Today marks the start of the ITI UK & Ireland Congress in Edinburgh.
For the second time I find myself in a ‘scientific programme committee’, a glorified name for an organising committee for a congress.
It’s 10 years since I was involved in the last one I did in Liverpool and we’ve been looking at this one for 18 months, trying to navigate round a pandemic and an apathy for attendance and all sorts of challenges and problems to get people together.
The ITI (International Team for Implantology) is one of the single most important factors in the development of my career in implant dentistry.
In one way or another I’ve been involved with them for more than 20 years and I attended my first ITI world symposium in 1999 in Switzerland.
For better or for worse and for interested or for boring, many of my friends that I’ve made throughout my work career are involved with the ITI.
I remember in 1999 in Luzern watching people meet who’d known each other all their professional lives and not really understanding what that meant or the importance of that.
I understand fully now.
It’s never about showing off or showboating or ‘I’m doing better than you’ or ‘you’re doing better than me’.
'The race is long and in the end it’s only with yourself’.
It’s about sharing the load and mostly having support during the downs.
The ITI informed me and educated me and introduced me to a group of people who were honest and ethical and just about trying to do the right thing whilst navigating through their professional lives.
The greatest privilege will be to see Colin Burns who is the current chairman of the ITI assume his position as the ‘top dog’ at this congress, his congress and to see it delivered in all it’s glory.
There are meals in cool places and parties in even cooler places and conversations and meet-ups and lectures and learning and teaching and scheming and all the wonderful things that happen when a like-minded group of people meet up in a place like this.
I’m sorry you missed it this time, I hope you might think about joining up if you’re involved in implant dentistry so you don’t miss it the next time.
Time to go home again.
Blog Post Number - 2872
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