Dr. Bob Skinner – ADA Meeting Chair at ADA SmileCon
Episode #522 with Dr. Bob Skinner
If you weren't at SmileCon 2022 — why not? It’s a great place to learn and have a good time. There are tons of CE, activities, and events you won't want to miss! To tell you all about it, Kirk Behrendt brings back Dr. Bob Skinner, the meeting chair of SmileCon 2022, to welcome you to this amazing event. To learn more and to register for SmileCon 2023, listen to Episode 522 of The Best Practices Show!
Episode Resources:
Links Mentioned in This Episode:
SmileCon: https://www.ada.org/education/smilecon/smilecon-future-meetings
Main Takeaways:
Learn about SmileCon and its vision.
Save the date for SmileCon 2023!
Go to SmileCon 2023!
Quotes:
“We work on these a couple years out, so it’s not like we started thinking about this last week. There was a lot of preparation. We have the basic CE courses, because a lot of people like to come here to get CE. We’ve got phenomenal speakers. So, you can come here, you can have fun and see all the wow moments that we put in, but you can get a good education too. You can learn new techniques, new materials, new supplies, and new equipment. A lot of people like that. We’re always in a great destination.” (1:24—1:55)
“[The NASA mini museum is] one of the wow moments we have. They brought a mini museum from NASA. They brought the moon rock . . . One of the lounges has a little NASA mini museum. We had to pay to get it here from NASA about 30 miles away. I said, ‘I think we can swing that.’ We had to get a little security for it. And so, that's a wow moment. You can come see that and be part of NASA. Leland Melvin is going to be our keynote, an astronaut that went from the NFL to an astronaut. Think about that. You don't see that much. Super, super nice guy.” (3:16—3:56)
“We wanted to create some FOMO. Why aren't you here?” (4:13—4:16)
“Another vision we had was Street Fest. I thought, ‘We’re going to be in this building for two days. Let's get outside. It’s October. It’s in Houston. The weather is going to be great.’ So, we’re going to close the street down in front of the George R. Brown Convention Center. We’re going to have a stage set up and have a live band . . . We’re going to close the street and have food trucks come in, and you can go to different food trucks and get the cuisine of Houston. I've been down here six times in the last year-and-a-half. I've never had a bad meal. It’s phenomenal.” (6:57—7:33)
“Another thing that we’re starting today was a thing that I coined as Dental Olympics. We had an Olympian kick that off this morning. Texas has four dental schools. And I always thought, ‘Well, do they have a kumbaya moment?’ And the more I thought about it, I said, ‘You know what? They're competitors. They're trying to get the best students to go to their school.’ And I understand that. But I said, ‘There are times where you can compare, and get around a table and talk about what works at a school and what doesn't work at a school.’ And I visited with some of the deans who said, ‘Yeah, we need to do more of that.’ I said, ‘Why not do it at SmileCon?’” (7:36—8:16)
“My job [as a mentor], from here on out, is to make sure you're successful.” (11:03—11:05)
Snippets:
0:00 Introduction.
1:12 Dr. Skinner’s vision for SmileCon.
4:37 Getting Brené Brown to speak at SmileCon.
6:38 Events happening at SmileCon.
7:36 Bringing schools together with Dental Olympics.
10:33 What's next for Dr. Skinner.
Dr. Bob Skinner Bio:
Dr. Robert Skinner was born and raised in Fort Smith, Arkansas, and has always felt a special passion for this area. Although he had to leave to finish his education, he knew he would return here to establish his dental practice and raise his family. And that is exactly what he did. The patients he began treating are now bringing their children — and even their grandchildren — in to see him!
Having completed a bachelor’s and master’s degree from the University of Arkansas, he attended the LSU School of Dentistry and received his Doctor of Dental Surgery in 1986. During his dental education, he was involved in extensive research in the subjects of Oral Pathology, Cancer, and Endodontics.
His work garnered four NIH Grants, top awards at Table Clinics presented nationally and internationally, and produced three abstracts and seven journal articles. In 2012, the LSU School of Dentistry honored him with their Alumnus of the Year Award.
That same drive to learn still exists today and is the reason he attends so many continuing education courses each year. He has rarely missed a national, state, or local dental meeting/seminar and serves as a State Delegate in the American Dental Association’s House of Delegates.
Elected by his peers, he was honored to serve as the General Chairman of the ADA Annual Session 2009. In the same year, the Arkansas State Dental Association presented him with the Distinguished Service Award, one of the highest honors given.
