The Group Dentistry Now Show: The Voice of the DSO Industry – Episode 77

Andrew Smith, Executive Director of the Association of Dental Support Organizations, joins Bill Neumann to discuss the upcoming ADSO Summit, ‘A New Dawn for Dentistry,’ which takes place March 29th – April 1st in Austin, Texas. They also discuss how the ADSO is currently helping their member DSOs through advocacy, education & research.

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Our podcast series brings you dental support and emerging dental group practice analysis, conversation, trends, news and events. Listen to leaders in the DSO and emerging dental group space talk about their challenges, successes, and the future of group dentistry. The Group Dentistry Now Show: The Voice of the DSO Industry has listeners across North & South America, Australia, Europe, and Asia. If you like our show, tell a friend or a colleague.

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Full Transcript:

Kim Larson:

Welcome to the Group Dentistry Now Show, the voice of the DSO industry. Kim Larson and Bill Neumann talk to industry leaders about their challenges, successes, and the future of group dentistry. Visit groupdentistrynow.com for more DSO analysis, news, and events. Looking for a job or have a job to fill? Visit joint dso.com. We hope you enjoy today’s show.

Bill Neumann:

I’d like to welcome everyone to the Group Dentistry Now Show. Hi, I’m Bill Neumann. Thanks first off for our listeners and viewers, anybody that’s watching us on YouTube or listening in on Apple, Google, Spotify, or one of the number of listening platform on. Without an audience, we wouldn’t have a show, and of course, without great guests, we wouldn’t have an audience, so we have to thank our guests for coming back to the podcast. This is his second time, and I think even in under a year, which could be a record. We have the executive director, Andrew Smith of the ADSO. Welcome back, Andrew.

Andrew Smith:

Thanks, Bill. Great to be back.

Bill Neumann:

Yeah, it’s great to have you back. We were chatting just before we started recording about you being in the industry just a little under a year, so for the folks that first off missed that podcast, we’ll drop a link to the original podcast where we really introduced Andrew to the DSO industry in the dental industry. A little bit of background on Andrew, just in case you happen to miss that podcast.

Bill Neumann:

Like I mentioned, he is the executive director of the ADSO, which unless you’ve been living under a rock, that is the Association of Dental Support Organizations. He previously served as an executive vice of government relations and external affairs for Parallel, where he managed the state and federal government relations teams, served as the company’s chief advocate and spokesperson to policy makers and regulators, and led the company’s advocacy and communication goals. In the public affairs space. Prior to joining the private sector, he spent a decade in government campaigns and public policy in particular, Andrew worked as the finance director and senior advisor for Virginia governor Terry McCullough, where he oversaw the strategy development and implementation of a record break 44 million dollar fundraising operation. Originally from Chicago and a graduate of Georgetown University with a degree in, go figure, government and history. He currently lives in Greenwich, Connecticut with his wife, Laura, and their two children, Holden and Caroline.

Bill Neumann:

Did I get it all or did you miss anything?

Andrew Smith:

You got it all and I feel like you should come with me everywhere and just introduce that. That’s great. That was a good pitch.

Bill Neumann:

Well, it’s a mouthful, so I don’t know if I’d want to.

Andrew Smith:

No, fair enough. Fair enough. No, thank you.

Bill Neumann:

Well, hey, so I think it’d be important now that you’ve been in the industry a year, you come from outside the industry, just to kind of get your perspective on things, just your impressions on maybe the dental industry and DSOs.

Andrew Smith:

Yeah, no great question. You know, it’s been a wonderful learning experience. I mean, I think a lot of my expectations coming in was I was going to be working with entrepreneurial, innovative, thought-leading individuals. Definitely has exceeded my expectations. Our industry is hugely innovative and kind of figuring out how can we propel the industry forward and specifically how do we elevate oral healthcare and dentistry. to me, it’s been a great year in that respect.

Andrew Smith:

We’ve really been focused on building out a three-year strategic plan, which I think we’ve done successfully with the exact committee and the board of directors, really continuing to focus on our crown jewel of government affairs, but also really enhancing membership and the value proposition to existing members. But also, how are we growing our membership? How are we bringing in new, second generation DSOs, or DSOs that have been around for a long time that haven’t been in the fold, but also really working on amplifying our communication strategies, both internally to our membership, but also externally. One of the things that I’m really excited we can get into this a little more in the podcast is what are we going to be doing to amplify those messages and to various audiences that we want to communicate with and help propel the industry.

Andrew Smith:

I feel very, very comfortable and excited about that. I’m kind of calling it ADSO 2.0. We’ve brought in a new vice president of government relations, Gray McGinnis, who’s a fantastic advocate for the industry and has a very impressive background on moving the needle forward on both legislative and regulatory issues as we continue to promote the industry. We also will be bringing on two other government affairs professionals that will be working with Gray, which is really exciting. I think we’re expanding our footprint of what we’re focusing on government relations, which we can delve tune a little bit, and these individuals will help with that. We also have brought in Suzie Clark York, who is our VP of communications who’s come from a trade association background, and she’s done a phenomenal job. We’re really, as I mentioned, building out our communication strategies, and because of COVID and where we were, we needed to kind of do a reset and kind of building up, and we’ve got a great team in place. We’re continuing to build it.

Andrew Smith:

You’ll see a lot more strategies around that, which will delve into. I’m just excited. I mean, I think the biggest thing I’ve seen is the rapid and continued growth of our industry and the continued increase of the oral healthcare marketplace. I think 2022 and beyond is going to be really, really exciting and I’m happy to be here for the ride.

Bill Neumann:

Yeah. Well, it seems like there’s a lot more activity that I see coming from ADSO and just in the way of just emails, and whether it’s conversations with thought leaders at ADSO member, DSOs that kind share the wealth, so to speak, right, tips and tricks, which is great. There’s that communication level that’s really risen up. It really leads into the next question, which since you started, what’s the ASO been involved in? So if I’m not an ADSO member, I may not see all this activity, but it’s still going on and if I’m a DSSO that’s not part of the ADSO, I most likely benefiting from your advocacy, your government relations anyway?

Andrew Smith:

Sure. No, great point. I think starting with government relations is probably the best place to start. It’s been a robust year on the government relations side. This past summer, we were working very closely with the federal government, in particular OSHA. They had issued an emergency temporary standard as related to respiratory issues in light of COVID. We worked very effectively with our coalition partners and many others in DC to ensure that if there are standard safe protocols in place for dentistry, that there wasn’t kind of a more burden on PPE and other things. Obviously workplace safety is the utmost of importance to us in and or out of a pandemic, and we were very, I think, effective in helping our members navigate that process.

Andrew Smith:

The next big aspect on the table, Congress this summer was debating a hot button issue of whether or not to expand Medicare coverage to include dental, vision, and hearing. We took an approach of educating lawmakers on Capitol Hill about if this is an area that you want to be doing, here are some kind of quality aspects that DSOs are providing that you should look into and think about. As it sits today, it doesn’t look like Congress is going to be able to move forward on that, but again, I think we were integral in helping shape their viewpoints on what they may do. And then if they come back in the future to do it, I think we’ll definitely continue to have a seat at the table.

Andrew Smith:

As it relates to state legislative issues we’re kind of in the go-zone right now. I mean, this is where state governments are meeting and doing quite a bit of legislation. We have been very proud of our work that we’ve done with various state dental associations to continue to promote the oral healthcare industry in advance oral healthcare. So for example, these sessions will be working with numerous state dental associations on a range of issues, whether or not be kind of how do we have better relationships and partners with the payers in the states on a whole host of issues that are very important to DSOs and solo practices or group practices. That’s a great movement for the industry, that continued collaboration. We’re also continuing to work in various states that might have some older arcane laws on the books as it relates to dentistry and oral healthcare and access to care and promoting the DSO model. We’re working on that.

Andrew Smith:

We’re working on also promoting quite a bit of folks to be on dental boards so DSOs continue to have equal and adequate representation, which is a huge aspect of what we work on. And then I’m sure everyone has been following vaccine mandates. Vaccine mandates came in kind of as a little bit of a surprise late in, I guess, Q3 or early Q4. We really were working with, again, our partners in Washington and involved with kind of highlighting how DSOs specifically in their governance structure are different in that the professional corporation reaches that hundred person threshold, but the individual office doesn’t and kind of how are DSOs unique and different there. I think it was a great opportunity to continue to define and promote the DSO so lawmakers have a better or standing of what they are at the federal and state level. As we know, the Supreme Court weighed in and kind of knocked that down, but we’re continuing to advocate for our members in various states. Each state is its own little microcosm of how they handle a lot of workplace safety issues and we continue to work in that.

Andrew Smith:

I think the other thing of what ADSO has been up to is really propelling the industry forward and wanting to be a thought leader in the space. We talked a little about it in Las Vegas. But one of the things that the board knows, and I’m really excited to kind of announce that we’re doing, is we’re going to be launching an effort called Creating Healthier Tomorrow. Really what it is, is setting a baseline of data of really looking at areas of access to care, or mouth-body connection, diversity, equity, and inclusion in the oral healthcare space, and how are DSOs achieving that? How are DSOs promoting that? Also really showcasing dentistry as an essential healthcare. Again, we talked a lot about that of how COVID I think really showed that dentistry wasn’t on the same par as medical care. And again, we’re going to be working lockstep with the ADA to promote dentistry as an essential healthcare service.

Andrew Smith:

But I think this Creating Healthier Tomorrow concept is going to be really great for the industry because it’ll continue to showcase the benefits and the positives of DSOs as well as the importance of oral healthcare, and ADSO wants to be at the forefront of that and be a leader in that. That’s going to be forthcoming this year. And again, I think it’s a interesting aspect of where ADSO continues to progress and grow. We started as the kind of government affairs, making sure bad things weren’t happening to where can to go proactively and continue to promote the industry to now being a real thought leader in the space and covering all those components. We’ve been up to a lot and we’ve got a lot to do, but that’s what’s really exciting about the job and the position.

Bill Neumann:

That’s great. Yeah. You certainly have been up to a lot. Now, you started, was it March of last year? Is that right?

Andrew Smith:

March of 2021. Yes.

Bill Neumann:

Okay, yeah. Not even a year. Close to it, but quite a year, so yeah.

Andrew Smith:

It’s close to it. Yeah.

Bill Neumann:

You certainly have been busy in the past year. You mentioned Las Vegas, you mentioned the ADA. I’d love to kind of go back to October of last year. Yeah maybe we can do a little bit of a recap, because the ADSO did have a meeting last year, an in-person meeting, a live meeting on the tail end of the ADA SmileCon Conference, which was in Las Vegas. So let’s talk a little bit about that.

Andrew Smith:

Yeah. What we can talk about the event and kind of where things are on a whole host of issues. We had a great event in Las Vegas. I think a lot of people were very excited about having an in-person event. It happened at a time when obviously COVID was at a lower level than what we saw in December with the Omicron surge, but we had a great event, and I think it was a lot about the future of oral healthcare, not too dissimilar from what I was just talking about before and kind of show really to the board and to the audience showcasing our strategic plan and our vision for moving forward. And again, it’s about promoting all those strategic initiatives that I talked about: elevating dentistry, dentistry as essential healthcare, mouth-body connection, access to care, all of these things that we know where the industry’s going.

Andrew Smith:

Also is an opportunity for us to really work and showcase our work with our industry partners and their vision of what they’re doing from technology and AI, imaging, to software, all of the things that are innovative and entrepreneurial in the oral healthcare marketplace, but also with DSOs, really being able to promote that. We had a great cross section of industry partners and DSOs represented. We had really good content on the main stage. We had a lot of phenomenal keynote speakers. One was Joe Theismann, the former legendary quarterback, talking about leadership and had a really great opportunity there. Again, I think it kind of put us on where we’re going for March as kind of the annual summit, which is our big large event where we have exhibit hall and really broad based topics and then more tracks for our individual members. It’s a really great opportunity for networking and things like that. And again, I think we had a great networking opportunity and tons of turnout, great content, and really excited about it.

Andrew Smith:

To your question on ADA, we were in Las Vegas at the same time as ADA’s SmileCon. This has been an ongoing conversation that ADSO and ADA had been having about where are some shared values, and there’s a quite a bit of shared interests on where the industry’s going. I think we have a really good relationship with the leadership at ADA. Our senior leadership met with their senior leadership in Las Vegas to continue ongoing conversations. We are in agreement about broad-based concepts of how do we elevate and promote oral healthcare. I think we all know that the oral healthcare marketplace is growing, that there’s great aspects of where DSOs and members of the ADA can really work together to promote that. There’s a commitment to do that and I’m excited to kind of get more granular and tactical on that approach. Also, I really think what’s great is the synergies that have been working and continue to work with our government relations teams. Gray and his team are working with Mike Graham and [inaudible 00:15:30], ADA’s lead government affairs individuals, both at the federal and state level.

Andrew Smith:

We’ve got a very good working relationship, which is great. Because the stronger the providers can be at both of the state and federal level, especially for government affairs, is what policy makers and regulators want. We’re going to continue to move that forward and we’ll keep the pedal to the metal.

Bill Neumann:

That sounds great. Yeah, and I was fortunate enough to be at the Las Vegas event. I was looking, that was Leading the Evolution of Dentistry, so that was the name, the theme for that event. And so, as we kind of go back to the regular schedule, so to speak, where your big event is typically the end of the Q1, beginning of Q2, we’re in line for that. It’s March 29th through April 1st in Austin, Texas at the JW Marriott in downtown, which probably three years ago, maybe four years ago, you had the event there, so I think some of the people that have been to ADSO before would be familiar with that venue. It’s a great hotel. I mean, it’s the newer JW, so it’s pretty nice, to say the least. And Austin’s a great town. It should be a lot of activity, a lot of fun.

Andrew Smith:

100%. No, you hit to nail in the head. I mean, Austin’s a great town in general to go. The JW Marriott’s a great venue. And I think this event’s going to be really fun. I think we’re going to have record turnout. I think we’re going to have phenomenal content and a lot of fun options just by the fact that we’re in Austin and kind of where ADSO wants to be going and promoting. And again, it’s two full days and a morning.

Andrew Smith:

The first day is going to be very, very focused on kind of broad trends in the industry and kind of figuring out where things are going. Think about workforce or continued investment. Think about the types of quality care we’re providing and all of that, really big thinking ideas. And then the next day we’re going to have individual tracks where a lot of our DSO members and their teams can participate and network and think about the future. A lot of our folks are very interested in the networking side.

Andrew Smith:

One of the things we’ve launched this year for existing and even newer members is this concept of a CEO round table that we’re doing. It’s really a peer-to-peer where DSOs can learn from other DSOs on what they’re doing. That was kind of the genesis of how ADSO forms, so going back a little to the roots. We’re going to be doing study clubs in general, but this CEO round table is something that’s really geared from the kind of CEO level to other CEOs, and really going to be launching that in Austin and promoting that.

Andrew Smith:

We do have a great keynote speaker in Suneel Gupta. He’ll share his insights from his book Backable, which explores how to get people to believe in your ideas and kind of driving those trends. And again, as we pride ourselves as an entrepreneurial innovative industry, I think it’ll be really great to hear from him. And no surprise, our motto and tagline for this year is A New Dawn for Dentistry. I think that’s really where things are continuing to move and what we want to be is future oriented and think about how do we shape the industry. Registration’s ongoing right now. You can go to the ADSO website to get on. Again, great content. We really want to make this the thought-leader event of the year for the oral healthcare and kind of figuring out how we continue to move it forward in future years.

Bill Neumann:

I do, I love the theme as we start to kind of look at everything. We looked at the fall event and now we’re looking at A New Dawn for Dentistry. I think the DSO model, maybe we would’ve thought it was a future model, right, maybe even just a couple years ago. I would say it’s not a future model anymore. I think now that the model has different variations, so there are maybe the DSO model, or the group practice model, or the DPO model or whatever you want to call it, so a lot of variations there.

Bill Neumann:

I still think there’s nuances, things are changing, but even as you look at technological advances and being able to leverage whether it’s AI or analytics, I think that’s what kind of gets people excited in the industry. But I love it because it’s a new dawn for dentistry, it’s not just a new dawn for DSOs. So this is much more inclusive. The reason I bring that up is it seems like there’s some paths for dental students. You’re looking to have more educators involved. Talk a little bit about that, because that seems newer to me.

Andrew Smith:

Yeah. No, no, 100%. I think, again, it really much fits into our strategic plan of how are we talking to core audiences. And again, I think it’s always been important to talk to policy makers and regulators, but it’s also really important to be talking about other folks that are involved in the industry, and obviously educators and students are hugely important.

Andrew Smith:

In fact, I make it a point to continue to meet with dental students anecdotally. I actually had a meeting this morning with one. It’s amazing to hear from dental students about why they’re really interested in dentistry and also for them to learn about DSOs as a potential model for them. And no surprise, the number one thing I hear from dental students is the high cost of school. Not too dissimilar from people going to college or grad school, but dentistry, as we know, is exceedingly expensive now, and especially on the school side. We need to figure that out and we really need to make sure that we have great leaders in it. I think the opportunity in Vegas is we’re going to be able to have an opportunity for dental school students to hear about the industry, the large aspects, also be able to see the kind of various tracks we have. But then also really have a networking opportunity, not only for them to interact with other dental school students, but also with many of our member companies to better learn about DSOs and learn about what’s going on.

Andrew Smith:

You know, I’m always amazed to hear from dental students that they’re not 100% familiar with what ADSO is. Right? What I hear from dental students time and time again is I ask them, why do you want to go into dentistry? Well, and a lot of them will say, “Well, I really like healthcare. When high school or college, I volunteered at a hospital, but I don’t know if I really like that setting. What I love about dentistry is that I can work in a practice where I can focus on providing good healthcare to people and building a continued relationship, and I really want to focus on providing care.” Some want to be an entrepreneur and build out their own business too and everything like that, but I think once they learn about the benefits of a ADSO, if they want to be the entrepreneur, they can do that.

Andrew Smith:

If they want to be just the kind of practicing dentistry, that’s what they want. If they don’t want to be managing a team, but they can’t. There’s a whole various aspects, and once they learn about all of the aspects, and the work-life balance, and all the things that DSO benefits provide, especially around quality of continuing education, the quality controls, the patient involvement. I think it’s pretty exciting. I think that’s one of the things that we’re really looking to continue to advocate for and promote are those benefits. I think the event in Austin is going to give us that opportunity to do that with dental students.

Bill Neumann:

Yeah. Yeah. It’s going to be, I think, a breath of fresh air to have some dental students there. I’m sure the members would really appreciate that with HR issues, not just in the dental industry, but everywhere. Right?

Andrew Smith:

Right.

Bill Neumann:

It provides an opportunity for dental students to really get to know the different DSO models, get to know some of the DSOs, and then be able to make the most informed decision. Does this make sense for me or not? But at least they’re able to, to your point I think, because there are so many options out there, whether it’s private practice, or residency, or going to community-based healthcare, dental care, or DSO, even within the DSO realm, a lot of options, and so I think it just becomes so confusing and overwhelming when you’re trying to get through dental school.

Andrew Smith:

Correct.

Bill Neumann:

Let’s talk a little bit about, so I just want to make sure everybody understands. If I’m ADSO that is a non-ADSO member, can I attend the meeting?

Andrew Smith:

Yeah. Yes. You can attend. There’s just a little bit of a higher price point. Obviously members have preferred access because they’re members and the amount of people they can bring. Excuse me, if you’re not on ADSO member, but a DSO or interested in the industry, you can certainly attend. And there are all the various rates and everything on the website and all that. In fact, we encourage people to join and hear more. We want to bring more people in because it’s a shared open environment and networking opportunities. We definitely welcome that.

Bill Neumann:

Okay, good. Yeah. That’s one of the tough questions we get here at Group Dentistry Now is, “Hell the ASO meeting. I’m not with the ADSO, so can we attend?” The answer is yes, you can.

Andrew Smith:

Yes.

Bill Neumann:

We’re going to drop the registration links in the show notes so you’ll be able to figure that out.

Bill Neumann:

What about industry partners? Industry being a vendor. If I want to attend the ADSO meeting and I want to network, because it is a great networking opportunity, besides the great education that you get listening to DSO thought leaders, you also have the opportunity to do a lot of networking. That’s as important, sometimes more important, depending on who you are. As an industry partner, what does that look like? What do I need to do to do that?

Andrew Smith:

If you’re an industry partner, you’re absolutely allowed to attend. Also if you’re interested in becoming an industry partner, there are opportunities to attend. We’ve got great networking receptions, we have great sponsorship opportunities if you want to get your name and brand out there.

Andrew Smith:

And also, we have an exhibit hall, and we’ve got a ton of folks coming that they can present their information and what they’re working on and doing that. Again, I think what’s really exciting is that our members are very entrepreneurial and innovative. I always say that, and again, I think they’re always looking to our industry partners to see how they can propel their business forward, and what can support their dentist, and what can support and achieve great patient outcomes. It’s a great opportunity for those that are involved in the industry on the partner side and want to be involved. We’ve got quite a few. We’re blessed with great industry partners that are involved, and moving the industry forward, and they’re vital life blood of our organization. We welcome as many new folks as possible and really are interested in folks joining.

Bill Neumann:

That’s great. Yeah, that’s important to know, that all are welcome. Again, we’ll drop a link. You can kind of follow your path. If you’re an industry partner, if you’re a non-ADSO, DSO member, that’s a mouthful, that there’s a path there. Of course, if you’re a DSO that’s part of the ADSO, you probably already have the emails. You’re probably already registered and have your flights ready to go.

Bill Neumann:

Lastly, before we finish things up, I want to just go through the itinerary real fast. I know we don’t have everything set in stone yet, but looks like Tuesday, March 29th is the pre-conference meeting day. That seems to be where there’s the new, ADSO, DSO member orientation. There’s some membership and meetings and executive committee meetings. And then it looks like at that night, that’s really when things open up to the general public, so to speak. Right?

Andrew Smith:

Correct.

Bill Neumann:

The people that have signed up. That starts in the evening. There’s an opening night reception. And then it’s pretty cool. The next day, which is Wednesday, the 30th, it’s called Visionary Day. That’s a full of education and there’s those networking opportunities we discussed. I don’t know if you want to add anything to that or not, but I’m just kind of going through this schedule.

Andrew Smith:

Yeah, no, you hit the nail on the head. We’re finalizing quite a bit of stuff, so I don’t want to jump the gun too much. I know when this gets released, we’ll kind of be coming out and so it’ll be instructive, but you’re 100% correct. It’ll be much more the Visionary Day, broad-based issues that we think the industry is really focused on, from workforce, to investing, to delivering quality care, to a whole host of other issues. Really where the future is moving is going to be on that first day.

Bill Neumann:

That’s great. Yeah. Visionary Day is Wednesday the 30th. And then Best Practice Day is Thursday the 31st. Again, a full day. That’s when we’ve got our keynote, it looks like. Right?

Andrew Smith:

I believe that’s correct.

Bill Neumann:

Oh no, we have keynotes on both days, so Wednesday, and we have a keynote on Thursday. And then reception, the networking, the reception, on both nights. Then Friday looks like it’s the half day.

Andrew Smith:

Correct. Correct. I think what’s really exciting on the Best Practices Day is for team members of DSOs to really go out into certain breakout tracks on a whole host of issues from HR, to technology, to M&A, to a whole host of other issues to really kind of hear about beast practices, network, learn. I think this is a real opportunity we see from our DSO members where they bring most of their C-suite team or a lot of other folks to really engage and think through. It’s one moment in the year where people really network. And then what we also see is post event, there are these groups that kind of form moving forward, and I think ADSO will definitely want to be helping facilitate those.

Andrew Smith:

My goal here is not to just have a one-event moment in time and then disperse for the rest of the year, it’s really to kind of carry forward throughout the year all aspects that we’re talked about, build on those that were talking about last year, and kind of continuing that momentum and shared connectivity collaboration. And so, I would like ADSO eventually to be the convener of the oral healthcare space and have all aspects of the industry involved. I think it’s a real great opportunity and we’re going to be starting with this year on that and really kind of propelling forward as a result.

Bill Neumann:

Andrew, you make you make a great point. I mean, you go to a meeting and you learn a lot of great things, and you mean well, you’re going to take all these things that you’ve learned and implement them, and then inevitably you forget to do most of it. So if you are an ADSO member, and you have monthly calls, and you have mentorship, then you don’t forget about it. Right? You’re constantly having those conversations, you’re sharpening the saw. You get better. I think there’s another great member benefit there, just to be able to talk to like-minded individuals and share your thoughts, struggles, and successes.

Andrew Smith:

Yeah, 100%. And again, I think one of the things we’re also very focused on moving forward is the continued governance of the association. Right? How do we look at retaining and bringing in new members, how does look and everything else? And again, it goes to that mindset of we really want people to be engaged with the association throughout the entire year, whether it be on the government affairs committee or the communications committee or planning for events. There’s been even some discussion about do we do specific maybe one-off events, that are kind of a little smaller, that are much more geared towards certain issues of interest? We’re kind of thinking through those ideas. More info to come on that if that does potentially come. And we’re really looking at giving added member benefits throughout the year through these study clubs and resource library, and really utilizing ADSO’s website and now swear to really have great content for its members and for those that might want to join. Again, I think we’re really moving into that direction of where associations are going, and want to be going, and delivering value for its members.

Bill Neumann:

Great. Just as a quick recap, and I’ll let you have a final word, A New Dawn for Dentistry, again. That’s the ADSO summit and that’ll be in Austin, Texas, March 29th through April 1st. And again, the first day is pre-conference meetings in the morning, but then you need to be there because for sure you’re going to want to be there for the sponsored reception or the opening night reception. Next day is Visionary Day followed by best practice day. And then the last day, which is a half day, is the DSO deep dive day. It’s going to be Jampacked, just looking at the schedule. As we get more information from the ADSO, we’ll add it to our website and if you’re a ADSO member, you’ll get the emails. If you’re not, you can go to Group Dentistry Now. We’ll have all that information updated.

Bill Neumann:

Maybe I’ll ask you this and I’ll let you finish up Andrew, could you drop your email address so if people want to reach out to find out more, they could do that? That’s good for the people listening. Please do that. And then any final thoughts?

Andrew Smith:

Sure. Sure, sure. No, great. I’d love to hear from anybody. My email is asmith@theadso.org. Again, it’s asmith@theadso.org. Welcome to hear from you and hope to see you in Austin, if not sooner. No, I think just closing with Bill, thank you for having me on. It’s always a pleasure to talk with you and all that you’re doing for the industry. Again, I think I’m really excited about 2022 for oral healthcare and kind of all the things that are moving the industry forward and where ADSO’s role is going to be and continuing to be involved.

Andrew Smith:

We’re only strong as our membership. We continue to get great members. Some of the most exciting things I see is how our membership is continuing to grow at rapid pace: more offices, more exciting things they’re doing leading the trend. It’s a testament to them and their support that we can be so successful and keep moving things forward. I’m just grateful to the membership. I’m grateful for our team members and also just being able to work with such innovative thought leaders. Looking forward to seeing everyone in March, and if you have any questions, please feel free to email me.

Bill Neumann:

That sounds good. Thanks again to Andrew Smith, the executive director of the Association of Dental Support Organizations. I hope to see everybody in Austin, Texas at the end of March. He gave you his email address so you can reach out to him. You can reach out to us. Also, just for membership, you can go real easy, membership @theadso.org. We’ll leave it at that. Until next time, I am Bill Neumann, and this is the Group Dentistry Now Show. Thanks everybody for listening or watching.

Kim Larson:

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