•    Set goals before the conference – What do you hope to get out of the conference?  What sessions should you attend?  What products or features should you see?  You will be confronted with many “show specials”, so have some idea of standard pricing, so you can be in a position to know whether the “show special” is really that special.  

•    Collect information on the products you see – There are many ways to do this:  collect brochures from the vendor, write notes on the back of vendor business cards or take pictures of products and flyers.  Another way, that is effective, is to have the vendor email you the pertinent information.  This saves you from carrying around a bag of brochures that may just confuse you later and will serve to better connect you with the product and its vendor.  If you are selective with this approach it will separate these vendors from those whose brochure you took to just be polite.

•    Bring plenty of your own business cards – This is the easiest way to ask a vendor to email you information plus you can use the cards to connect with other attendees.  Don’t neglect the opportunity to meet and compare notes with other attendees.  Their experiences and information can often bring fresh ideas and renew energy and enthusiasm for your role in the dental practice.

•    Take charge in the exhibit floor booths – You know your area of interest, so don’t hesitate to get to the point.  Being a vendor, I actually appreciate the conversations that are “to-the-point”.  I can bloviate on the finer points of dental software until your eyes glass-over, but I’d rather answer specific questions that will solve a specific problem.  More satisfying for you and to me as well.

•    Allow time for serendipity – Vendors come to these events with their latest services and products and these may be things that you would never have thought of, but are just what your practice needs.  Visit a few booths where you don’t know the vendor or the products and look at what they are offering.  You never know where a great idea may come from.

•    Bring your experiences back to your office and the rest of the team – Schedule a time to review what you’ve learned and discuss how this might impact the way your office is run.  Many times I’ve returned from a conference excited to implement some new-found product or technique only to get bogged down in the day-to-day grind of the office and then lose all enthusiasm for the change.  

Enjoy your time at the dental conferences.  It will expand your outlook and bring you ideas that might be a spring-board to greater success.  It’s a happy time of collaboration and horizon stretching concepts. 

Ethel would sing “everything about it is appealing… everything the traffic will allow” that is.  Make this an annual right click for your office.