I just returned home from the California Dental Association meeting in Anaheim and let me assure you... in person meetings are back! We've seen a fairly slow rebound since the pandemic. As we all know, the one super cool thing that emerged out of Covid-19 was the incredible growth of video conferencing. Before that, I had heard of Zoom, but had never used it. During the shutdown, I felt like I *lived* on it.
Suddenly there was an abundance of CE courses available online. Doctors discovered that they didn't need to shut down their office and travel to get quality information. That seemed to sound the death knell of in person meetings. The key word in that sentence is 'seemed'.
I remember the early days of video conferencing. I started tinkering with it in the early 2000s. It was wonky and the images were jerky, but it worked. It got better as broadband connections became plentiful. Back then I remember reading several tech articles that said it would kill the airline industry. However, it never really caught on the way people thought it would. I saw a study done back then that discovered that when people connected via video, it created a desire to physically be with the person on the other end. Suddenly air travel spiked. It seemed that instead of killing the airlines, it created a boost.
Of course, then along came Covid. In my 'other' job in dentistry, I tend to go to a lot of meetings. Post Covid, attendance was incredibly low. The ADA in 2021 was in Las Vegas and the attendance was sparce. I talked to several companies who saw around 10 people stop by their booth every day. There were times in the exhibit hall where you could have played touch football in the aisles and not worried about bumping into anyone.
However, just like the first video conferencing systems boosted travel, that seems to be the case now. Dental tradeshows are bouncing back. The CDS MidWinter meeting was well attended and the CDA was incredibly busy. It was good to see the exhibit hall full.
I think as human beings, we crave interpersonal interaction. Sure you can learn from your computer, but you don't get the same social buzz that you get from standing in the same room with other humans. I spoke with several companies in Anaheim and they all reported good traffic and sales numbers. I spent quite a bit of time in the Medidenta booth and I can tell you that they had a lot of traffic.
Maybe the best thing I saw was people socializing. The sitting areas were always packed and the booths not only were full of people checking things out, they were also chatting away. It gave me a warm feeling to see it and be part of it. I was staying at the Hilton and every night the bar was full of people laughing and enjoying themselves.
As you all know, I'm full on when it comes to tech. However, I readily admit there are somethings that technology simply cannot do and never will. One of those is giving you the dopamine hit that you get when see an old friend or make a new one. We're social creatures and we crave that interaction. I'm really optimistic about the future of dental meetings. There may not be as many small ones eventually, but the large meetings are definitely back. Learning and meeting in person is something we humans want... and there really isn't a substitute for that.
No comments:
Post a Comment