The about 340 delegates arrived from almost 50 countries all over the world including all continents. Alone the seven keynote speakers, most of whom had never lectured or even been to Hungary before, arrived from seven different countries, including the USA, Australia, Israel, Ireland or Germany.

Dental education in Szeged following European standards

25 years ago, Budapest had hosted an annual ADEE meeting, but apart from that occasion there has never been any other Hungarian city that would have won the possibility to organize this high standard meeting. Professor Katalin Nagy, former dean of the Szeged Faculty and chair of the conference’s organizing committee emphasizes how important it is for Szeged that the meeting was taking place here, signifying the European standard of education in our city and at our University. The topic of the conference was chosen by the Faculty, and the reason why it was communication was the fact that Szeged was the first city in Hungary to have established communicational lectures and workshops as an integral and obligatory part of dental education.

Key topic- communication

Keynote speakers’ lectures involved topics on communication between the dentist and the assistants, the dentalhygienist, technicians, patients and students. There has been a lecture on virtual communication and modern educational and information platforms, as well as complaint management. The final keynote speaker of the conference, Lajos Mester from Szeged introduced to the delegates the system of teaching communication in Szeged. It may be unusual that a dental conference is not about treatment and concrete cases, but the work of a good dentist is also determined by his/her relationships and communicational skills.

Interaction in practice

Compared to previous conferences the Szeged meeting was innovative in two aspects. First of all, with the help of a European Union tender, the Faculty of Dentistry set up a continuous online stream, on which anybody from all around the world could follow the keynote lectures online live. The lectures may be made available online on the ADEE website soon.

Secondly, also along the line of communication and interaction, apart from the traditional personal questions, Szeged opened up the possibility for online questions as well. Stream viewers from their homes could connect to a padlet.com surface free of charge and type any comments or questions related to the lectures live. This online Q&A possibility also gave a chance to those in the audience, who preferred to comment without being called out and recorded live.

All lectures were thus followed by lively discussions leaving the audience with a feeling of involvedness.

Following keynote lectures the programme contained several more surfaces for professional discussions, such as the special interest groups, free stage, or poster presentations. The meeting had 7 keynote speakers, 4 pre-meeting workshops, almost 100 posters, 7 special interest groups, 4 topic-related and 11 free stage presentations.

Social programmes

The over 300 delegates, most of whom had not known or been to Hungary before, could experience Hungarian hospitality and traditions.

The first social event was the Wednesday evening get-together in the beautiful rector’s hall. The gala room of the central university building was buzzing with dentists having arrived from all over the world, listening to live instrumental music and enjoying the best of Hungary’s finger food and wines.

The Thursday official reception may have been the greatest surprise and culture shock for visitors, who were welcomed in the atrium of the congress center by a local organizing committee dressed in traditional Hungarian garments offering pálinka as welcome schnaps and pogácsa to go with it. The Szeged organisers, mainly dentistry faculty members collected delegates for a short circle of Hungarian dance, and the rector of the University welcomed all by lashing his whip and demonstrating (jokingly) one way the of communication of a leader. After the traditional Hungarian programmes, the delegates could taste several types of traditional food such as Szeged fish paprikás, and they did enjoy the rest of the evening as well, dancing barefoot to live music.

As a goodbye, those registered could experience a Hungarian evening on Friday, in Fehértói fish soup restaurant eating the famous fish soup and enjoying some traditional songs and music as well as gypsy music going along the dinner.

Altogether, the Local Organising Committee and the Faculty of Dentistry is happy to have had the chance to host the 41^st annual meeting of ADEE and pleased that delegates could leave our city and our country with the impression that Hungary is a country to enjoy, one for hospitality, traditions and European standards.

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