WE ARE IN THE 2025 conference and continuing education season, but it’s past time we approach these meetings in a different way. It can’t be the same over and over again, just walking around an exhibit hall on a 20-minute break between CE looking at wrinkled tablecloths to avoid eye-contact.
Have you ever considered you are the shark in Shark Tank? As you walk through the exhibit halls everyone is trying to pitch you! Yes, you! So, what does that make you in the conversation? The shark! You are the one everyone wants to talk to, and you get to say yes, no or not right now! Are we truly taking these opportunities for what they are or leaving them up to chance and shying away?
Once you realize this, you can approach your vendors with confidence and start asking better questions that serve you. Vendors are there to support our local societies and the experiences that we get to have there. How they continue to do this is by us giving them a moment of our time and asking them decent questions. With the shark analogy, if we don’t say yes (and we don’t say yes often enough) the ecosystem starts to struggle and everyone loses.
We are all in sales whether we like it or not, on both sides of the table. If our vendors weren’t there supporting us, our CE would be really expensive.
Take a moment before you go to your next event and write down your goals for the conference. Is it to bring back a clinical piece of knowledge? Is it to find new equipment? Is it to network? These meetings are an opportunity for us to have real conversations, get out of our dark rooms, solve problems we’re having, invest in moving our practices forward, and have fun.
Whenever I head to a meeting, I take a few minutes before I leave to set my intention so I can go in with a clear mindset. My goal is to always walk away not only with more clinical knowledge but also with more business knowledge.
Advertisement
This is also a great place to involve your team. Our teams also need to keep learning. Do they know where you’re going? When you come back do you share what you learned? Do you know a problem they are having they would like a solution for? If I were to find a solution, would I have their buy-in to implement it if they are not part of the conversation?
As you head to your next conference, walk into that hall with the eyes of a shark… because you are one. If you don’t have a goal, someone else will have one for you. Take each class you take and each vendor conversation as a gift. A gift to move you and your practice forward for the benefit of your patients and team.
Getting out of our comfort zones allows this wonderful profession the opportunity to keep evolving. Lean in, learn and ask better questions. Don’t be the minnow… be the shark and watch the conversations change to your advantage.
