Tokuyama Dental hails success of inaugural webinar series
In June 2021, Tokuyama Dental hosted the inaugural event on its new online learning platform, the Tokuyama Dental Academy. The company was eager to hear how its innovative mix of webinars and live onsite broadcasts would be received by dental professionals. Attendance figures and feedback from participants confirmed that the virtual event successfully addressed the broad topic of restorative dentistry and served to lessen accessibility barriers for dental professionals around the world.
Excellence in Dentistry 4.0 was an online educational event with a difference. The restorative dentistry webinar series was streamed live from Venice in Italy from 8 June to 12 June. Owing to the variety of needs and challenges faced by those practising restorative dentistry, the event presented a broad programme that included topics dedicated to both research and clinical procedures. Two new webinars were available each day, and the event concluded with a live panel discussion by international experts that was streamed from the island of Murano, a centre of glass-blowing artistry located in the Venetian lagoon.
Markus Leson, sales manager at Tokuyama Dental Germany, explained to Dental Tribune International (DTI) that the live panel discussion was conceptualised as a nod to pre-pandemic times and as a cherry on top for the thousands of dental professionals who attended the event from around the world. “We wanted to offer the participants something special—a live festival in Venice,” Leson began. “In this time of SARS-CoV-2, we wanted to bring a dash of normality in spite of all the necessary caution. Some selected speakers were willing to perform at this truly magical place. Moreover, Murano was significant as a location because it allowed us to celebrate a small anniversary: the history of our glass fillers now goes back 40 years.”
The live panel discussion featured Prof. Bart van Meerbeek from KU Leuven in Belgium, Prof. Junji Tagami from Tokyo Medical and Dental University, Dr Jean-Pierre Salomon of France, Dr. Newton Fahl of Brazil and Dr. Fernando Autrán of Spain.
Leson said that it was very important for the company to gauge how the event was received. “Not surprisingly, a great deal of work was involved in the organisation, and this effort should be reflected in the number of participants,” Leson said. The event opened with 10,185 registered participants and close to 3,000 of these attended the live sessions. “All in all, these are figures that make us very satisfied and show us that there is a strong interest in high-quality training,” Leson added.
The feedback that was gathered from participants after the event was positive. A number of them praised the breadth of topics covered and the range of speakers in the programme, as well as the event’s organisation and the accessibility of the online learning format.
Certain webinars were also singled out by participants. The webinar “Playing with colours”, hosted by Dr. Thomas Taha of the UK, aimed at understanding how modern restorative materials result in varying optimal dynamics and was particularly well received. Taha himself commented that the organisation behind the event ensured ease of registration and engagement.
Leson told DTI that the first webinar in the programme attracted the most registered participants. A total of 1,428 dental professionals from around the world attended the webinar “Simplified restorative procedures in direct anterior restorations: a smart workflow approach”, hosted by Prof. Simone Grandini and Dr Giulio Pavolucci of Italy.
Leson commented that Tokuyama Dental is looking forward to hosting further events in the future. “This was the plan,” he said, “as the Tokuyama Academy platform was always intended to be a lively one that is always filled with new material for ongoing education.”
For dental professionals who missed the event, all lectures will become available as videos on demand.
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