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In late September 2015, 6000 orthodontists and allied health professionals converged on ExCeL, London's international conference centre, for the 8th International Orthodontic Congress. The worldwide orthodontic community witnessed the culmination of 9 years of hard work by an amazing conference organizing committee.
No other city had ever been given the honour of hosting this world conference more than once, yet this was the third time London had been chosen for this spectacular event. The decision had been announced one sunny day in Seattle in May 2006. I remember that morning sending out an SMS to my fledgling team ‘now the hard work begins!’
In the intervening years, Andrew DiBiase, the PR and publicity tzar, helped by social media guru, Guy Deeming, most certainly got the word out. When the ’call for papers’ was announced, we were flooded with over 1100 applications from 95 countries around the world. Professionals from the four corners of the globe expressed their willingness and enthusiasm to share orthodontic knowledge with friends and colleagues in London.
Dina Slater put together an amazing pre-conference course on Tooth Transplantation, held in the impressive lecture theatre at the Royal College of Surgeons. Thank you Nigel Hunt for the invitation.
Kevin O'Brien put together a crack scientific committee who selected the brightest and best communicators, clinicians and researchers to educate and entertain during the keynote sessions of the four-day event. Sadly, Kevin was unable to witness the spectacle, however, Steven Chadwick stepped into the breach and ably covered all duties of the Scientific Chairman for the duration. Rishma Shah took on the challenge of organizing the poster display featuring over 700 presentations, and James Spencer, my ever-willing Vice-Chairman, together with his able group of helpers, oversaw the hanging, and all too frequent rehanging, of said posters – what joy!
Ama Johal had one of the most challenging tasks of organizing the World Village Day, bringing together 18 orthodontic societies from around the world to present half-day or full-day programmes simultaneously. He managed to co-ordinate these groups to great effect and never a cross word was exchanged!
Trevor Hodge devised the most imaginative parallel programme for the allied health professionals which ran with great success on two days of the meeting. Over 1000 therapists, assistants, technicians and administrative staff had exposure to some of the world's top orthodontists. Trevor also organized the Educational Bursaries programme which gave a unique opportunity for 40 less privileged clinicians to attend this exceptional meeting.
Alison Murray and Julian O'Neil were the joint Chairs of Protocol, ensuring that all the right people were in all the correct places at the appropriate times and, from the feedback received after the event, they performed exceedingly well.
Tania Murphy and Rye Mattick dreamt up, booked and orchestrated the most exciting social events the orthodontic world had ever witnessed, delegates being whisked between Tower Bridge, Painted Hall, Madame Tussaud's, the Natural History Museum and Billingsgate Market. A whirlwind tour of London's top tourist attractions was appreciated by everyone who attended.
Simon Littlewood managed the Exhibition like the consummate professional he is and every exhibitor had kind words for their business dealings with Simon. When he announced that he had broken the £1m mark in trade sponsorship, it certainly put a smile on the face of our ever obliging treasurer, Nigel Fox.
Ben Lewis and Alex Cash had the most challenging task of all, keeping the A/V running during the entire conference. There were glitches but both were on the case in an instant, and for the most part kept the audiences completely oblivious to the storm of activity backstage. Very well done guys!
All of the above was done under the (very) watchful eye of Ann Wright, who has been the Executive Secretary of the organizing committee keeping us all on the ‘straight and narrow’ for the past 9 years.
British orthodontics should be grateful to all these people for the hundreds of hours and sleepless nights they have endured, to make the meeting the amazing success that it was. British Orthodontics should also be rightfully proud of what it has achieved, and each and every one of you who attended the meeting certainly contributed in some small way to this international meeting's overwhelming success.
Had there been the ‘World Cup for Orthodontics’, London and the British Orthodontic Society would have, on this unprecedented third occasion of hosting the International Orthodontic Congress, got to keep it! As it was, the orthodontic world did come to London and truly got to see the world smile.
In this first issue of Orthodontic Update for 2016 we have tried to include something for everyone. I intend to follow the tradition set by Jim McDonald, who has done sterling work for this publication over the past 32 issues.
Drs Wong and Kahn discuss the perennial problem of maxillary canines and the havoc they can wreak under certain circumstances. Hopefully, they will shed some light on how we should manage these sometimes difficult problems. As we all move ever closer towards patient-centred care, the challenging issues of providing treatment for patients with learning difficulties are presented by Pam Ellis and her team. Also in this theme of improving patient experience, is the paper by Dr Singh on how our patients prefer us to be attired when delivering their care.
The aim of Update has always been to offer practical advice about clinical orthodontics and this is certainly plentiful in the ‘Facebow’ paper by Dr Jagsi and colleagues and also in the Toothbrushing App ‘Brush DJ’ which will be appreciated by many of your patients.