Time is the main consideration for Canadian dentists in deciding whether to attend the exhibit floor at conventions, according to results from the Dental Industry Association of Canada’s (DIAC) 15th Annual Future of Dentistry survey.
“No time” was cited by 41% of respondents as the primary factor for not attending the exhibit floor. Regionally, Maritime respondents spent the least amount of time visiting the exhibits on average, while Ontario dentists spent the most time. This preference for an exhibit floor with Ontario dentists was reinforced by the finding that only 49.5% of Ontario respondents would attend a convention with no exhibit floor, compared to 60% to 70% of respondents from the other regions.
Time pressures are also indicated by other responses such as wanting to “attend lectures/courses” instead (18%), wishing to “talk to peers” (5%), “closes too early” (5%) and “too far away” from the lecture areas (3%).
With regard to factors influencing dentists to visit the exhibit floor, product samples ranked first, followed closely by new technologies, hands-on demonstrations and discounts/specials.
Over 1000 practising Canadian dentists responded to this year’s survey, and there was good proportional distribution across all regions of the country. For more information on the DIAC survey, contact Bernie Teitelbaum, executive director of DIAC at bernie@diac.ca.
