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App not listed? Try this RSS linkIn this episode of The Hen Report, hosts Jasmin Singer and Mariann Sullivan speak with Julia Reinelt, Executive Director of AVA International, about the upcoming Animal and Vegan Advocacy (AVA) Summit in Toronto (May 21–24). Julia walks listeners through what first-timers can expect, highlights the conference’s Whova app for networking and scheduling, and previews standout speakers — including documentary photographer Zed Nelson and nonprofit thought leader Vu Le. The conversation also covers AVA’s Grantee Day (which connects emerging advocacy groups with funders), the global reach of AVA’s summits and academies, and the organization’s commitment to making the conference accessible through travel awards and diverse programming for both professional advocates and grassroots volunteers.
- AVA Summit Toronto (May 21–24): The Animal and Vegan Advocacy Summit returns to Canada — a sold-out, multi-day conference for farm animal advocates, vegan activists, and animal rights professionals from around the world; register at avainternational.org
- Networking & Tech Tools for Advocates: The Whova conference app lets attendees browse profiles, schedule one-on-ones, and find meetups before arriving; the Hive Slack community hosts pre-conference orientation calls to help first-timers prepare
- Keynotes & Programming: Featured speakers include documentary photographer Zed Nelson on humanity’s impact on wildlife and habitat, nonprofit fundraising expert Vu Le (Nonprofit AF), plus a dedicated full-day fundraising track and film festival by We Animals Media
- AVA Grantee Day — Connecting Grassroots Groups with Funders: AVA’s matchmaking program facilitates meetings between emerging animal advocacy initiatives and 16+ funders and major donors; last year 100% of funders reported discovering organizations they’d never have found otherwise
- Global Reach & Accessibility: With summits across five world regions and ~$500,000 per year in travel awards, AVA serves a diverse mix of full-time advocates, volunteers, students, and career-changers — welcoming anyone committed to advancing change for animals
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INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT
Jasmin Singer: Welcome to the Hen Report. This is Jasmin Singer.
Mariann Sullivan: This is Mariann Sullivan.
Jasmin Singer: We are so excited about The Hen Report today, and we're gonna get to our guest in just a second, who I know you're going to wanna hear from.
Just a reminder about the Our Hen House podcasts, Rising Anxieties comes out on Tuesdays and we have lots of those. There's lots of anxieties rising around us lately. Uh, The Hen Report, which is this, on Thursdays, and the long form interview on Fridays. Bonus content for flock members comes out on Mondays. Don't forget to listen, subscribe wherever you check out podcasts. We're also on YouTube, so hit like, hit comment. I always say hit comment. I have to stop saying hit comment. Don't hit the comment that, uh, a comment.
Mariann Sullivan: Just comment
Jasmin Singer: Just comment.
Mariann Sullivan: all.
Jasmin Singer: It helps with the algorithms. Alright, so we have a really fabulous wingman joining us for The Hen Report this week, and you've probably heard of AVA, the Animal and Vegan Advocacy Summit, which is coming up soon in Toronto.
And we thought folks would like to hear more about it especially as it's before it happens, in case you're planning on going. So today we're having Julia Reinelt, who is the Executive Director of AVA International, which is an organization that's not only putting on the summit, but really creating a variety of in-person platforms around the world for animal and vegan advocates.
So welcome to Our Hen House, Julia. Thank you so much for joining us.
Julia Reinelt: I'm so excited. Thank you for having me. Hi, everyone.
Jasmin Singer: Where are you joining us from today?
Julia Reinelt: I'm based in San Francisco, California.
Jasmin Singer: Oh, okay. Okay, wonderful. Uh, well, so first of all, give us the overview of AVA and the different projects you have going on around the world, and then we'll focus on Toronto.
Julia Reinelt: Yeah, definitely. Um, so like you mentioned, we started out as a, um, conference series essentially, um, providing animal and vegan advocates across the world with summits. We usually do one of these larger summits per region, per year. So like, um, we are doing five this year in, um, all of the, the like major world regions.
Um, and then we have a smaller format that's called AVA Academy, which is more, you can think of, like, um, professional development workshops. Very targeted, small group learning, for several days. And then we have our grantee day, which is usually attached to a summit. We don't... I'm sure we're gonna talk about that, um, for Canada this year.
Um, and then we're doing, um, some exciting, some exciting new projects are in the pipeline. Um, that I'm happy to maybe give you a sneak peek on this episode. Yeah.
Mariann Sullivan: That is exciting. I can't wait to get to all of. But of course we're gonna start with the conference in Toronto because that's coming up very soon and, and that's where most of our listeners would be going, if they were going to one of your conferences. Can you just kind of walk us through maybe what a first timer coming to, uh, that conference should expect?
Julia Reinelt: Yeah, for sure. So for a first timer, I would definitely recommend, um, joining our two, one of our two, um, pre-sessions. Like kind of we we're doing like prep sessions, how to get the most out of an AVA summit. They're really good for everyone, but especially first timers I think will benefit from those.
Um, we joined the Hive community for those calls, and you can ask our team questions. They will give you some input on how to network and you know, what sessions to expect and what's the vibe, who's there, um, how to prepare yourself essentially to get like the most out of it. Um, one pro tip is always to like arrive early 'cause there's a lot to discover and you will be exhausted by the end of the like three, four days.
So like getting yourself accustomed to, to everything makes sense and yeah, definitely recommend those calls.
Mariann Sullivan: That's a great idea. 'cause those conferences can be very overwhelming. 'Cause a lot of times there's different programs going on at the same time and you're not sure which one you wanna pick. And, and, uh, it, it's just a lot.
You mentioned, um, that you're gonna do that on Hive, which now I have to ask you to, for people who aren't on Hive yet.
Julia Reinelt: Yeah.
Mariann Sullivan: You can't just join, I mean, you have to ask to join it. So maybe they should get on that right away. Can you tell people what it is and, and why they should join?
Julia Reinelt: Yeah, absolutely. So our friends from Hive have built this huge online community, um, on Slack, um, which I know some people are not familiar with, but it's worth checking out. Um, and they provide a variety of channels that you can join, um, and you get connected with advocates all across the world, but also, you know, very, they're very local channels, local to your, to your region, to your city.
Um, and there is a lot of knowledge exchange going on and mutual support and it's, it's a great network. So we're partnering with them to do like those community calls where we prepare people for their first AVA.
Jasmin Singer: I'm on Hive and it's really fantastic. I definitely encourage people to be on that as well. I was at the Ava conference, uh, last year in LA and I was very... I feel like a Luddite saying this, but I was very impressed with the tech aspect of it. Like it was really easy for people to connect with each other, to find the notes and the, the, you know, uh, any handouts.
I almost said dittos. Oh my God. Um, can you just, I know it's a strange place. I know, I know what's going on?
Mariann Sullivan: Do you even know what those are, Julia? Like they're from, from like a million.
Jasmin Singer: Yeah. No, seriously, I was, that really aged me. Um, I look younger than I am, so I should stop aging myself by talking because I'll just let people think I'm younger. Julia, tell us a little bit, but we'll get into what the talks are, but tell us a little bit about that, why the tech aspect of it has evolved so well and what it is.
Julia Reinelt: Yeah. So, um, I will say we're investing a lot of money into this. Obviously it's, it's expensive to have these like, you know, event apps, but um, the one we're using is called Whova. Um, and it's been working really well for the vast majority of people. I know there's some people who are like not huge fans, but overall, um, it's been working really well for us.
So once you register to the summit, you will get, um, access to our, the, the Whova app. You can download it. Um, it's pretty straightforward. You'll find the attendee list. You can contact every single attendee. Um, you can, you know, schedule one-on-ones with them. Send messages, learn about their work, everybody can, if they choose to, can have a profile.
Um, you'll find obviously the program, the floor map, the, like, all the offsite stuff that goes on that's going on. You know, there is a, an annual soccer game that we do. There is karaoke. There is like a lot of fun stuff alongside the official program. People schedule meetups.
Like if you, you know, if your group, your organization wants to host a specific meetup on either the work you do or you know, the, the, the type of advocacy that you're most interested in. You can do that. Um, there is just a lot of like different community aspects going on, on, on Whova, and it's been working really well.
Like people love connecting through that. And it makes it easier, you know, when you arrive and you already have the feeling like you've talked to some people, you have some meetings set up, it makes it less scary, maybe. You know, talking about the first timers again. Yeah.
Jasmin Singer: Yeah.
Mariann Sullivan: Yeah. So who are, who are the people who, um, come? Are they people who, mostly people who are already working professionally in the movement? I mean, a lot of our listeners are grassroots people that their, their careers are not in the movement, but they're very, very active. Uh, is it for them as well?
Julia Reinelt: Absolutely. So we bring together, um, essentially everyone, the people changing the world for farm animals, right? So overall, I think we've connected, um, and trained, you know, roughly 3000 advocates across 90 countries. Um, and what we see like the, the majority of people obviously are either very involved in animal advocacy in their, in their free time.
Like they're, you know, volunteering at like a, a, a high, a high amount of numbers, or they're working, you know, part-time or full-time, obviously in, in this movement. Um, we used to say like a few years ago, it was like roughly 80% of our attendees were full-time advocates, and that has changed a bit more.
Like there, there, there are definitely more grassroots people, um, volunteers, um, all kinds of people interested in this work. You know, we've got more students coming. We've got like people from all kinds of different sectors just interested in, you know, switching their career and like doing something meaningful in their, in their further career.
Um, so yeah, I would say Ava is, is definitely the most concentrated space in the world, in person space, in the world for advancing all kinds of change for farm animals, you know, animal rights, animal welfare, um, all types of food system change. You know, the, the, a huge variety of approaches that are present.
Yeah.
Jasmin Singer: Absolutely. I mean, it's just amazing. Mariann and I come from, uh, you know, a history of going to the conferences like decades ago, you know. And it's just amazing to see how much it's shifted and how like there was, there was hardly any tech available then. You know, you would just show up and maybe you would run into people you would know, and there, would, it was, uh, very grassroots heavy.
And they were really, you know, they were really fun and exciting in a lot of ways. But, um, it seems like, uh, the animal protection movement has grown up in a way. Um, I, I,
Mariann Sullivan: There are so many more people working professionally in the movement because the movement has grown so
Julia Reinelt: Absolute.
Jasmin Singer: right.
Mariann Sullivan: much. It's almost unbelievable. It was all grassroots like 25 years ago. Uh,
That's what it was, and now. But you know, I'm really glad you said that though, that a lot of grassroots people or people who are thinking of transitioning to the movement, to professionally, because I think that Ava kind of, you know, has the wrap of of being for people who work in the movement, not so much. And it sounds like people who don't yet work in the movement, maybe just never will, but it's where their heart is and where a lot of their efforts are in their life. It sounds like it has a lot to offer them as well.
Julia Reinelt: Yeah, definitely. And, and you know, I, one of the things I know, I know, we know, um, that is challenging for, especially for people who don't have like a full career in this sector yet is cost. Like, that is something we are aware of.
Mariann Sullivan: It's pricey.
Julia Reinelt: It's pricey to go, it's, you know, usually in, um, cities that because it's so international, like we need to pick places that are accessible for people from all over the world, essentially, or, you know, at least, uh, fairly accessible to, to travel to. Um, we understand, you know, hotel prices are crazy this time, like in these days. Um, and we're trying to do our best, you know, to support people with travel awards. We spend around 500,000 a year just on travel awards directly.
You know, that's like, directly goes to, um, to, you know, supporting advocates. That's roughly, yeah, a hundred, 120 People who get a full travel award per event. Um, depending on the size of the event, that, that could be like a, a decent portion, you know, like in our smaller events in Africa, in Latin America.
It's like a, a decent amount of people who come through travel awards. Um, but we understand it is pricey and we're trying our best to like keep ticket prices low even though, you know, some of the listeners will say, whoa, it's too expensive. It is. But I, if I may, like giving you that little detour. Um. Our ticket prices don't even cover 30% of the costs that we have per attendee.
So like the, the amount of food and beverages, the rooms, the, like you say, you know, the tech aspect, the whole infrastructure, um, is costly of course. And, um, yeah, we're trying to do our best to like, keep prices low while at the same time, you know, there is a value that we offer obviously, um, throughout the three, four days that we, yeah, account for.
Jasmin Singer: It's hard. I mean, you can't ple, you can't cater to every single person, but it's very obvious that there's a great deal of effort being put into making this as accessible as possible. And you have like so many different programs for people who can't necessarily attend in person. But let's talk about the Toronto one a bit more.
I know you can't go through all of the talks, but can you give us a few examples, maybe some things you're particularly excited about?
Julia Reinelt: Yeah, totally. Um, I'm very excited for the, the summit in Canada coming up. Um, it's gonna be a sold out event, uh, very likely. So there's still a few tickets left, grab them while you can. Um, it's, it's a really tough question, you know, talking about like your, the highlights and the like. That's a question people ask a lot.
But, um, I will say I'm really excited about a keynote from Zed Nelson we're gonna feature this year, um, hosted by Joanne MacArthur. Um, it's gonna be on, um, so Zed Nelson is a documentary photographer and a filmmaker who takes these incredible pictures of, um, nature and what humans make out of nature. Like lots of animals in captivity, lots of like human created, um, illusions of nature.
Um, so he's going to like be taking a look at how in really what's a, a tiny fraction right of, of Earth's history when you think about like how long humans have existed, um, how humans have really shifted the world like beyond anything that has been, that ha, the world has experienced in like tens of millions of years before.
Um, and you know, the way we're kind of forcing animals and plants to like extinction by, you know, removing their habitats and, and removing their, like proper homes, um, or changing them so drastically. And, um, it'll be, it's, it's a bit of a different type of talk from what we usually feature, but it's gonna be very visually powerful and I'm really excited about it.
Mariann Sullivan: That is very exciting. I mean, we've been talking so much about the importance of, um, theater and, and art in, in, in advocacy for animals, which, you know, I think that, that there are a lot of people who are really working on, on making that kind of approach more appealing to people, And that sounds like it's gonna be very powerful.
Julia Reinelt: And very mainstream. You know, like he is a totally like mainstream documentary filmmaker, photographer who reaches an audience that, frankly, we as our like tiny movement are likely not gonna reach, or it's very hard to reach those people. So yeah, I'm, I'm definitely excited. Um, it's gonna be the opening this year, so yeah, make sure not to miss that.
I'm also excited that we'll have, um, Vu Le who is, um, the, the like nonprofit per behind the popular Nonprofit AF blog and newsletter. I don't know if you are aware, um, he'll speak for the first time. Um, we'll also have lots of focus on fundraising talks this year, um, with like a whole day dedicated to fundraising.
Um, that's essentially taking place in parallel to grantee day, which I know you wanted to talk about as well.
Jasmin Singer: Yeah, let's actually, why don't you tell us about it? I'm, uh, I I know I, know a little bit about it, but I think it's such a huge service that is offered. So tell us a little bit more about it.
Mariann Sullivan: I know I, and I know it's closed at this point, right? Like this isn't something that people can do this year?
Julia Reinelt: Correct. So right now we are already in the phase of, 'cause we're like four weeks out, we're already in the phase of like matchmaking essentially. So what Ava is providing, um, is essentially the service of, um, new projects and like newer initiatives, um, in this broad movement being able to submit, um, a really short form and like a, a, a mini presentation essentially on their work, their ideas, their funding gaps.
Um, and we're handing this package, um, and that's like obviously hundreds of, you know, applications we get, um, handing this package to the, um, interested funders that are gonna be at the event. So we roughly will have like 16, 17 funders, um, major donors, you know, in, in our movement to, um, to be present.
They take a look, um, they go through, you know, this, this huge spreadsheet, um, and let us know essentially like who they're most interested in, like meeting in person. So we're gonna facilitate these meetings in Canada. If people don't get a meeting this year, um, they'll be connected via email. So these meetings will happen, you know, at some point after grantee day.
It's quite a logistical challenge to, you know, match hundreds of groups with, you know, a, a, a couple, like small amount of funders. But like the, the, the amount of, um, groups everybody's interested in varies, obviously, depending on the, the interests of funders. It's not just major donors. It's also, you know, re granters or groups who recommend to like a family foundation or all kinds of different ways to, to get support.
Um, last year we had, out of the 16 funders that were represented last year, we had 100% of those 16 people said, um, they made connections to groups they would've never heard about Well, otherwise, which is, you know that that's all we can ask for. Like that's an ideal scenario. Of course. Yeah.
Mariann Sullivan: Well as a tiny little organization that has struggled for our entire existence to con, to figure out who to who, who to ask for money and, and, uh, how to find them and how to get them to know about us. I, I think that is just absolutely brilliant. You know, one thing I wanted to ask you, and you kind of alluded to it there, I, I think, and I might be wrong about this 'cause what do I know, but I think Ava kind of has a wrap of being very effective altruist organized, oriented, but, but do you actually, but I'm not sure that's actually the case, even with the funders. Like, can, can you just talk about that? Like, not that, I mean like the, the, the venom in the movement between, you know, welfare and rights and that has largely, uh, largely died down these days.
Julia Reinelt: Overcome. Yeah. Yeah.
Mariann Sullivan: But, but still, do you cover a variety of viewpoints and approaches and techniques and, uh, attitudes, um, both in your, in the funders that are involved and in the programs that you do?
Julia Reinelt: So I highly encourage everyone to take a look at the programs that we've done the past few years. You will... I don't think there's a space, honestly, anywhere in the world that you, where you would find a larger variety of approaches, strategies. You know, the different focus people have on types of animals, on, you know, um, again, strategies, how to tackle problems, like, and, and that is mirrored in the funders that are present at our events too.
So when you look at, you know, the, obviously there's the, the, the big Sentara funders group. Um, there is a huge variety of interests within the funders, like when I talk to them, I'm, I am always surprised, like every year I'm like, oh, wow. Learning about like, new funders who are interested in a totally different approach.
Um, of course, effective altruism is part of Ava and like.
Mariann Sullivan: Yeah.
Julia Reinelt: It is part of, you know, uh, some of the major funders like Coefficient Giving, um, Open Philanthropy formerly, um.
Mariann Sullivan: Why do they change their names every week? Could you answer that? 'Cause it's really annoying,
Julia Reinelt: Yeah, they, they changed recently. Um, is obviously a, a, a very big funder in this movement.
Mariann Sullivan: Right.
Julia Reinelt: Um, but it's one foundation and then there is
Mariann Sullivan: It's not everybody.
Julia Reinelt: Exactly, and there's a variety of people who have strong opinions that go in a totally different direction. Um, and there obviously present at grantee day in our program.
They're speaking. They're, um, yeah. I, I really think, like you said, you know, I, I think we've largely overcome the, like, you know, split or the, the, the, the like two-sided thinking, uh, in the movement. Uh, you know, luckily, um, when you think about like 10, 15 years ago, um, you might remember at like, you know, older conferences, it was very different. Like the whole, the whole atmosphere was very different and I think we've, we've come past that. Yeah.
Jasmin Singer: Yeah.
There was a lot of kind of like a combative vibe I think, back in the day. And there were always sort of shadow conferences happening.
Julia Reinelt: Right. Yeah.
Mariann Sullivan: Lemme just add, I really loved what you said about the, the funders saying that they, uh, that they found all these new organizations that they hadn't heard of. But I bet, you know, we think of funders as being set in stone, but, but we're all evolving in what We think works because nothing does so far.
Julia Reinelt: We have to. Exactly.
Mariann Sullivan: Funders are as well.
So learning about new groups, it might give them ideas as well that shifts their focus.
Jasmin Singer: But there's one thing that has not evolved, Mariann. There's one thing that has not evolved in terms of the old conferences and the new conferences, which is the fact that quite a lot of people go to these conferences to meet at the bar for a drink. I know that that's a very big part of it, whether you're drinking alcohol or not.
Uh, I don't know what my question is here. I just wanted to say that.
Mariann Sullivan: Social se. I, I think, I think it's important to emphasize that like you can meet people.
Julia Reinelt: Exactly, and like thi you have to think about it this way, like large, our movement largely is a remote movement. Like most of us, I mean there, I know there are some of the like larger well funded groups, they have like offices, you know, here and there. Um, but largely we all work at home at our like little home office at the laptop.
It's the power of Ava bringing people together and in person and like the, this like, electric feeling, I wanna say, during, you know, the opening ceremony. Everybody's in the room and it's, it's exciting. That type of energy is unmet. You, you don't have that anywhere else. And yeah, 100% the bar, karaoke, um, we've got, you know, I said already the, the annual soccer game.
We've got a film festival, we've got an art exhibit this year by We Animals Media.
Um, definitely shout out to to our friends there.
Um, we do morning meditations yoga. We've got a huge exhibit hall, you know, every year with like dozens of organizations showcasing their work. We've got amazing food. We haven't talked about the food.
Um, we put a lot of effort into feeding our as well.
Jasmin Singer: Let's talk about the food. Tell us a little bit more about, uh, about what people can expect when they're, when they're needing to sober up.
Julia Reinelt: Yeah, exactly. So, um, yeah, there is, there is, uh, a lot of amazing food at Ava. Um, I know some of the people who were in LA last year will still remember the breakfast and be angry at us because we admittedly tried to save some money and we served muffins for breakfast and people did not like that.
Jasmin Singer: People were really mad. It's true, like, there were angry vegans walking around with like half eaten muffins all
Julia Reinelt: It's not good.
It's not good,
Mariann Sullivan: I love muffins. I would've been thrilled.
Julia Reinelt: but only muffins every day. It's a little, it was a little sad.
Mariann Sullivan: yeah,
Julia Reinelt: 100%. Um, it was a, a, a fun experiment to see like what happens if we don't offer our usual, you know, full breakfast buffet.
Mariann Sullivan: All right. Are vegans still all about the food? Uh, yeah. It turns out vegans are still all about the food.
Julia Reinelt: I mean, you would be surprised how many attendees tell us, Oh my God, I'm so relieved to be at a conference at like this professional event, and I can just eat like every, I don't have to think about food. Like, I just come to the buffet like, don't even read the signs. Like I just, you know, take it. It's rare, like you don't, you are, you're not in these spaces a lot like people really appreciate
the ease and like the comfort of just
Mariann Sullivan: Safe space.
Julia Reinelt: Safe space. Exactly.
Jasmin Singer: I, I just wanna say real quick, Mariann, you'll remember this. in like, it was either 2009 or 2010, there was a short-lived conference that only happened two or three times called Let Live and it was in Portland,
Mariann Sullivan: Oh
Jasmin Singer: and it was, it was very food oriented. That I just so that you know, it was very food oriented, but there was this table that came out and there was this cover on the table and they take the cover off like everyone's in the room and it was just the most beautiful display of cupcakes I've ever seen.
And I go to like. I put my hand in and like someone like swats my hand away and like dozens and dozens of people start taking photos of the cupcakes, and I'm like getting pushed to the back of the, you know, the back of the group, like just wanting a fucking cupcake. I just wanted to share that story. Um, all right, well, I mean, so before we move off of Toronto, what is, what are the dates of that and, and how do people sign up if there are still tickets available by the time they, uh, listen to this?
Julia Reinelt: Yeah, definitely. So, um, you sign up through our website, it's pretty straightforward. You'll navigate to, um, you know, upcoming events. You'll see, uh, you'll see Toronto right there, or Canada right there, um, dates are May 21st through 24th. Um, so yeah, in exactly one month, one month from today.
Jasmin Singer: What's the, Um, what, what's the website URL?
Julia Reinelt: Um, avainternational.org.
Jasmin Singer: And So what you mentioned earlier, the AVA Academy, uh, what is it and who is it for?
Julia Reinelt: So our academy program is a smaller format, um, for people either, so we have different tracks at, at, at every academy. Um, there is a track for newcomers. So people who are still studying who, uh, we, we even had like, um, high schoolers interested in, you know, the, the, this type of, um, trainings. Um, so new people to the movement, pretty young crowd.
We have, we usually do a track, um, on fundraising because fundraising is like the most wanted, um, topic and like what people are most looking for, um, at our, our events in general. So that is for, you know, fundraisers in the movement, like professional fundraisers in the movement, um, who want to learn more and who want to like, have, you know, talking about a safe space, like want to be like with other fundraisers and like, strategize and, you know, um, come up with shared strategies across different organizations. So it, it's a very intense, like fundraising course.
And then we usually do a third track that depending on the region and like the interest of, um, the advocate community there, could be on media, it could be on campaigning, it could be, um, you know, any type of leadership management trainings. Um, so yeah, we just finished an academy in, in Germany a few weeks ago, um, with those three tracks, and it was very intense.
Very like intimate. It's like 60 people across three tracks. So you're like in a classroom essentially for, for all week.
Jasmin Singer: Do you notice a difference in terms of, uh, the conferences that you're putting on all over the world? Like how would you describe what you're seeing from a thousand feet high?
Julia Reinelt: Very different. Very different. Um, and I mean, some of it, I, I'm not like the, the best person to answer this because, um, you know, I obviously have like my own lens. Um, but what I hear from people, let's say, um, we, we had a, a large summit in India, um, and an academy actually, we did both, um, at the, at the same time in Delhi last year.
And people there told us this event feels like an Indian event. Like this is, you know, it, it, it's, it's exactly, you know, tuned in to like the, the culture, the types of approaches that we use in India 'cause it's very different obviously from, you know, other regions in the world. Um, and the term vegan is used very differently.
Um.
Jasmin Singer: Hmm.
Julia Reinelt: Had an event in Kenya last year. Um, we're doing one in Ghana, um, this upcoming summer in July. Um, you see a, a very different crowd. Um, and it's exciting because it, it shows how, well one, it shows how many people really across the globe work for animals and like how many people care. It's amazing.
And two, how different their, I guess, you know, through their upbringing and through the politics in the country, the government in the country and the, the culture, they're, they're born in, um, how different their approaches are and have to be, you know, because they need to be like nimble and agile and try to, you know, work with the systems they, they live in. Similar to the US, of course, there is like a variety of approaches in the US that work here, but they are not gonna work anywhere else because, you know, the environment is different.
And it's extremely, this is my favorite part of, you know, what the work we do, our team is like very international. We've got people all across the world who work on these specific programs and work with our advisory committees and like, it's very, um, it's very like broad.
Yeah.
Jasmin Singer: Mm-hmm. That is so great, so inspiring. It's,
Mariann Sullivan: I always had this thing that I said that if the, like may not know anybody in your life who gets it about animals, who just gets it, but you drop, you drop me down in any place in the world and there'll be one person there who gets it about animals.
Julia Reinelt: Yeah. Yeah.
Mariann Sullivan: you know, I don't have any way to meet those people. You're actually bringing those people together from all around the world, uh, who, and I don't think we even have to describe what I mean by saying gets it about animals.
Julia Reinelt: If you saw the faces of people like we're, and we're lucky enough to, to see those. The face of someone who walks into a room with hundreds of people who care about the same issue that they care and they, they might be like, oftentimes they're the only person in their region or, or in their country, like doing this type of work and like doing vegan advocacy and, and outreach and working with schools and like, all kinds of work.
It's, it's really emotional. It's, it's really special. Yeah.
Jasmin Singer: Yeah.
it's just reminding me that, um, I was part of a tap dance group in New York City and Mariann and I went to Basel, Switzerland for I think an animal law committee event maybe, and I went to take a tap class while we were in Basel and, th they all knew my teacher and, and the class was not in English, but we did a routine that I knew and I, I felt like, felt like it was just, it, it reminded me so much of what Mariann saying.
Like, we are everywhere and apparently so are tap dancers. Um, how many tap dancer animal rights people? I don't know. Uh, if you could work on that conference.
Mariann Sullivan: Tough crossover. And then there's the whole shoe issue, which we won't go into.
Jasmin Singer: Exactly. Ugh. Don't even get me started. Well, Julia, is there anything that we didn't ask you about that you wanted to chat about or mention regarding Ava?
Julia Reinelt: I think you got a really good overview. Um,
Jasmin Singer: Yeah.
Julia Reinelt: Thank you for having me, again. Um, anyone, any listener, like if there's anything in particular we didn't cover, feel free to shoot me an email or, you know, reach out to us. Um, we're happy to get back to you and see you all in Canada in a few weeks.
Jasmin Singer: This is very exciting and, uh, thank you so much. Julia Reinelt is the Executive Director of AVA International. Julia, we really appreciate you being here and it's just like, best of luck. It, it sounds frigging awesome and, and I mean, I know I've been there. It is. Regardless of whether you're an introvert or an extrovert or somewhere in the middle, there is a place for everyone here who cares about animals.
And for those of you listening, I know you do care about animals. So thank you so much for that and for tuning in. Don't forget to subscribe, like, and comment. And, uh, we will talk to you next time.
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