Registration now open for Osteology Sydney 2020

With registrations now open for Osteology Sydney 2020, we caught up with Dr Torben Hackl, Managing Director of Geistlich Pharma Australia & New Zealand in Barcelona.

Dr Hackl, please tell readers about Osteology Sydney 2020?

Osteology Sydney 2020 will be a fantastic event. We're drawing on both the experience from the inaugural Osteology event in Melbourne in 2017, where we had almost 300 delegates, as well as the broader Osteology organisation that coordinates events globally.

I think we'll attract a larger and more diverse group to the Sydney event and we'll be looking to draw people from not only Australia and New Zealand, but also from neighbouring countries in Asia.

We have a big focus on major augmentations this time, which will interest maxillofacial surgeons in particular and our international chairman, Prof. Istvan Urban [Hungary] and Prof. Matteo Chiapasco [Italy], will present on that subject.

At the same time, we're also looking to make the program attractive for young researchers or recent graduates so we've created a research session that will be chaired by Prof. Sašo Ivanovski where they'll be able to present their cases.

We also have a case session for all delegates. If you have completed a particularly interesting case and you have good documentation, you can submit it and if you're selected, present it at the congress as well.

Another unique feature of Osteology Sydney 2020 is that we're introducing a stream for the team. I don't think this has been done before at an Osteology event anywhere in the world so we'll be offering dedicated team sessions for practice managers, hygienists and implant nurses to participate in where we'll discuss more about patient care and aftercare.

So I think with all of that combined, it's a very well-rounded program and we hope it's attractive to attend."

I see Osteology Sydney 2020 is running from June 19-21?

Yes, Osteology Sydney 2020 is slightly longer than last time. We listened to participants' feedback from the last Osteology in Melbourne and the feedback was that they loved the hands-on workshops but they wanted more! So for 2020, Osteology is dedicating the entire final day of the congress to just hands-on workshops. This will give delegates an opportunity to fully engage with the presenters to have maybe not just one hands-on session, but two and for a longer time.

So the conference will be two full days of lectures and one day of hands-on workshops covering three days in total. In addition, to reduce time out of the practice, we have reversed the order of the event so we will start with the main conference program on Friday and Saturday and then Sunday will be dedicated to the hands-on workshop program.

So if you don't want to go to a hands-on workshop, you wouldn't come on the Sunday?

Exactly. You could leave on Saturday afternoon and be back with your family.

And how's the speaker line-up looking?

The overall program is decided by the Osteology Board and Foundation. Our international chairman, Prof. Istvan Urban and our local chairman, Prof. Lisa Heitz-Mayfield, have come up with a great line-up of national and international speakers from Australia, New Zealand, Korea and Europe.

The content gets decided by the Board. Obviously, there is an overall topic, which is "2020 Vision for Regeneration" and with that theme in mind, they have designed the lectures and the content around it. As a local affiliate, our task is more to put the program into the framework and organise the conference venue, workshop facilities and just basically facilitate the whole organisation of the congress.

So if I'm a dentist, why would I want to come?

I think regardless of whether you're a dentist or a specialist, whether you're a maxillofacial surgeon or a periodontist, or whether you're a practice manager trying to understand the field of regeneration and what this means for your patients, Osteology Sydney 2020 has something to offer for everyone. This congress will really give a very rounded view of bone and soft tissue regeneration. It will also show some cutting edge technology that is really new out of Europe including using custom CAD/CAM designed 3D printed titanium meshes, which I think is the future direction in regeneration.

If you would like to hear more about that and if you would like to catch up with colleagues and complete some expert hands-on training, I think this is the conference for you. We know there are a lot of conferences in 2020 in Australia and we hope that we can be a little different than the others by offering a broad spectrum of topics that appeal to a broad audience but on a very focussed area of dentistry that is driving the future of surgery and implantology.

And finally Dr Hackl, have you decided who's going to be the after dinner speaker this time? Last time, it was an astronaut from NASA.

Yes, well we all know how hard it is to follow an astronaut! Last time it was the launch of Osteology in Australia and I thought it was really fitting to have an astronaut. But I cannot tell you who we'll have for 2020 in Sydney yet. Of course, there will be an exclusive conference dinner and we do have a beautiful location overlooking the famous Opera House and Circular Quay, but I can assure you that you will not be disappointed regardless of who will be our surprise guest speaker.

Don't miss the 2nd National Osteology Symposium Sydney, June 19-21 2020.