I will travel to Birmingham, UK during the next week to present at the British Association of Oral Surgeons Study Day a series of seminars devoted to scientific communication. To entice prospective participants, I have used the following text: “I will devote the day to how to communicate information using different presentation channels. As we, humans, have started talking before we started writing from an evolutionary perspective, I will start the day with the ins and outs of oral presentations. I will introduce you to practical aspects of information design, with special emphasis on how to tell a compelling story. Humans started to paint after they talked, thus, we will continue by exploring how to present information using posters. A good poster presentation can be an effective way to share the results of your research with your peers in a collegial and nonthreatening atmosphere. I will introduce you to effective poster planning, design and printing, including why posters are distinctly different from papers. Then, humans invented the written word, so we will explore writing as communication channel next, specifically Effective Grant Writing. Whether you apply for a National Institute for Health Research grant or try to get money from the Royal College of Surgeons of England, you need to persuade your peers to provide you with the limited funds available instead of giving the money to someone else. How do you win in this zero-sum game? We will talk about how to prepare a competitive grant application that is “user-friendly” and avoids common pitfalls. Next, Video—video communication came pretty late in human history so we will reserve this for the later part of the day. YouTube has more than 1 billion users; and every day people watch hundreds of millions of hours on YouTube. How can we, as dental educators and clinicians, use video for instructional purposes for our students and for outreach efforts to our patients? How do we protect our patients’ privacy when producing case-study videos? What does it take to produce an instructional video that meets the expectations of our students and residents? As I produce a lot of video, I will share with you the dos and don’ts of video production for health science educators and clinicians. We will look at behind-the-scenes shots and you will receive a step-by-step production guide. As they day progresses, we will continue with the latest in human communication: Social Media. Maybe it is good that we invented social media so late in our history—Andy Borowitz argues that if Michelangelo had Twitter the Sistine chapel ceiling would still be white. Well, we won’t know if this is true. But we will explore social media Marketing for Oral Surgeons. While there seems to be a widespread fear about the use of social media among health care professionals there are tremendous opportunities for oral surgeons who use these emerging communication channels. Through outreach and community engagement, oral surgeons cannot only promote their own services, but become community leaders and health advocates. I will share some practical guidelines for social media use and how to avoid common pitfalls. You will learn how to develop your own online medical professionalism principles and standards. We will conclude the day with a potpourri of emerging technologies that are currently under development. You will hear about “an Uber for your teeth” and which gadgets belongs to the Internet of Dental Things. But, we will also discuss new 3D reconstruction technologies, resorbable metals and new bone putty. This session will conclude with what you need to know about the new “Big Data” trend as an oral surgeon.” You can find an introductory video here and the abstract of each presentation was posted here by the BAOS. Credit goes to Bilal Ahmed, BAOS West Midland Rep, who was instrumental to make this event happen. Thanks, Bilal!
Communicate information using different presentation channels
