How do we sum up the whirlwind that was Practice Plan’s presence at Dentistry Show Birmingham?
We could start by saying that, once again, in our Dental Business Growth Theatre we provided a programme of sessions that, like the BBC, informed, educated, and entertained, while on our stand we brought the sunshine. After all, our branding has a lot of yellow in it!
For us, the sessions in the Dental Business Growth Theatre were when we saw all our months of creative head scratching, debating and attention to detail aimed at providing a knockout display of growth advice finally come to fruition. Anyone who came along to the sessions had the opportunity to take away ‘cuttings’ of knowledge about how to help their business grow in areas as varied as HR confidence, their finances, and their culture, all delivered by some of the leading names in dental business coaching and support. Sarah Buxton on HR and employment law, Lucie Simic on culture and UNW’s Mike Blenkharn and Barry Oulton on growing your finances, anyone?
Covering the whole landscape
Also, in the theatre we challenged people to think about the shape of things to come for the profession as a whole with our fascinating sessions ‘Wither or Grow? What’s the future of NHS dentistry?’ with Eddie Crouch and our own Nigel Jones, and ‘The Seeds of Change: emerging trends shaping the future of dentistry’ with Chris Barrow. There were plenty of ideas to cultivate after these sessions. Do you have a scanner in every surgery, and do you scan every patient every time, as Chris suggests? Are you embracing skill mix Several of our speakers believe that’s the way forward.
Our aim was to run sessions that tapped into the aspects of running a practice that our clients ask for help with most often. These are some of the areas that can have the greatest impact on a business’ ability to grow. From recruitment to changes in employment law, managing a team so everyone is happy can be a nightmare. Keeping on top of costs and all your outgoings can be the difference between a good night’s sleep and a life of worry. Our theatre programme offered an insight into the thinking of experts in the topics practices need to know about, and also a chance to take away the seeds of some ideas attendees could develop and grow in practice.
Bringing the sunshine
That was the serious side of things, which we do extremely well. However, what we’re even better at, though is bringing the fun! This year, we celebrate 30 years of helping dentists put down solid roots in private dentistry. Where did the time go? As we’re nothing without our practices, we wanted our lovely existing and potential clients to share in the celebrations.
So, on our stand, as well as adding birthday themed cocktails and mocktails to our fabulous fizz bar, we crammed our famous prop box with new hats, boas, and branded signs, so people could take silly selfies that they could enter into our social media competition to win a £100 voucher. Some people really know how to work those famous yellow sunglasses!
Hitting the heights
Although the buzz on the stand was tremendous, we didn’t confine ourselves to our pitch! We set our sights high. So, to add a bit of theatricality to the day we had our two glamourous stilt walkers carrying giant Practice Plan 30th birthday balloons around the exhibition handing out invitations to come and collect birthday sweets from the stand. They certainly caused people to sit up (look up?) and take notice!
The best part of every Dentistry Show Birmingham for us though is getting to chat to practice team members. Whether they’re existing clients who are already part of the Practice Plan family, or dental professionals looking to join us, we love getting the chance to talk to them about their practice and its needs. We always say that everything starts with a good conversation, and we are very good at conversations!
In the case of some of our existing clients, their path to introducing private dentistry will have begun with a conversation on our stand at Dentistry Show Birmingham so we’re always delighted when they come and join us for a refreshing drink and a catch up. Because, while we may be the experts in NHS to private conversions, or you’ve switched to us from another provider, we’re interested in sticking around long after the metaphorical dust has settled to help build profitable and thriving businesses. That’s what we’re all about.
So, was it our most successful Dentistry Show ever? Only time will tell but we think all the right ingredients were there to ensure this year’s offering was the cream of the crop!