ViVet innovation workshop resources now available

The College's ViVet innovation initiative has published the resources used at its recent innovation workshops for the benefit of those who were not able to attend either event.

The first of the innovation workshops took place at the Moller Centre in Cambridge on 16 January and was led by professional innovation consultant Greg Dickens MRCVS from Innovia Technology who was also joined by guest speakers Andrew Francis, the founder of South Coast Cardiology, a visiting specialist referral service, and Adrian Nelson-Pratt, founder of the Emerge Veterinary Project, a coaching and personal development product aimed at improving veterinary wellbeing and performance.

The first workshop introduced tools and techniques to help individuals and organisations think creatively about how to identify needs and opportunities for innovation in the animal health/ veterinary sector, and how to turn an identified need into an idea. Attendees were given practical advice on how to find opportunities, brainstorming and assessing ideas.

The second session took place on 20 February and built on the theme of the first workshop with information on how to develop an idea and bring it to market. The first part of the day, led by Greg Dickens and fellow veterinary innovator Guen Bradbury, looked at how ideas and concepts could be tested to gain feedback and then refined.

The second part of the day saw RCVS Director of Leadership and Innovation Anthony Roberts talk to delegates about how to develop and refine business models to maximise your product or service’s success and the power and impact of business model innovation. This session addressed issues such as identifying and segmenting your customer-base, how to reach and communicate with your customers or clients, and how to best organise and exploit the resources at your disposal to provide a sustainable competitive advantage.

This session also covered the vital role of storytelling in winning support and funding for an idea, how to successfully pitch for funding and other forms of support.

Anthony Roberts (pictured right) said:  “I’m delighted that feedback from these inaugural innovation workshops showed that attendees found the sessions useful, informative and, most importantly, inspiring as regards developing their own ideas, services and products.

”The topics we covered, however, are relevant to all veterinary surgeons and nurses, and for this reason we’re sharing all the he resources from both events on the ViVet website”.

One of those who commented positively on the workshop was Rachel Dean, Director of Clinical Research and Excellence in Practice at VetPartners who said:

“Today was really interesting; I was encouraged to go to the event by my company. The best bit about today was meeting other people that also see that we need to innovate, and need to try and work out how we do that in various different settings.”

Another delegate, equine vet Malcolm Morley, added: “I came on the course thinking that I had some innovative ideas that I wanted to take further, but actually I realised that on the course I learnt ideas that would apply to other aspects of what I do. So I’m going home with take-home messages for other things too.”

The materials from the workshop are available to view and download from the resources section of the ViVet website.