Join us for our biggest annual event, hosted this year by the one of the UK's largest and most popular visitor attractions - Chester Zoo.

The Chester Zoo team have pulled out all the stops to deliver an amazing selection of workshops and behind the scenes tours. The Symposium will have the usual two days of presentations with expert speakers, debates and the opportunity to network with fellow animal keepers.

FREE ZOO ENTRY - Chester Zoo will also be offering free entry to delegates on Friday 28th February and Monday 3rd March, just show your booking confirmation email on arrival.  This gives you plenty of additional time to look around the collection without missing any of the Symposium!

Booking will initially be open for ABWAK members only at a subsidised early bird rate of £80 - there are only 100 of these tickets available so hurry up and get yours!  After this, tickets will be £95 for ABWAK members, £125 for BIAZA members, and £160 for non-members.  (ABWAK membership still only costs £30 per year - you do the maths!)  Bookings will close on Sunday 9th February.

Please note that although we welcome speakers to attend the day of their presentation free of charge, those who wish to attend both days of the Symposium must purchase a speaker ticket (see below).

We also have a limited number of spaces for this year's Saturday night dinner with disco, giving you the chance to network with other keepers, and win fabulous raffle prizes. These must be booked separately at the rate of £50.

Programme

The draft programme will be available to view here soon.

Workshops

There are fantastic workshops to choose from this year.  These sessions will be repeated on both days meaning that delegates will be lucky enough to be able to attend two - the difficulty will be trying to decide which two as they all offer an incredible learning opportunity.

Please choose your top 3 options on your booking form and we will endeavour to place you in two of your selections depending on capacity available for each workshop. Alternatively you can choose free time to look around the fabulous animal collection on site. Make sure you look at the list of workshops (in bold below) so you know what titles to write on the booking form.

Please note, although we will do all we can to ensure you are able to attend the workshops you have selected, due to strictly limited capacities this cannot be guaranteed.

Workshop options are:

• An introduction to diet reviews
  • A chance to discuss animal diets with Chester Zoo's in-house nutritionists and tour some of the animal and plant logistics facilities.
• Carnivore facility tour
• Conservation and breeding management area tour
  • Tour of Chester Zoo's purpose built off-show breeding areas to include ectotherm, bird and small mammal facilities.
• Conservation physiology
  • Meet Chester Zoo's science team and tour the laboratory.
• Elephant facility tour
• Emergency animal first aid
  • Theory and practical demonstration.
• Enclosure design
  • Theory presentation and practical design exercise.
• Enrichment considerations for very young and geriatric animals
  • With expert guest Matthew Shackleton.
• Free time to spend within the zoo
• Heart of Africa tour
  • A tour of Chester Zoo's new African savannah development, due to open Easter 2025.
• Hoofstock facility tour
• Population management and the role of an EEP co-ordinator
  • An overview of how EEP programmes are run.
• Primate facility tour
• Rhino facility tour
• Welfare assessment
  • Approaches to welfare assessment across all taxa.

Please note that workshop titles, content and capacities are subject to change.

Saturday Night Dinner

This year's evening event will also be held at Chester Zoo.  A selection of buffet style food, with bar, DJ, table quiz and our annual charity raffle with phenomenal prizes to win and all proceeds going towards Chester Zoo's chosen wildlife charity.

Full details to follow.

ABWAK Grants

As the cost of travel and accommodation has increased along with everything else in life, we have developed a brand new grant for ABWAK members to attend the Symposium.  There will be a limited number of these grants available.  Log in to the members' area on our website and go to the Grants page for more info and application forms.

COVID Safety

Please read our COVID safety guidance for attending our events.