AVMA Convention 2027 in Minneapolis.

How many AVMA Convention CE hours can one person claim?

The AVMA has published no CE figure for 2027. It published one for 2026, on its own convention FAQ: 41 hours is the most a single attendee can earn across the five days. Two of those 41 hours are earned by visiting the exhibit hall, so the session ceiling is 39.

AVMA Convention badges and what each one earns, from the 2026 figures. None of it is published for 2027 yet.

Nearly every session is first come, first seated, with no advance signup. The exceptions are the hands-on labs and workshops, which take advance registration and their own fee. Sessions are claimed one at a time in the convention app or the attendee service center, by opening the session and selecting Claim CE, which adds it to a certificate you download and keep.

The virtual program comes with the in person badge. An attendee who registers for Minneapolis does not buy the recordings separately. Bought on its own, the 2026 virtual program cost the same as a single day in the building, and the on demand window ran to December 31 of the convention year.

The AVMA describes its 2026 virtual program two ways on two of its own sites. The convention FAQ says nearly 200 sessions were livestreamed and recorded. The convention schedule site says more than 200 hours of select CE sessions were livestreamed and then made available on demand.

Is AVMA Convention CE RACE approved?

The AVMA does not say that it is. Its convention FAQ carries the question in those words, and answers it without using the word approved:

Every other large meeting on the calendar takes a position on this. The NAVC states that it is an AAVSB RACE approved provider and gives its provider number, 172. The Viticus Group advertises 900 or more RACE approved hours at WVC. Several smaller meetings say approval is pending, and at least one states that it does not seek RACE at all.

A certificate from the AVMA Convention says AVMA on it and carries no RACE provider number. A board that names RACE approved providers in its rules is therefore a question to settle before you book five days in July, and the AVMA takes the same position for the Veterinary Leadership Conference.

The AVMA points attendees at the AAVSB's directory of state boards, which lists the board to ask. What your state actually requires, state by state, including which states name RACE in their rules and which accept a broader list of providers.

AVMA Convention 2027 registration and what it costs

Registration for 2027 is not open and the AVMA has published no rate card, no early bird price and no opening date. The registration and housing site MCI ran for 2026 has no 2027 equivalent yet, and the AVMA's own address for convention prices now returns the convention landing page with no prices on it.

The rates the AVMA did publish for 2026 are the single day and virtual prices, and they show how the association prices a badge.

The 2026 single day and virtual program rates, published on the convention FAQ. Full week rates for 2026 are no longer published and none are published for 2027.

What the price table leaves out

• Membership changes the price here. A nonmember veterinarian pays $125 more than a member for the same day, and AVMA membership is the only membership among the three large meetings that moves the number. The NAVC gives VMX members no discount and the Viticus Group gives none at WVC.
• Guests and children are not permitted in CE sessions. A guest badge covers the exhibit hall, the keynote and the social events that do not carry a ticket. A spouse who is also a veterinary professional and wants the CE registers as a full attendee.
• The AVMA designates MCI USA as its only housing provider and warns that other companies present themselves as official partners and sell rooms that may not exist. Book through the convention housing site or direct with a hotel.
• Hands-on labs and workshops carry their own fee and their own advance registration, on top of the badge.
• The 2026 meeting sold a $5 upgrade to have the badge mailed out about two weeks ahead of the convention. Registration cancellation carried a $75 fee, and the AVMA's FAQ and the MCI registration site gave two different cancellation dates for the same meeting.

AVMA Convention 2027 deadlines already running

Speakers and exhibitors are on the clock for 2027. Attendee registration has no published opening date.

Published on the AVMA's 2027 event site in September 2026. Attendee dates are absent from it entirely.

Submitting an abstract for 2027

Submissions go to the Convention Education Program Committee, which reviews everything and notifies by the end of December 2026. The AVMA sets its rules on the form itself: dry labs and workshops longer than three hours are not considered, panel discussions are recommended to stay at four speakers or fewer, and submitting commits you to being available on any of the five days between July 16 and 20. The submission form times out, so the AVMA publishes the required fields as a PDF to draft against and paste in.

Exhibiting at the 2027 convention

Booth space is priced by the square foot and by zone. In-line space is $48 a square foot in Zone A and $46 in Zone B, which makes a 10 by 10 booth $4,800 or $4,600, and island space is $58 a square foot, so a 20 by 20 island is $23,200. A nonprofit pays $850 for a 10 by 10, and an eligible early stage company pays $2,500 for a 5 by 10 start-up booth.

The badge rules differ by booth type. A commercial booth carries four complimentary exhibitor badges per 100 square feet and those badges earn CE. Nonprofit and start-up booths carry two badges each and those badges do not, so a nonprofit sending a veterinarian who needs the hours buys a CE eligible badge on top of the booth.

Who the AVMA Convention is worth it for

The AVMA Convention is the profession's own meeting, and the only one of the three that changes city every year.

Reasons to go to the AVMA Convention

• You want more than the clinical program. Policy, wellbeing, career and practice management tracks run alongside it, and the association's governance meets in the same building.
• You are bringing family. A guest badge covers the exhibit hall, the keynote and the unticketed social events, and the 2026 meeting ran organized childcare on site. Guests cannot sit in CE sessions.
• Summer suits your practice better than January or February. VMX and WVC both sit in the first ten weeks of the year.
• You hold AVMA membership. It is the only one of the three meetings where a membership you already pay for reduces the registration price.

Reasons to go to VMX or WVC instead

• You need a number you can plan against today. VMX 2027 publishes a 43.5 hour in person ceiling, a 51 hour virtual one and a price, and it is open for registration now. The AVMA has published no 2027 CE ceiling, no price and no venue.
• Your board is specific about RACE. The NAVC is an AAVSB RACE approved provider with a provider number on the page, and the Viticus Group advertises RACE approved hours. The AVMA claims neither.
• You learn with your hands. WVC Vegas 2027 runs 55 or more hands-on labs at the Viticus Group's own education centers. The AVMA runs labs and workshops, and publishes no list of them for 2027.

Reasons to go to none of them

• You are a few hours short before a renewal. A state or regional VMA meeting closes that gap at a fraction of the cost per claimable hour, without travel or a five day absence.

AVMA Convention, VMX or WVC

The three largest general veterinary meetings in the country, six months apart from end to end, as each organizer publishes them.

AVMA Convention 2027 against VMX 2027 and WVC Vegas 2027, from avma.org, navc.com and viticusgroup.org, September 2026.

VMX and WVC are priced, dated and open. The AVMA Convention is a week to hold in the calendar and price later, and the only one of the three where the CE approval question goes to your own board first. The full VMX 2027 page covers its registration tiers, its 43.5 hour ceiling and the hotel blocks that close before Christmas, and the WVC 2027 page covers both Viticus Group meetings and the lab refund dates.

AVMA Convention or the AVMA Veterinary Leadership Conference

The AVMA runs two meetings a year under its own name and they are different events. The Convention is the summer meeting in a new city each year. The AVMA Veterinary Leadership Conference is three days in Chicago every January, built around leadership development and AVMA governance, and it returns to the same hotel.

The AVMA's two 2027 meetings side by side, as published in September 2026.

The Leadership Conference is the smaller meeting by a factor of four in claimable hours, and its registration opens in October 2026 while the Convention's opening date is unpublished. A January meeting with a full clinical program is VMX.

The charting does not take the week off.

Time out of the practice has to be made up somewhere, and records are usually where it lands.

PawsFree is an AI scribe made only for veterinarians. Record the visit on your phone or in Chrome, and the finished note comes back written in your own style, with labs, imaging and history pulled in. It sits next to your practice software and works with it.

$100 per vet a month billed yearly, or $140 month to month. There is a 14 day free trial and it does not ask for a card.

About these figures

Every date, price and CE figure on this page was checked in September 2026 against avma.org and the AVMA's 2027 event site at s1.goeshow.com. Several AVMA convention pages still carry the July 2026 Anaheim meeting in the heading while the site header above them reads July 2027, so where the site disagreed with itself we went with the page carrying the July 16 to 20 program.

Confirm with the organizer before you book flights, and confirm your CE with your own board before you count on it. The AVMA asks you to do the second of those itself. If you spot something wrong here, tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.

Back to the full veterinary conference calendar, or across to VMX 2027 and WVC 2027.

Last updated 20 September 2026.