ADA: AMERICAN DENTAL ASSOCIATION 2010 Annual Session—Oct. 9–12, Orlando www.ada.org/345.aspx
In 2009, theADA made its Annual Session’s Education in the Round courses—high-tech,
live-patient learningsessions—available to all dental schools via the web. In 2010, the ADA broadened its reach—a lot—by makingmul- tiple courses with live procedures available via a simultaneous webcast to all 157,000 members. If members signed in live, they could interact with the instructor-presenters by askingques- tions. The sessions were also made available to all mem- bers at no charge for 60 days post-meeting in a recorded format; for a small fee, members could take a test to get continuing educa- tion credits. That initiative was
“huge,” said James Good- man,CMP, the ADA’s man- aging vice president, division of conference and meetingservices. “Statisti- cally we get less than 10 percent of our members at our annual meetingevery year, which is not uncom- mon amongmedical profes- sions. But we believe we have to take the meetingto our attendees, especially the younger generation.” For those who attended the 2010 Annual
Session in person at Orlando’s Orange County Convention Center, Goodman said, the biggest change they noticed was conceptual. It began with the look of all of the marketingmaterials —even pre-show. “They were ADA-brand compliant, and the look and feel at the show was ‘ADA everywhere,’” he said. All the photos in the ADA’s marketingmaterials showed actual ADA members, professionally photographed, “and involved a lot of collaboration with Free- man, our decorating partner.” The campaign reflected the dental profession’s changing demo-
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graphics, with images of the newest generation of dentists, who tend to be female and, in par- ticular, Asian. In addition, the ADA wanted to create a
sense of community amongits various con- stituencies and member interests.“We wanted people to feel like when they got to the meeting, they were at the ADA,” Goodman said.“We created a huge sense of community on the show floor, so that when you entered the exhibit level
The ADA put a face on the dental industry, with professionally photo- graphed ADA members featured in its marketing campaign pre-show and at the 2010 Annual Session at Orlando’s Orange County Convention Center.
you weren’t in the actual exhibit hall right away, but you were in all the ADA elements— theWi-Fi zone, the Internet Café, ADA Pavil- ion, ADA Store, registration, International Member Lounge, and New Attendee Lounge, which created a park kind of atmosphere.” The set-up got “rave reviews,” Goodman
said. In addition, the ADA repurposed some of its registration stations once registration was over, so attendees could print boardingpasses for their return trip home.—Michelle Russell
Michelle Russell is editor in chief and Barbara Palmer is a senior editor of Convene.