With nervous anticipation, the TREC Dental management team wheeled supplies into the Exhibit Hall, put on their booth-building hats and put together the TREC “Spin to Give” Pop-up booth. After several planning sessions with the ADA Dental Summit team, this was where the rubber met the road—or if you like, where the “restoration met the steak.” Encouraging attendees of the 2024 Alberta Dental Team Summit to add to their donation to the Firefighter Aid Ukraine cause was about to be put to the test.
The Summit kicked off with a social Thursday night. The chance to mingle and enjoy some food and drink with colleagues from around the province was well received. Those in attendance were intrigued by TREC’s Spin to Give wheel and tried their hardest to land on the precious silver coin and add $25 to the amount TREC would give to the cause. They gave the selfie booth a good workout too, and walked away with bamboo toothbrushes and Master Chocolat, knowing they had been “Caught Being Good.”
The Friday breakfast was accompanied by a jolt of energy courtesy of Chad Gibson. The TREC Dental team then retreated to the booth, readying themselves for the session breaks to come. The attendees cruised by our booth at lunchtime, skeptically wondering, “What are YOU selling?” When they found out the booth was there to generate more donations to the Ukraine fundraiser, and they only had to spin a wheel to choose an amount TREC would donate, the skepticism was replaced by enthusiasm.
One by one, our visitors were told about the vendor passport program, and they soon returned with their passports signed or stamped by the trade show vendors. Passports were turned in, in hopes of winning one of the two prizes furnished by ADA—and each of them spun the wheel, and took selfies with the picture frames advertising their contribution to the cause. The number of coins in the bin swelled and the team eagerly anticipated counting the multicoloured coins to find out the total TREC would be giving to the cause.
Friday evening, my wife and I attended the FUNraiser dinner (I see what you did there). A wonderful selection of food and custom cocktails were two highlights of the wonderful evening. I enjoyed learning about the Ukrainian toasting tradition as we heard some entertaining stories from those who toasted the attendees, donors, and the community bonding us all. Hearing from Firefighter Aid Ukraine representative Erik on his experience going over to Ukraine with containers of donations was particularly moving as he described the incredibly tense and hazardous living conditions in the war zone.
Finally, I had the honour of doing a toast with ADA CEO Sandi Kossey, following it up with our best “Budmo!” and the “Hey” call-back from the crowd. To cap it off, there was a hockey game that went the way a few of us were hoping it would (though we won’t talk about game 7), which all in all made for a successful night.
The final day of the Summit was a quick but busy, opening with an incredibly motivating and entertaining presentation by Dr. Robyne Hanley-Dafoe. The passport and coin buckets at the TREC Dental booth continued to fill up, and the selfie booth flashed non-stop. At the end of a whirlwind few days, well over 100 attendees took selfies and submitted passports, and TREC was able to add another $10,000 to our equipment donation (stick tap to Henry Schein Calgary) to the cause. All in all, our first charity booth at a tradeshow was a success, as was the ADA Team Summit!
— Nitin Khandekar, COO, TREC Dental
This article appears in the May/June 2024 edition of the ADA Connection magazine.