Full Circle

I had an interesting and vaguely surreal experience last weekend, when I was asked to deliver some enforcement training on a sunny Saturday. Why Saturday, you ask? Well it's the only day we can assemble large groups of specific staff (in this case, every federal poultry veterinarian in the province) without leaving affected food processing plants unable to operate.

We normally do this sort of thing on Family Day, when federal employees have to work but when the private industry staff have the day off. This year, there was already some other training that day.

To facilitate the session and present a central destination for attendees, we were able to secure space at the Ontario Veterinary College, located on the University of Guelph campus. Some of you will know that I graduated from Guelph over twenty (ugh!) years ago, and used to haunt these buildings and byways for a time.

The situation presented an odd juxtaposition for me - the returning student, suddenly standing in front of a room full of Veterinarians, with ME lecturing to THEM.

I joked with a colleague about staying up all night to get my acetate overheads ready....well let's just say we've come a long way in twenty years. I plugged a USB stick into the lectern, and ran ran my Powerpoint presentation as it was displayed on two large screens behind me, with smaller floor screen in front for me to read from. Slick.

I was also able to stick around for my fellow presenter, a noted pathologist whose session included a hands-on poultry necropsy demonstration in the lab across the hall.

It certainly didn't hurt that Saturday favoured us with sunny skies and record-breaking double-digit temperatures for late February, making for a pleasant and literal stroll down memory lane, and an equally pleasant drive home afterwards. Great day!

Pathobiology Building at OVC

Iconic Johnston Hall

Modern lecture hall!