some practical shape. NAVC’s official listings show HiVE Midwest on March 21-22, 2026, in Covington, Kentucky, and NAVC SkillShop on May 24-28, 2026, at Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort in Orlando. The HiVE event series now includes additional 2026 stops in San Antonio on May 30-31 and Charlotte on August 1-2, with a western event planned for October. NAVC describes HiVE as a conference series meant to “celebrate and elevate” veterinary nurses, technicians, practice managers, and support staff through clinical skills training, professional development, and personal growth. (navc.com)

The published HiVE Midwest program shows what that looks like on the ground. Sessions include “RECOVER in Practice: Evidence-based CPR for Veterinary Technicians,” “Triage Tactics: Navigating Veterinary Patient Emergencies,” “Medical Math Mentality,” “Hard Talks, Better Outcomes,” and sessions on budgeting, benchmarking, rewards, and retirement planning. The CPR content is especially notable because NAVC’s conference materials tie it to the updated 2024 RECOVER guidelines, suggesting the organization is using these smaller meetings to push practical, protocol-driven training into frontline teams. (navc.com)

There’s also a workforce angle here. NAVC’s own language around HiVE emphasizes groups that are “often under recognized” within the profession, and the agenda reflects that by mixing medicine with management, resilience, mentoring, and compensation topics. That aligns with wider conversations in veterinary medicine about burnout, retention, better technician utilization, and the need for more accessible professional development outside traditional veterinarian-centered CE formats. Commentary coming out of early-2026 meetings has also emphasized leadership and team dynamics, including the strain that multigenerational workplaces can place on communication, succession planning, engagement, and knowledge transfer. In that context, role-specific meetings like HiVE look less like side events and more like one response to a broader workforce development problem. (navc.com)

The year-round model also extends into practice leadership. SkillShop’s 2026 catalog includes a professional development track featuring the Uncharted Practice Owner Summit, scheduled for May 26-27 in Orlando, with bundled perks such as VMX 2027 registration and a year of VetFolio access. That kind of packaging reinforces NAVC’s effort to connect conference attendance, online CE, and business education into a more continuous learning pathway. It also mirrors broader discussion in the profession about distributive and workplace-based education models that rely less on a single campus or annual event and more on learning delivered across settings and over time. (navc.com)

NAVC’s portfolio is broader than CE alone, which matters for understanding the organization’s positioning. Around VMX, it also promoted the 2025 VETTY Awards, which recognize marketing excellence across animal health categories including advertising, digital, events, educational materials, and advocacy-related campaigns. That doesn’t directly change the CE calendar, but it does show NAVC continuing to present itself as a hub for multiple parts of the veterinary ecosystem: education, media, professional recognition, and industry connection. (navc.com)

Why it matters: For veterinary professionals, this is a useful marker of where CE delivery is heading. Instead of relying solely on one flagship conference, organizations like NAVC are segmenting education by role, region, format, and skill level. For practices, that could make it easier to send technicians, managers, and other team members to shorter, more relevant meetings, or to supplement in-person learning with virtual options through VetFolio and VMX Virtual. In practical terms, that may support stronger team training, better retention, and more consistent implementation of updated clinical standards, especially in high-impact areas like CPR and emergency response. It also lines up with bigger 2026 conversations about leadership, workplace culture, AI, ownership change, and access to care — all pressures that make flexible, continuous education more valuable than a once-a-year CE burst. (navc.com)

The calendar also suggests NAVC is trying to connect different tiers of education. At one end are accessible online offerings, including webinars and on-demand CE. At the other are immersive, hands-on programs like SkillShop, whose 2026 catalog includes small-group training in ultrasound, dentistry, surgery, rehabilitation, and a professional development track that includes the Uncharted Practice Owner Summit. For veterinary teams, that creates a more visible ladder from basic CE consumption to advanced skills training and leadership development. (navc.com)

What to watch: The next thing to watch is whether NAVC keeps expanding these role-specific and regional formats, and whether attendance and programming trends at HiVE, SkillShop, virtual offerings, and partner events influence how other veterinary CE providers package workforce development in 2026 and 2027. (navc.com)