Improving Dental Meetings for the Industry
By Gary W. Price, CEO, of Dental Trade Alliance
DTA recognizes dental meetings and trade shows play a significant role for distributor customer contact and sales. Many distributors are compelled to participate in local and regional dental meetings to show support for their customers. But companies report that dental meetings continue to provide a lower return on investment while costs increase yearly. At the root of the problem – there are too many dental meetings competing for dentists and exhibitors or sponsors.
DTA has been increasingly active in regard to dental meetings. As I reported in a recent column, DTA developed a Position Paper on Dental Meetings and Trade Shows in 2008. The position paper outlined seven key traits that help characterize a successful dental meeting, including meeting attendance, show metrics, amenities, location, exhibit hall foot traffic and so on. That position paper was shared with many dental meeting organizers in the United States. The response was favorable. DTA has been contacted by a number of dental meeting organizers to discuss how they can better implement the seven traits of a successful meeting.
The DTA Exhibits Working Group has more than 25 companies that meet regularly to discuss issues that impact the success of a dental meeting. Topics range from attendance and meeting days, to encouraging show organizers to provide CE on the show floor or additional exhibit hall hours that don’t compete with CE courses. An example of DTA influence – the Chicago Dental Society recently announced it is moving its Midwinter Meeting Exhibition to a Thursday through Saturday schedule at the behest of DTA.
Moving forward, DTA is working with dental meeting organizers to encourage consolidation of meetings because there are just too many dental meetings in the United States. DTA is also providing information on new affordable RFID technology that will allow dental meetings to better track attendance, monitor CE course attendance and ease online and day-of-show registration. All of these action items are designed to provide a better return on investment for exhibitors and enhance the dental meeting experience for attendees.
If you are interested in having your company contribute to the DTA Exhibits Working Group or for more information regarding the DTA Position Paper on Dental Meetings and Trade Shows, contact info@dentaltradealliance.org, or visit the DTA Web site at www.dentaltradealliance.org.
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