When we set up the Campbell Academy over 10 years ago. Andy, Tom, and I (Tom had left his job in recruitment in London after his history degree to come and start to run it) all agreed that we wanted to build a tribe of like-minded people, of friends.
We set out with the premise that we wanted to bring brilliant CPD to Nottingham, which was just down the road from my house, and in fact, for a time, when we were using the venue, which was the posh bar on the Trent, on the side of the River Trent. I could walk from my house down the river to the events; it was beautiful.
What we did is we built a club, we built a tribe of people who knew what we were for and what we thought, and who wanted to come and then come back, and the repeat of people returning to courses and events that we do has become quite extraordinary.
One of the other things we wanted to do was take people who came to our courses and bring them in as educators if that was something they wanted to do, and it has proven to be a really, really successful thing to do, and that also.
Almost always when we have a course running, particularly the more complicated courses, friends are coming, people that we've known for years, people who've done our business education, as well as our clinical education, people who keep in touch and who see us. It's a joy to see these guys; it's a joy for us to be together.
What we realised, though, was that it's harder and harder to get together, and when we do, we have lots to talk about. One of the other philosophies of the Campbell Academy was always to bring reality to dentistry. We were never going to be a showcase organisation, one that just paraded out the best stuff we've done and told everyone it's brilliant all the time. We were always going to be a place that was real, that was honest, that understood how difficult it was to do the things that we all do, and to talk about it. That's why we built things like the Learning from Failure conference.
As things moved on, though, the tribe got bigger and bigger, and then we were able to start to do work in Scotland, and next year in Ireland, and so it was important that we started to build something, a place, a tool that we could use to keep together with the group.
We've been working on that thing for 18 months now, and you may have seen some of the material about the Campbell Academy Clubhouse, which is being released early next year.
Our Clubhouse is not an online learning platform where no one exists; it is a place where people can meet, talk, share, learn, and be coached. It's a place where you can share the difficult things that you have and get answers. It's a place where we can share the difficult things we find, show you how we managed to answer them, and who helped us, too.
It will be a place where we can introduce you to the things that we're using, the things that we're given by the companies, which are new or bright or moving forward, but more than anything else, it will be a place to be.
Dentistry is lonely, even in a big practice.
It's a difficult place to find the answers to the things you want to, without shame or fear or wondering whether people are going to laugh, Our plan is to set the example of what it's like to talk about the real world of dentistry where things go wrong, where patients get upset You have to work with your friends and your colleagues to try to navigate these challenges and difficulties.
And so the clubhouse is here, we have a waiting list just for people who are interested and will look at it.
It's a subscription-based service, which encompasses both clinical dentistry for dental implants initially, but more is coming and the dental business.
It has face-to-face events, virtual video call coaching, Slack coaching, educational material, and cases presented. All manner of things.
It has been a lot of hard work, but it's arrived.
Do you want to be in the club?
Blog Post Number - 4378
Colin Campbell, Chris Barrow, and an intrepid group of dentists will be cycling across the plains of Tanzania from Kilimanjaro in early February 2026. If you would like to support the charity, Bridge to Aid, and this extraordinary challenge, please click here.
Thank you for your generosity.
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