If I was asked to describe the best lecture I ever attended it was probably the one-day event with Seth Godin in London last year.
He wrote a blog and said he was coming, no content described, turn up if you want at £350 for the day.
He had an online discussion forum set up prior to this, which he wasn’t on but the people attending the lecture were. When we got there, there were at least 300 people there. He was giving away copies of his books, which you could pick up if you wanted as part of your registration fee and lunch was served in different coloured papers bags – green for vegetarian, blue for fish and red for meat.
He gave everybody a special certificate and a carpenter’s pencil with the words ‘there’s no such thing as writer’s block’ written on it which sits on my desk at work.
When he stood up at the start he said, “This is a question and answer session. There are no slides, we’re here until 3 o’clock, let’s go” and he answered questions for the whole day. It was extraordinary with pages of notes taken and bags of inspiration gained.
I provide a lot of lectures and a lot of education and the system dictates that I must set the agenda, the programme and the learning objectives and confirm with the delegates that the learning objectives have been made. Of late I have been thinking that this is rather robotic and, as I started to write this, I was reminded of the late, great Malcolm Pendlebury who was a mentor and colleague of mine at Queens Medical Centre in Nottingham. I was the Secretary of the East Midland British Dental Association where Malcolm took his post as President, he had recently retired as Dean of the faculty of GDPs and was a World Health Organisation advisor for Oral Health around the world.
As we were booking his speakers for his year as President I was badgering him for aims and objectives, explaining to him that the GDC said that this was essential and that it had to be put in place. His response was “lecturers of this calibre don’t deal with aims and objectives”
I took the moral high ground, or so I thought, and stood my ground and he managed to cobble together some ridiculous objectives for each speaker. The quality of his speakers was extraordinary. Sadly he died before he saw any of his speakers present and his chain sat on the desk in front of the lecture theatre for the whole year as different members of the branch stood in for him.
So then to Master Classes that we provide for the academy and the probably changing format for these as we go forward. My inspirational mentor John Gibson, who is now Professor of Medicine in relation to Dentistry and has been fundamental to the development of my career from the very earliest of stages in coming to do a Master Class and ITI Study Club for us on 19th April. I spoke to him this week. John has held numerous positions in dentistry of note, including Chairman of Dental Protection, a seat on the board of MPS, a seat on the council of Medical Protection and a Chairman of Conduct at the General Dental Council together with his Professorial responsibilities at the University of Glasgow.
Ostensibly during the day on 19th April John will talk about medicine in relation to implant dentistry but will generally be happy to answer questions on any subject I suspect, be it medicine in relation to dentistry or otherwise.
In the evening, at the ITI Study Club, he will discuss consent and in his experience how people fall foul of the consent process.
At the start of the day we will put up a whiteboard, ask people what they want to know and I’m sure John will make sure they know it if it is at all within his gift to give. I think this is probably the best format for CPD in a modern, information rich world, we don’t need more information we need more opinion, we need more experience and we need more clarity.
If you fancy a day like that, and you can attend the ITI Study Club for free, email Tom: info@campbellacademy.co.uk
Blog Post Number: 1226
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