SWVS 2027 in Dallas.

The number that matters

How many SWVS 2027 CE hours can one person claim?

SWVS publishes two figures. The program carried 400 or more RACE approved hours across 12 tracks in 2026, and a single attendee can claim 24 hours from the 2027 general symposium, down from 28 in 2026. The 24 is in the answer to "How many CE Hours are offered at the symposium?" on the attendee FAQ, and the RACE approval statement sits under "What is RACE?" on the same page. The Viticus Group publishes no equivalent ceiling for WVC.

SWVS CE as published in October 2026. The general symposium cap is the 2027 figure. The rest is as published for the 2026 program.

Ticketed sessions are the only way past 24 hours, and they are also the part that sells out. Of the 15 labs, masterclasses, tours and dinners listed for 2026, 13 were marked sold out by the week of the meeting, and the two still open were $75 masterclasses. They are chosen on the registration form, and SWVS states that a ticketed session with too few registrants is canceled on August 1.

The practice management track is approved separately. SWVS listed the Practice Management and Office Personnel classes as 35 hours of VHMA approved continuing education under course ID 26-20 for 2026, in the jurisdictions that recognize VHMA approval. The integrative medicine classes carried 15 IVAS hours, 23 hours of IVCA general CPD and 7 clinical credits from the AVCA.

Getting the hours onto a renewal

Attendance is self recorded. Your badge is scanned once on arrival, you keep your own record of the sessions you sat in using the CE checklist sent through the app and by email, and certificates come from the CEU portal after the meeting. SWVS does not file your hours with your board. It will submit them to RACE on your behalf, and only if you upload them to the portal by October 31. What your state actually requires, state by state.

There is no virtual option and nothing is recorded. SWVS answers the question directly on its FAQ: no online option and no videos to watch after the symposium. Two sessions in the same hour means you attend one of them.

Where the cap lands

What 24 hours is worth in the five partner states

All five partner states renew annually, and all five ask for fewer than 24 hours a year. One SWVS badge covers a full year of CE in every state behind the meeting, with hours to spare. The spare hours are where the restrictions start to matter, because boards cap categories as well as totals.

Annual requirements for the five SWVS partner states, from each board's own rule.

A Texas license will not absorb a week of practice management. SWVS ran 35 VHMA approved hours in that track in 2026, and Texas counts 5 practice management hours toward the 17 it asks for. Arkansas stops at 8 nonscientific hours. A practice manager can spend the whole meeting in that room. A veterinarian on a Texas renewal has to find the other 12 hours in the clinical tracks.

The exhibit hall hours are limited by state as well. Arkansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas licensees can claim 2 hours for visiting the hall. Louisiana licensees cannot. Confirm all of this with your own board before you count on it.

Money

SWVS 2027 registration, tier by tier

SWVS 2027 registration is not open as of October 2026, but the 2027 prices are published on the attendee FAQ. They match 2026 for every badge but one: a Saturday only veterinarian badge drops to $230 early and $330 standard. SWVS prices by role, and there is no member rate, so belonging to a partner VMA saves nothing at the door.

SWVS 2027 rates, published on the attendee FAQ. The early window runs February 15 to June 30 and the standard window runs July 1 to October 3.

What the price table leaves out

• Four full registrations take 20 per cent off all of them, and the discount cannot be combined with anything else. A practice sending a veterinarian and three technicians clears that band, which is a lower threshold than either national meeting asks for.
• Two full days cost more than the whole four day badge. At the early rate the gap is $5 for a veterinarian and for a technician alike. At the standard rate it is $5 for a veterinarian and $15 for a technician. The one day and two day bands exist for people covering a clinic, and only the one day rate comes in under the full badge.
• Labs, masterclasses, CE tours and the food animal dinner carry their own fee and their own pre-registration. They are chosen on the registration form and cannot be added by turning up.
• Lunch on Friday and Saturday is included for every paid professional registrant. Sunday runs to noon with coffee and no lunch.
• Registration points come back as a discount on the next year. SWVS runs a rewards program giving one point per dollar spent on registration, redeemable against a future symposium.

Deadlines

The SWVS deadlines that close first

Registration stays open to the door. Almost everything else closes in the summer, and in 2026 the last day for a refund fell seven weeks before the meeting.

The 2026 dates, published on the attendee FAQ and the SWVS homepage, and the 2027 dates from the attendee FAQ as it reads in October 2026.

August 1 is the hard one. Cancellation has to be in writing by email, a $50 handling fee applies to any cancellation at any time, and SWVS states in capitals on its own homepage that there are no refunds after August 1 of any kind. Ticketed sessions are covered by the same date, so a lab bought in March is non refundable from the start of August whether or not you can travel.

Housing closed sixteen days before the 2026 meeting. All requests had to reach Maritz, the official housing provider, by September 1 for the negotiated rates, and after that date changes went to the hotel directly. The 2026 block ran from $189 at a La Quinta three blocks out to $249 at the headquarters Marriott. SWVS names Maritz as the 2027 housing provider, and no Dallas hotels or rates are published as of October 2026.

Ignore the "Book a Hotel" button that still sits on several swvs.org pages, including the CE schedule and the ticketed events page. It points at an archived 2024 housing site that loads normally and tells you every hotel is sold out.

Straight answer

Who SWVS is worth it for

SWVS is a regional meeting running a program the size of a national one.

Reasons to go to SWVS

• You are sending the practice. A technician, an assistant, a practice manager and an office administrator cost $220 each at the early rate against $485 for the veterinarian, and four full registrations take 20 per cent off the lot.
• You hold a license in Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma or Texas. 24 hours covers a full year of CE in all five.
• Your technicians need hours of their own. Four technician associations sit in the partnership, the technician track runs the length of the meeting, and the technician skills labs sold out in 2026.
• You want the trip to cost one clinic day. The 2026 program ran Thursday afternoon to Sunday noon, so Friday was the only weekday fully lost.
• You want time with the exhibitors. 250 or more is a hall you can cross in a morning.

Reasons to go to VMX or WVC instead

• You cannot leave the practice. SWVS has no virtual badge and records nothing. VMX 2027 sells a virtual badge at $295 with a 51 hour cap and keeps it open to March 21.
• You need more than 24 hours from one trip. VMX caps a single attendee at 43.5.
• You are shopping for equipment and want every vendor in the country in one hall. VMX runs 800 or more exhibitors.
• You learn with your hands and want a choice of labs. WVC Vegas 2027 runs 55 or more hands-on labs at the Viticus Group's own education centers. SWVS ran nine interactive labs in 2026 and every one of them sold out.

Reasons to go to neither

• You are a few hours short before a renewal and the travel is the whole cost. Your own state association meeting closes that gap at a fraction of the cost per claimable hour, without the flights.

Side by side

SWVS, VMX or WVC

The SWVS conference runs at the end of September. VMX and WVC run in January and February, so all three fall inside one calendar year with two or three quarters between them. Side by side, as each organizer publishes it.

SWVS 2027 against VMX 2027 and WVC Vegas 2027, from swvs.org, navc.com and viticusgroup.org, October 2026.

SWVS asks a veterinarian for more at the door than either national meeting, at $485 early against $250 at VMX and $549 at WVC, and it asks $220 for a technician. A veterinarian and three technicians come to $1,145 at the 2027 early rates, and $916 after the group discount. The same four people at VMX are four separate badges with no group band until the sixth person joins them.

Read the full pages for the other two: VMX 2027 in Orlando and WVC 2027, which now runs twice a year.

If you went last year

What changed between SWVS 2026 and SWVS 2027

SWVS 2026 ran September 17 to 20 at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center in San Antonio. The RACE approval, the Thursday to Sunday shape and the absence of any virtual option carry over to 2027, and SWVS has published no 2027 program or housing.

• The city moved to Dallas. San Antonio comes back in 2028 and again in 2030.
• The CE cap for the general symposium fell from 28 hours to 24.
• Prices held, with one exception. A Saturday only veterinarian badge fell from $260 to $230 early and from $360 to $330 standard. The first year DVM badge is now called new graduate DVM, at the same $250 and $300.
• The dates moved almost two weeks later and now cross a month end. Travel books in September and the meeting finishes in October, which splits the cost across two months for a practice that closes its books monthly.
• The venue is a building site. The Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center is mid way through a master plan rebuild, with buildings D, E and F being demolished for a 2.1 million square foot replacement due in 2030. The venue tells attendees on its own getting here page to map the route in advance and allow extra time for roadwork.
• Parking is paid and first come, first served. The on site garage is $20 a day for 1,200 spaces and Lot C is $17 a day for 170, both charged per entry with no in and out.

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 October 2026 against swvs.org, dallasconventioncenter.com and the boards of the five partner states. The swvs.org homepage and attendee FAQ now carry the 2027 meeting, most other pages on the site still render the September 2026 one, and every 2026 figure here is labeled as one.

Confirm with the organizer before you book flights, and confirm your CE with your own board before you count on it. 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 4 October 2026.