Annual Conference 2007

Report by the President Dr Nick Jepson

The Society's 54th Annual Conference was held in Newcastle and was centred at the modern Hilton Gateshead hotel. The hotel, located close to the famous Tyne Bridge and internationally renowned Sage Centre, overlooked the River Tyne and the vibrant and impressive Quayside and a short walk from the city centre proved to be a very comfortable and convenient location.

In a change from traditional Conference arrangements, the conference began on Saturday 3rd March with a one day symposium 'Dental Management of the Older Person - A glimpse of the future' held away from the conference centre in the Gosforth Park Hotel, Newcastle. This was presented jointly by the Society, the Postgraduate Institute for Medicine & Dentistry and the School of Dental Sciences, Newcastle University, and delegates included a large number of general dental practitioners as well as Society members. The symposium addressed the changing demography and management of, in particular the partially dentate older person through key-note lectures and workshops covering a wide range of topics relevant to the symposium theme many of which were given by our own 'resident experts' (details of the lectures and workshops are given later).

Key-note lecturers were:

• Prof Tom Kirkwood : Advances in understanding the ageing process
• Prof Jimmy Steele: What's coming your way
• Prof Bengt Öwall: Changing trends in the management of dentate older persons

The symposium was well supported by an excellent trade show and the day proved to be busy, informative and stimulating. It certainly succeeded in raising the profile of the Society and feedback from all types of delegate was positive and enthusiastic.

The Hilton Gateshead hotel was the venue for the remainder of the Conference which continued with the Schottlander oral presentations on the Monday morning. The scientific content and quality of all six Schottlander presentations was of a very high order. After considerable debate the judges awarded the prize to David Newsom from Leicester for his presentation "An investigation into the effects of metal primer II and surface topography on the tensile bond strength between cobalt chromium alloy and composite resin".

The morning ended with further free presentations and moved into the afternoon session of poster presentations. Though the number of posters seemed fewer than previous years, both the quality of the presentations and the general layout of the venue encouraged lively debate throughout the session. The Schottlander Poster prize was awarded to Janice Ellis - Newcastle for her presentation "Understanding the edentulous plight; the patient's stories".
The Annual General meeting was held at the end of the day with the most significant outcome being approval of Council's recommendation that the British Prosthodontic Conference (BPC) should be dissolved. Similar recommendations for dissolution had or would be put to AGMs of other constituent societies of BPC in accordance with its constitution.

The conference dinner was held in the Baltic Riverside restaurant, part of the Baltic Museum and with wonderful views over the Quayside and Millennium Bridge. An enjoyable meal was followed by an amusing toast to the Society by Professor John McCabe, Head of the Dental Materials Unit at Newcastle and a good and long standing friend of the Society.

The Tuesday morning and final session of scientific papers continued the excellent standards of content and presentation set by the preceding sessions. The Conference closed with the installation of the new President, Mr Richard Welfare, who extended a warm welcome to all to next year's Conference in Exeter.