Gavin Biggs | CEO
Therian

Gavin Biggs is the founder and CEO of Therian, bringing more than 32 years of experience in commercial construction, design and project delivery to the animal care sector. Since 2006, Gavin has worked closely with veterinary practices, boarding facilities, animal shelters and welfare organisations to plan and deliver environments that support better care. His background spans electrical engineering, project management, business and technology, giving him a practical understanding of how facilities, equipment and day-to-day operations need to work together. Gavin regularly attends veterinary and animal-care conferences in Australia and the United States. These trips also take him inside shelters, veterinary hospitals, boarding facilities and veterinary colleges, where he studies how different organisations respond to changing expectations, limited resources and increasingly complex animal needs. His particular interest lies in the relationship between people; animals and the environments created for their care. Drawing on two decades of work within animal-care settings, Gavin brings an informed cross-sector perspective on what can be learnt when veterinary medicine, animal welfare, behaviour and facility design are considered together.

Appearances:

Day 2 @ 14:00

Beyond the Consult: What Veterinary Practice Can Learn from Oregon Humane Society

What can Oregon Humane Society and Veterinary Emergency Group teach us about the future of veterinary care?

Some of the most interesting ideas in animal care are coming from organisations willing to question the traditional model.

Veterinary Emergency Group has rethought the emergency experience by bringing clients closer to the care of their animals, creating greater transparency and changing the relationship between the clinical team, the client and the patient.

Oregon Humane Society has taken a different but equally compelling approach - looking beyond what happens inside the shelter to understand the people, circumstances and community around each animal, and using that knowledge to help prevent animals reaching crisis in the first place.

In this session, Gavin Biggs brings these two models together and asks:

What could Australian veterinary practices do differently if we looked beyond the consult room?

Drawing on more than two decades working across veterinary hospitals, shelters, boarding facilities and emergency-care environments, Gavin will translate these ideas into practical considerations for veterinary practice, including:

creating greater transparency and client participation
designing environments around patients, clients and clinical teams
strengthening community relationships
recognising problems earlier, before they become crisis
building trust, retention and a better overall care experience

Rather than presenting these organisations as models to replicate, Gavin will explore the ideas behind what they do differently – and what those ideas could mean for Australian veterinary practice.

If you are interested in how veterinary care could work better for patients, clients and teams, this is a conversation worth joining.