Information on Hosting a Seminar
Thanks for your potential interest in hosting the Fecal & IgG Testing seminar!

Here’s an overview of the hosting info for your consideration:

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF Steve Purdy, DVM

Steve Purdy received his DVM degree in 1981 from the New York State College of Veterinary Medicine at Cornell University. Dr. Purdy is Associate Professor of Veterinary Education, Director of Camelid Studies, and Director of the Fund for Education and Research in Large Animal Veterinary Medicine, Department of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, University of Massachusetts at Amherst. He is also the director of the Camelid Reproduction Center at UMass Amherst. Dr. Purdy is very interested in the preventive medicine aspect of the management of camelids. His special interests include reproduction, neonatal care, nutrition, and infectious diseases. He emphasizes a hands on practical approach to caring for livestock, while keeping their environment as stress free and natural as possible. Dr. Purdy is committed to teaching practical large animal subjects to undergraduate and graduate students, and to helping undergraduate students gain admittance to veterinary school for a career as a large animal vet. He is involved in practical research and educational projects which promote improvement of camelid health.

This hands-on event is focused on testing for internal parasites in alpacas & llamas as well as measuring antibody transfer in newborn cria. Participants will have the opportunity to conduct fecal parasite tests and use a centrifuge & microscope to identify fecal parasites as well as test IgG level and total protein in crias.

Other topics may include:
Neonatal exams
Antibody transfer in crias
Diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of intestinal parasites in alpacas & llamas
External parasites

The fee for the event is $3250 per day per day plus travel & accommodations for Dr Purdy & a staff person from LLE. Click here for an idea of the total expenses.

This covers a full day with Dr Purdy for the seminar and what ever other consultation you would be interested in him doing for you.

Also included are all the equipment and supplies for the fecal & IgG testing for a max of 20 participants.

A staff person from LLE will handle the set up and tear down of the equipment and supplies for the seminar as well as coordinate all details.

We will provide customer seminar binders for all attendees with your logo and contact info.

We will market the event via e-mail campaigns. You should also market the event locally.

We may also be able to provide a projector and 8’ screen if we’re driving to the event.

You would be responsible for a meeting facility as well as food/refreshments and some consumables for the seminar such as paper towels (we’ll provide a list). The meeting facility should be able to accommodate 20 people at tables set up in a U shape (at least 24’ x 24’) as well as have sink facilities for washing fecal equipment. Hotel accommodations for Dr Purdy and Jonathan are to be provided by the host as well.

You set the fee for attendees. We have seen between $200 and $250/person for this event. With travel included the events are usually somewhere around breakeven (and you get the education for free and lots of marketing!).

These events have been very successful with all selling out. This is a great opportunity to learn from an expert in the camelid industry who is an engaging and interesting speaker as well as an opportunity to market your breeding program.

We will try to schedule 2 locations per weekend at a reasonable distance apart so as not to conflict but maximize travel time & expense.

Here is a list of Seminar Equipment List you will need and a  Room Layout and also some budget info.

Possible Available Dates:

2008
December 13/14 (Reserved)

2009
February 21st/22nd or 28th to March 1
March 21st/22nd (Reserved Oklahoma)
April 25th/26th
May 30th/31st
September 12th/13th or 19th/20th
October 10th/11th or 17th/18th
November 14th/15th
December 12th/13th

In order to reserve a date please send a $1000 deposit to Dr Steve Purdy.
His address is:
UMass Hadley Farm
111 North Maple Street
Hadley, MA 01035
Hi Jay,

I wanted to let you know that I thought this Saturday's seminar was a big hit. Every time I attend one of these types of seminars I think my mind has reached saturation. Then I find how much more I can learn. This weekend was no exception. Even though I am scientifically challenged, thanks to Dr. Purdy I can now tell an air bubble from a parasite (and sometimes one parasite from another)! That is a sign of an effective and successful educator.

It was a pleasure to host Dr. Purdy and Jonathan this weekend. I hope we were able to make their stay enjoyable. I do want to commend Jonathan on a the superb job he did managing the equipment setups, labs and countless questions regarding equipment and sales. He is definitely an asset to your organization. I just wanted to let you know how hard and efficiently he worked for the success of the seminar.

I am sure that everyone that attended found one more way to effectively manage and strengthen their herd.

Thank you for your company's participation in this event and for being an integral part of Dr. Purdy's seminar.

Donna
B.J. & Donna Witherspoon
Alpacas of Kentucky
332 Vance Lane
Bowling Green, KY 42101
www.alpacasofkentucky.com
270-781-8670
270-792-1090 (cell)
Dear Jay,
We had a wonderful Fecal/Parasite seminar here at Shasta Springs with Dr. Purdy. We certainly appreciated all your hard work and Jonathan did a very professional job and was a perfect house guest.
It was well worth my efforts to host the seminar because I learned so much. My goals were some what selfish. I wanted the knowledge but, certainly wanted to make the opportunity available first to my customers since, they are responsible for making me successful. Another time I would like to make it available to new clients that may not otherwise come to our farm.
A positive farm seminar can not only be measured through monetary benefits. I received only positive feedback from everyone attending and we all felt extremely fortunate to spend a day with Dr. Purdy. He is a wonderful educator and we all thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to learn and share experiences with him.
Thank you Jay for making this seminar possible.
Page

Shasta Springs Alpacas
Page Nitterhouse
Chambersburg, Pa 17202
www.shastaspringsalpacas.com
page@shastaspringsalpacas.com