An Objective Rating System for Dental Meetings
By Gary W. Price, CEO, of Dental Trade Alliance
It is impossible to have a conversation with any of our member companies without coming around to the issue of trade shows. The vast majority of these conversations are negative. The number of dental meetings is staggering. Companies want to support local, state, regional and national dental customer groups, but the expense of attending these shows is becoming too large.
In my experience, one company in 15 is happy with trade shows in dentistry. But that doesn’t stop companies from signing up and attending. Many want better tools to measure what trade shows mean to their bottom line. For a long while, we’ve relied on the same casual information, like the example I used above from my ‘experience.’ That’s not science. We need a way to measure trade shows to help our companies make informed decisions.
Identifying core issues
One year ago, DTA produced a position paper on Dental Meetings and Trade Shows. That position paper identified the core issues that have upset so many in the dental industry: Too many meetings, the same continuing education, shrinking attendance and falling return on investment (R.O.I.) at dental meetings. After hearing companies complain about the rising costs to exhibit at 150-plus dental meetings, the DTA Exhibits Committee (an active working group consisting of more than 20 manufacturers, distributors and labs) began work on a rating system for all dental meetings.
The DTA Exhibits Committee identified seven key traits for successful dental meetings. These traits include: education, entertainment and events, exhibit hall traffic and incentives, location – accommodations – infrastructure, metrics, schedule and size/ attendance. The new rating system will include sub-categories with objective criteria allowing each company to accurately rate future meetings.
The goal is to offer exhibitors a fair and objective tool to rate all
dental meetings with a trade show component. This tool will create a metric so companies can decide for themselves which dental meetings to support with the appropriate
resources. An electronic survey will be sent to all participating exhibitors following each meeting. Ratings for each meeting will be shared with the show organizer so they can see how they stack up overall against other meetings. DTA will be launching this new rating system this September in time for the fall dental meeting season. If your company is interested in learning more about the DTA rating system for dental meetings, contact DTA at info@dentaltradealliance.org or later this fall – visit www.dentaltradealliance.org to view the new rating system on the DTA Web site. [FI]
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