HallMark at the VPHA & AGV Conference 2026
HallMark colleagues joined veterinary professionals from across the UK at the VPHA & AGV Conference 2026, held at Yarnfield Park, Staffordshire, on 25 and 26 September.
This year’s theme, “Dealing with Actual and Potential Risks”, focused on risk across Veterinary Public Health and One Health, particularly how veterinary professionals assess, communicate and manage risk when dealing with uncertainty.
Friday: Students, discussion and dinner
The conference began on Friday afternoon with an informal session led by VPHA Student Ambassadors from UK veterinary schools.
The round-table discussions gave students and experienced professionals the chance to talk openly about real situations involving risk communication, including examples of where communication had worked well and where it could have been better.
It was particularly good for our HallMark colleagues to spend time with veterinary students and hear their perspectives, as well as share some of their own experience working in Veterinary Public Health.
Friday evening continued with the conference dinner, providing a more relaxed opportunity to catch up with colleagues and friends from across the profession. Events like this are always a reminder of the value of meeting people face to face, especially when teams and professional networks are spread across the country.
Saturday: Dealing with risk
Saturday’s conference brought together speakers from academia, the Food Standards Agency, UK Health Security Agency, Defra and APHA, looking at risk from several different perspectives.
Topics ranged from communicating uncertainty and making public health decisions with incomplete evidence to animal disease risk, emerging infections and the growing use of artificial intelligence within food systems.
The programme also looked at risk communication in companion animal health and the practical difficulties of communicating changing or uncertain information to different audiences.
For HallMark, these are familiar issues. Our teams make evidence-based decisions and communicate risk every day across Official Controls, import controls, veterinary certification, animal health and other areas of Veterinary Public Health.
Thank you to everyone involved
A big thank you to the VPHA, AGV, BCVA, speakers, Student Ambassadors and everyone who contributed to the weekend.
Special thanks also to the organising committee, Anthony Ridge, Milorad Radakovic, Rhiannon Wood, Juan Avila and Simon Woliter, together with the Student Ambassadors, for all the work behind the scenes.
It was great to see familiar faces, meet new people and spend some proper time together away from Teams calls and day-to-day work.
We came away with plenty to talk about, and plenty of photos from Friday’s student session and dinner and Saturday’s conference to share.
