My NEC debut and Public Speaking - a fate worse than death?

I wasn't sure whether to write this in my personal blog or under my RA coach blog.
So it will appear in both. 

  Dental Showcase 2013 - my small part in it.

To be honest I am still a little mentally breathless since returning from the NEC.  I set off from Newbury, for a 2 hour drive, at lunchtime last Wednesday, to have a dry run and set up my presentation audio-visuals on  The RA Medical Services stand F11, Dental Showcase 2013 at the NEC where I had been booked to speak. Not once but eleven times over the three days.
Three times on Thursday and four times each on Friday and Saturday.

As most will know, the NEC is a truly vast arena. The scale of the operation itself within Hall 5 alone is equally dwarfing.

I arrived on site at about 4pm. All around me was organised chaos. Many stands, barely built, most only part built. I take my hats off to the gangs of specialists workers beavering away, building, laying in lighting, cabling and on and on and indeed the stand owners fussing and preening their stands, decorating, laying out equipment, products, information and so on.
I can only imagine many were still there at 2am. Maybe later. Tweaking.

How on earth would all this be ready for opening by mid-morning on Thursday?
Yet it was. Everything looking pristine on Thursday morning. We were on the stand by 9am.

A very impressive and innovative stand I thought too.  Open, accessible, well lit and eye catching.

So I met up with The RA Medical team on Wednesday. A family run business from Yorkshire.
They have been servicing and supplying sedation equipment to me for many years.

As many will know, I have been running full-day, hands-on courses for 8-15 people in small venues, often dental practices, for the last 10 year, specifically focused on my own area of expertise- Inhalation Sedation - a.k.a "R.A."

The mini-lectures

This year for the first time and now that I seemed to have established a good reputation in the dental world (fair enough), the company were prepared to be innovative and designed the stand specifically to give me a platform to speak.

The company were happy for my mini-lectures (20-30 mins) to be patient and practitioner-centred and educational. Naturally anyone wishing to utilise the technique, would need to buy equipment and they are the leading U.K. and Ireland distributors of a number of brand options, as well as having a solid engineering background but none of that was covered in my talks.

This was not about the equipment but how using RA would benefit patients, practitioners and practices.

The re-brand

 

In addition to the one-day course I run with my wife Chris, this year I have been stepping up other speaking activities as well as one to one mentoring and so it seemed a good time to re-brand and my daughter Jen, who is a free-lance graphic designer put together a new A4 brochure for me.
These were delivered hot off the press direct to the stand on Thursday morninig an 2 hours before the show opened and have gone down very well too. Thanks Jen.

 The audio-visual story

To be honest we had some audio-visual issues, despite the close attention of the technicians.
The best laid plans ...

Just one example. I had laboured long hours, sometimes into the night to produce several animated slides to break up the static PowerPoint slides - thereby avoiding , I hoped the dreaded death by ...

I was also determined to finish on a high note and had spent probably 6-10 hours on a single animated slide, synced to a particular music track, so the words and animations co-incided to make a coherent, fun, funky finale. When I have time I might upload that to Youtube!

I was quite excited to show the RA Med. team but when we ran through it, the track sounded muddy.

We played around with the sound deck, so did the a-v technician but the lyrics were never clear.
In the meantime various mic. options were tried. The headset we ordered didn't appear so I was left with a tie-mic. Balancing the volume for this and the music output was tricky too.

Finally someone twigged. The sound engineers had set up for a mono output from my mic. to a single speaker, so the stereo output from my music track was only coming through one channel.
The main vocals being lost on the 2nd channel.
Once the splitter arrived for the 3rd show- all was well. ( pretty much)

Audiences varied

The big risk for all was that few people would pitch up for us. Places were not pre-booked.
The organisers did a god job in promoting my talks but the outcome was in the lap of the gods.

Well numbers did vary. The smallest number was on the first Saturday show at 11.00am.  Then again it takes a good hour once leaving the motorway to queue up  in the traffic, park and make your way to the exhibition hall. Nevertheless the four lovely people who sat through that 8th session were very appreciative.

The next one at 12.30 was a different matter.  Very engaged. This is just one side of the stand.

Sometimes serious and absorbed. The vCPD scanners showed 86 people.

 

Sometimes I kept them amused

 We were packed to the gunnels.  86 people surrounded the stand and some were standing right behind me. Often 2-3 deep, blocking the adjacent isles. What a buzz!

Other shows had 20-40 I believe. I am still awaiting the official count.

I must be honest and say that I loved the experience.

Well the show is over, the team worked very hard to pack-up and load all of their equipment on their van.

I parted company with them to drive south tired but very happy with the outcome.

Today I received a very nice note from Janet Pickles thanking me. " You were magnificent" she said.
Well allowing for a little hyperbole, I think I did a bit better than OK. They were already planning improvements to the stand for 2015 on the assumption that the exercise will be repeated !

My grateful thanks to

1) My wife Chris Charon RDN. She couldn't be with me on this occasion but her tireles work behind the scenes enables me to do this and on our wedding anniversary too.

2)  Jen Charon 

For her brochure production. I'll be uploading this soon.

3) To RA Medical Services

For their invitation and belief in me taking the financial risk of the additional costs incurred in enlarging their stand and kitting it out for my lectures and for making me part of their family for the duration.

4) Chris Barrow, now of 7 connections, 

His inspiration and indeed "permission" to start this journey began about 11-12 years ago in the Dental business School.  I'll be writing more about Chris's influence soon but in the meantime thanks Chris for giving me a few minutes of your time at the show and sharing the importance you now see in practitioners offering sedation services as part of the mix needed to bring new patients to themselves.

5) Ashley Latter, 

Whose tweaking of my presentation skills recently at his one-day course in Bury, I believed helped to oil the wheels to a successful 3 days at the Dental Showcase.

and then ...

I now have two fully booked courses to run in November in London at the Henry Schein showrooms at Marble Arch for which thanks to Patrick Allen.

Another course to be planned for next spring. Date and venue TBA.
Then I am back again at the NEC for The Dentistry Show 2014. speaking to the Dental Nurses forum.

Thanks you for your kind attention.

Ready for some entertainment?

Last September  we had 10 day break on the Isle of Wight.  In fact we were very impressed and will probably be back again. We stayed just outside Ventnor.

On the last night to round off the day we popped into Ventnor for a late drink (well within the limits naturally) at the Spyglass Inn.  Something of a tourist honey-trap but atmospheric and worth a visit nevertheless with great views to sea.

Anyway  and totally by chance, a singer/guitarist came in to play a set whilst we had our drink.
As he kicked off we moved seats for a better view.

Put simply I was bowled over with his style and voice. I grabbed the i-phone and sneaked a couple of short video clips, not wanting to appear too "cheeky".

The video quality isn't great but you will get the idea.

Intro-outro

Ain't no Sunshine clip

I did try to upload it here but some technical hitch means you will need to go to my Youtube page to hear it.  There are two clips one the intro( or was it the outro?) and the 2nd a slice from Ain't no Sunshine.

Anyway I made contact with The Spyglass Inn via face-book and they gave me a name and contact details for this guy. He is called Dave Waight and lives on The Isle of Wight. He runs a recording studio and has worked with various groups and as a session musician.

So I made contact with him, exchanged e-mails and had a nice chat with him this morning.

He is up for playing a gig in the Newbury area for me and as many friends as I can muster.



All the best

Richard Charon

Chris Charon's last day at Newbruy Smile Studio

Bottom of Form

 Well here we go.  The start of a big day for Chris Charon, who retires after giving so much to the practice in Newbury, since Jan 4th 1989. Taking us through the (then new NHS contract) soon after buying the practice. 

This was swiftly followed by conversion to private practice and converting 20% to Denplan. She then shifted those and more patients to BUPA DentalCover ( remember them?) and more new systems. Through 3 rounds of accreditation (the 1st in Berks at the time). Then Denplan bought BDC out and after telling Denplan that the patients were not "theirs", we moved them away from capitation to Cigna about 1998/9-ish. offering a maintenance contract.

We installed SOE in 1998 and then met Chris Barrow at a Cigna taster evening.  As a fellow Mancunian, he struck all the right chords with Chris Charon and we signed the practice up for 3 years of Chris Barrow's Dental Business School which gave us all a huge boost. 

Then Cigna pulled out, so she moved that same group of patients to Practice Plan. In 2003 I began my RA courses and Chris has organised every one, ensuring the days run smoothly in every respect.  

Finally we went through the protracted and at times agonising process of selling the practice from mid 2011 and for the last year she has overseen the handover and smoothed the way with all the patients, introducing more new systems for the new owner.  Did I mention taking us successfully through the mountain of red tape that is CQC a few months back?  Not forgetting training and mentoring so many dental nurses with 100% success that I have lost count through all of this over the years.  I haven't included the years of work she did as a Dental Nurse and receptionist in the days of NHS practice for me and others. The 10s of thousands of FP17s (remember those) that she completed.  I'm exhausted just remembering it all. 

Thank you and bless you Chris from the bottom of my heart for your sacrifice to the cause.

A nice farewell letter

Chris and I would like to share this with you.

Having sold Newbury Smilemakers last October to Dr. Charl du Toit, my own plans are to remain at what is now Newbury Smile Studio, until October 2014, working 2 clinical days a week.  Chris on the other hand has worked 4 days a week, tirelessly, to effect as smooth a handover as is humanly possibly and now the countdown to her retirement early this coming September is on.

We have discussed these plans openly with many patients, especially those that we have looked after for most if not all of the 23 years we have been in Newbury.

We received this kind appreciation from a patient (who must remain anonymous for now) but who is a world authority in his own particular field of ( non medical/dental) expertise and which we both greatly appreciate, not least as it seems to sum up our own teamwork and the effort we have put into the care of our patients.

Jen's Portrait by Alan Coulson

For those who are not fb friends, here is the photo-realistic, oil portrait of our daughter by the artist, Alan Coulson. As with all of his work, the detail is astonishing. The artist has exhibited at The National Portrait gallery in the BP National Portrait Prize.  Zoom in the check the detail!

My huge thanks to Chris Charon RDN

Here is a huge thanks to my wife of 36 years Chris Charon RDN for so many reasons, these are the professional ones! ….

Chris qualified as a Dental Nurse at The Manchester Dental Hospital in the days of starched uniforms, belts, badges and hats!

Her experience includes included hospital and community general anaesthetic (GA) nursing,  NHS General practice in Manchester and later moving south her experiences included assisting in general dental practice with intubated GA, in the days when it was permitted, and IV sedation administered by medical anaesthetists. She took charge of the patient journey from pre-appointment discussion, to post-sedation recovery and post-visit patient liason and still does.

Chris gained her certificate as Dental Sedation Nursing in 2003 and has been the "2^nd “appropriately trained person” for me, undertaking IV sedation, to monitor and care for these patients and liase with their escorts, all the way to accompanying the recovered patient off the premises to the escort’s waiting car.

She has now had 43 years under that dental nurses belt, from starting her hospital training at the age of 16, registering with the GDC as soon as this became possible.

Chris has over 23 years taken the role of senior DN and practice manager in our boutique private practice in Newbury, Berkshire and for the time being continues these roles with the new practice owner.

In her role as a senior DN she has tutored many dental nurses from scratch through to qualification and registration with 100% success rate over many years (to date).

As a multi-tasking “4-bagger”, Chris is the practice receptionist, manager, administrator and constructs my treatment plan letters from clinical notes, radiographs and clinical images

Finally she has been a mainstay on every “RA” course we have run together since 2003, ensuring the smooth running of the day from set-up, through the practical demonstrations and patient video sessions to interacting with and participating in discussions, offering the benefit of her depth of experience, to dentists, DCPs and Dental nurses alike. 

There surely cannot be too many people in dental community to have brought such a depth of experience to the roles she has taken on.

Did I mention her journeys with me through coaching and marketing? 

3 years with Chris Barrow, one year with Simon Hocken and over two years with Mark Oborn. 

There isn’t too much she has not seen and done in the realm of general practice. She knows her KPIs from her BMWs that's for sure.

Chris is an all round star, a wonderful wife, mum and now “Nanny” too.

Thank you Chris – you are my best friend and truly the love of my life (I don’t want to get too gooey here!)

In memory of Belinda Harding-Perry

Friday 22nd February 2013, 

Today, will be a sad and difficult day for Belinda's family and friends.

We attend the funeral of a much-loved friend who spent many years in the dental world and who lost her battle with cancer at far too young an age last week.

RIP Belinda Harding-Perry.

We have thought long and hard about using social media to communicate these thoughts.  Knowing Belinda she would have wished us to I believe.

Chris and I first met Belinda about 20 years ago when she came to our dental practice in about 1993 as a 16 year old joining us straight from Newbury college to train as a dental nurse.

From day one she was a joy to work with.  No-one before or since has had her wonderful sense of humour and we used to love hearing about her trips to see Maud in full midlands accent. Belinda soon became hooked and interested in dentistry and the patients we looked after.  So she trained with us from scratch, went on to pass her dental nurse exams first time and then to continued her development, staying with us for about 6 years.

One of the highlights was when she was entered in The West Berks Training Consortium’s Award ceremony as the Trainee Most Likely to Succeed! A proud day indeed.

In those early years Belinda came very close to us, Chris in particular became like a close  aunt. All secrets were shared. Her triumphs and difficult moments and decisions were all confided in us.  In reality Belinda was like a second daughter to us.  She was about the same age as our son and a few years ahead of our own daughter.

I’ll never forget sitting knee to knee with Belinda as I placed my very first dental implant. 

I think she was shaking more than me- all dressed up in her surgical gear- she did freeze on the spot for a moment but then took to it like a duck to water.

We had lots of happy times at the practice then. As a small outfit, Belinda became a major part of what we were and indeed what we became.

Truth be told, when she left for pastures new we were taken aback (Chris actually cried!) but it was the right move for her to gain new experiences and meet new people.

Well she went on to become an implant tutor dental nurse for Boots and then her career moved on to the international stage with the Geistlich, after a spell at The Briars.

Through all this time we remained close friends.  Belinda and her family continued to come to us for their dental care, so we all kept in touch regularly.

We were with her at her 21^st party, her marriage to Daniel and Danny Jnr’s christening too. We were always included.

She was typically loving and generous when our own grandson was born and he  now attends the same nursery as Danny Jnr., on Belinda’s recommendation.

We continued to stay in touch socially and she even came round for some Twitter lessons to help give Belle Vintage Hire 

(@bellehire) a leg-up.  What a great achievement for her.

We are very proud of the fact that her involvement with the dental world came about through her grounding with us, taking nothing from her dedication, hard work and enthusiasm.

We saw her briefly about 10 days after her last operation, bouncy and optimistic as ever to the outside world at least. Hugs all round.

Chris and I feel hugely privileged to have known Belinda and in some small way been a part of her life and touched by it.

Belinda will always remain in our hearts. The world surely is a poorer place without her.

Chris and (Monsieur) Charon