ADX22 exhibition a success

Organisers and exhibitors were extremely pleased with this year's ADX22 dental exhibition held at Sydney's International Convention Centre from Thursday to Saturday, March 17–19.

Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Dental Industry Association, Kym De Britt said with almost 200 exhibitors (193 total) and a significant increase in the number of custom booths, stand activation programs and mascots, feedback from visitors attending ADX22 Sydney was "exceptional".

"The feedback has been fantastic – everyone I've spoken to said it was great and that the people they spoke to on the stands 'were at ADX to buy'. Many told me that they broke all sales records for ADX events at this year's ADX22 and we've had interest in the Brisbane exhibition already," Mr De Britt said.

The trade exhibition, held in conjunction with the ADA's SIDCON dental convention, held over the preceding Wednesday and continuing into Thursday (March 16-17), provided an excellent blend of professional development sessions and displays of the latest equipment, technology and services for the dental sector.

With 7,485 confirmed visitors through the door - approximately three quarters of which came from New South Wales, there was also good interest from interstate with Victoria and Queensland the most represented interstate visitors.

Mr De Britt said the total visitor numbers exceeded the ADIA forecast of attendance. "This shows an engaged community of dental professionals that continues to enjoy the value of ADX. The 2,200 registered exhibitor staff captured 12,984 leads, indicating strong interest in the products and services on offer at the exhibition."

The event had its own combined mobile app where attendees could choose their Learning Lab and ADA CPD sessions, read up on speakers, find their way around and navigate to their favourite ADX exhibitors.

"A lot of effort went into where to place cafes and amenities to allow visitors more time on the floor and we came up with a floor plan to make sure we didn't have dead areas. The event also had a much more interactive response from visitors for the People's Choice awards and activations of competitions on member stands.

"At ADX 2020 there were only three mascots and only three companies did activations on their stand. In Melbourne there were six mascots, and 20 companies did activations.

"In Sydney this year we had 10 mascots and 40 exhibitors did activations on their stands ranging from mini putt putt; spin the wheel to win a prize; smoothie-making exercise bikes and GSK's Sensodyne and the MiniMax stands (who each provided ice creams to visitors) - all designed to encourage visitors to vote for their stands."

The Women in Dentistry breakfast hosted 390 attendees, while the free creche also proved extremely popular with 295 children enrolled, compared to just 92 at ADX 2020 and 134 at the previous Melbourne event.

Mr De Britt attributed the increased interest and activity at ADX22 to the revised format and layout of the event, in conjunction with the timing of the ADA SIDCON conference.

"We put the CPD lecture rooms in the exhibition instead of a separate conference building. Conference goers also gained access to the show floor with the opportunity to visit exhibitors as they made their way to and from each session.

"Within the lecture rooms all of the people attending the lesson had earphones and each lecturer has a microphone on their own channel so that people in stands outside can't hear the lecturers and those in the lecture don't get noise from the stands outside."

Mr De Britt said the NSW ADA reported that every CPD session was full. With over 2,200 people attending each day on Thursday and Friday and well over 3,000 on the Saturday, exhibitor feedback was that the Exhibition was an outstanding success.

Mr De Britt also congratulated the People's Choice Award Winners at ADX Sydney:

• Best mascot - SDI Ltd
• Best activation - MiniMax
• Best small booth - Primary Dental
• Best medium booth - Curaprox
• Best large booth - SDI Ltd

The next ADIA event is ADX Brisbane from Thursday 27 to Saturday 29 October at the Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre. The event will be held in conjunction with ADA Queensland which will convene an expert CPD program to coincide with the event.