Over the years I’ve got around a bit especially when it comes to ITI Study Clubs.
One time I flew to Aberdeen and presented in a really nice practice there, there was a guy who was in the year below me at Uni I remember.
Because Colin Burns is one of my great friends, I’ve lectured three times at Glasgow ITI Study Clubs, once on aesthetic, once on complications and once on sinus grafting.
I’ve lectured at least once at Edinburgh’s ITI Study Club and was hosted by Peter Buchan. That’s five in Glasgow anyway.
I’ve done three in Northern Ireland, one in the west and two in Belfast. One of those was about the GDC case.
I’ve done it once in Liverpool at least and once in Leeds. Once in Shrewsbury and twice in Birmingham and now twice in Grantham after I presented on Wednesday night.
I’ve definitely turned down Newcastle and I’ve definitely turned down Cirencester and certainly turned down London (although I did do London virtually during the pandemic so maybe that counts as another one).
I think that makes a total (counting the online one) of 16 which starts to seem like quite a lot to me.
The reason I keep doing them is certainly not the money (I don’t think there’s a speaker fee for the one I just did in Grantham) it’s because this is where learning happens.
I’ve been lucky enough to build online courses and to present online on Zoom and other webinar platforms for many years.
I’ve been really fortunate enough to speak in front of pretty big audiences both here and in other countries. After all of that though the best learning, the true learning is where people have the opportunity to speak openly and honestly in a group.
It was clear on Wednesday night as we sat in the Maltings Dental practice in Grantham (Jason Wong’s practice) that the breadth of experience in the room made for a really brilliant group who could ask and challenge and discuss and break things down to try to take some things back to their own places to try to make it a little better (none more so than me).
The trick that many people don’t realise is that if you are ever given the privilege to speak to colleagues (and it always is a privilege) is that you’re likely to learn more than you teach.
I had the space to spend the whole of Wednesday going through a brilliant new GBR lecture that the extraordinary, Beatriz Sanchez, in our practice has written for us to share as we need.
It took me back through all the cell biology and all the scientific basis of bone grafting and reaffirmed my approach in what I do and made me feel more comfortable about my work.
I remembered some things that I’d forgotten, confirmed some things I already knew and learned a lot of new stuff I probably should have known before.
I cemented that by trying to share it with other people in an ITI Study Club and made some new friends at the same time.
It’s got to be better than working for a living that, it’s got to be better than just grinding it out on a service commitment for a cheque at the end of the month to pay a mortgage that I can’t afford.
I don’t know how many people I’ve spoken to at ITI Study Clubs over the years, but I bet if you added it all up, they’ve not learned as much as I have.
Blog Post Number - 3043
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