PLENARY ADA Annual Session

POST CON

The ADA Introduces Bite-Sized Learning and Debate

EVENT: The 151st Annual Session and World Market- place Exhibition, held by the American Dental Association (ADA) at Orlando’s Orange County Convention Center

2010 MEETING (OCT. 9–12): New educational program- ming and exhibit-floor components, coupled with a social-networking element, helped give the ADA’s 151st Annual Session and World Marketplace Exhibition a new twist. More than 23,000 den- tal professionals, including some 7,000 practitioners as well as researchers, academ- ics, and others in the industry, attended. This year’s meeting attracted 1,000 international delegates from nearly 80 countries around the world.

CHALLENGES: While the educational value of its pro- gramming has always been a priority for the ADA, taking

that value to a new level was a top priority in 2010. Maximizing attendees’ inter- est in spending time on the exhibit floor was another key objective.

INITIATIVES: New for 2010 was an “Open Clinical and Science Forums” series hosted by the ADA Council on Scientific Affairs and The Journal of the American Dental Association. Intended to engage participants in discussing such important clinical topics as oral cancer while they earned continuing- education credit, the forums drew an average of 850 attendees per session and more than 2,500 overall. Several controversial topics were selected for the forums — fluoridation in wa- ter, for example. “We brought in experts on all sides of the controversy,” said James Goodman, CMP, managing

vice president of the ADA’s division of conference and meeting services. “We had a controlled, moderated debate, and that theater was packed for all three of our open-science forums.” Optional programming, presented in conjunction with the Disney Institute focused on such topics as team- building and customer service for dental practices. And the World Marketplace Exhibi- tion — in addition to offering more than 540 booths — featured an “Education in the Round” area where attendees could observe dental proce- dures being performed live. To encourage members to

interact and share their ex- periences, a Twitter feed and Facebook page were set up and made available from Oct. 4–11. Attendees were urged to use both social-networking platforms not only to com- municate with each other, but also to obtain the most up-to-the-minute information about exhibits, speakers, edu- cational sessions, and social activities. n

— Julie Ritzer Ross

FOR MORE INFORMATION: www.ada.org/345.aspx

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ROUNDING UP: The ADA’s World Marketplace Exhibition featured more than 540 booths and an “Education in the Round” area.

The ADA Annual

Session and World

Marketplace Exhibition

2009 Honolulu

23,000+ 500

Attendees

Exhibitors Q

2010 Orlando

23,000+ 540+

Attendees Exhibitors 22 pcma convene December 2010 www.pcma.org

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ILLUSTRATION BY ALEX WILLIAMSON; PHOTO BY EZ EVENT PHOTOGRAPHY, COURTESY ADA NEWS © 2010 AMERICAN DENTAL ASSOCIATION