First Global Dental Congress to convene in New York City in 2010

Anticipated to be the world's largest dental meeting, the first Global Dental Congress will be held in New York City, Oct. 14-17, 2010. The Congress will be jointly sponsored by the American Dental Association (ADA) and the Greater New York Dental Meeting (GNYDM).

The expected largest dental forum ever held will feature education, research, products and services and social events. At least 55,000-60,000 dentists, dental team members and exhibitors should attend.

Both the ADA and GNYDM organizations meet separately on an annual basis. The ADA rotates its sites while the GNYDM is permanently held in New York City. The 2010 meeting, at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, will be the first combined meeting.

"This meeting will be a huge event for dentistry and dental product manufacturers," said Dr. James B. Bramson, ADA executive director. "We expect the New York venue to draw a large international contingent, making this a truly global meeting."

The ADA and GNYDM also issued an invitation to the FDI World Dental Federation (FDI) to consider holding its meeting in 2010 in New York in conjunction with this event. The FDI is a federation of 157 national dental associations representing dentists worldwide. Officials at the FDI have expressed significant interest, and all parties are working to determine if an appropriate arrangement can be developed.

Dr. Robert R. Edwab, GNYDM executive director, said, "Our vision is that this will be the largest, most heavily attended dental meeting in the world. It will go down in the history of the dental profession as one of the greatest educational forums ever held, and I'm hopeful we can repeat this every 10 years."

"This strategic partnership will benefit the entire dental community-dentists, dental team members and our friends in the dental industry," said Dr. Richard Haught, ADA president.

Scientific sessions-the educational component of the meeting-would run five days, from Wednesday through Sunday. The exhibition of dental products and services would be four days, running Thursday through Sunday.

From the ADA's perspective, New York City is a highly desirable destination for dentists and their staff and families, with many unique activities and attractions in addition to the meeting itself. Having New York City in the ADA's rotation every 10 years would round out the meeting schedule with a very attractive city in the Northeast.

From GNYDM's vantage point, a joint meeting will bring a large new stream of ADA members to New York City who do not regularly attend the GNYDM, enhancing the prestige and visibility of that meeting for years to come.