Please don't tell anyone, but the ITI World symposium I just returned from in Singapore is only the second ITI World symposium I have ever attended.
I don't think anyone has noticed, though.
The first one was in 1999, and by chance, the second one was in 2024, but of course, that spans 25 years; not only have ITI world symposiums, but also my marriage, my career, and my life in general.
The 1999 symposium was in Lucerne in, Switzerland.
I've been back to that since only once; it's a beautiful place.
It was a lot smaller than the one I've just been to, probably less than 1000 people, and this one was probably close to 6000 people.
It had an exhibition like the one in Singapore did; it had lectures, it had networking, it had hierarchies and dick swinging and stag rutting and people puffing out their chests.
I remember it.
We had groups of people going to lap dancing bars and other groups of people going to dinner.
I remember it well.
This one was the same: same sort of behaviours, same sort of stories, same sort of psychology.
The exhibitions were different, though, but the themes were not.
I remember being completely overwhelmed in 1999 at how fast implant dentistry seemed to be going and how it would be impossible to keep up.
When I got there, I was using TPS (Titanium Plasma-Sprayed) implants, which were the rough-surfaced Straumann implant of the time, they were just in the process of launching a new surface called SLActive and that would change the world.
Implant designs were changing, and I was at the early stages of my career, and I couldn't see for a minute how I could keep up (still can't!).
The exhibition this time is full of what is new and what is to come and fear of missing out and all sorts of innovation and devastating cost and investment in keeping up with whatever your Joneses are.
It's cool and amazing.
I experienced virtual reality implant teaching; I saw a robot from China that puts implants in without anyone touching unbelievable and extraordinary things.
But in the end, to be honest, the circus is still the same.
I didn't do the Congress right; I'm too tired now, drank too much, travelled too much, and didn't look after myself the way I said I would, but that's ok; it was still an extraordinary event with extraordinary opportunities for us and some brilliant conversations with magical people.
But it's not any different really than 1999.
It hasn't moved that much.
It's got bigger and fancier and more expensive, but I honestly believe it's time to change that format.
I said to people while I was there that I could not, for the life of me, imagine that ten years from now, it will be socially acceptable to fly 6,000 people halfway around the world for the Congress.
People who are heavily invested in that seem to think I was a lunatic (probably cognitive dissonance from their business model).
But can you imagine it? Flying on a plane (particularly in a big seat) will be like smoking; it is totally unacceptable in the United Kingdom to light a cigarette in a restaurant, it will be totally unacceptable to do and to tell that you have been on a business class seat just to go and watch some lectures in an auditorium and see a robot that puts in an implant that doesn't even have a CE mark.
It's all the same, isn't it? It's completely different in other ways.
Blog Post Number - 3807