Adrian Dray reports back from For the Doers, an event focused on breaking out of the status quo trap of sticking to the same systems and routines.
You’ve seen what I’ve seen in UK dentistry: suggest a different way in the practice or in the groups online and the first replies march back to habit. Good ideas drift into drafts, good people go quiet. On 19 September I ran For the Doers as my answer to the status quo crew.
The day itself was a live experiment you could stand inside. If I was asking people to try something new on Monday, I had to try something first. The aim was simple: make trying feel safe, so people in the room and those following along on socials, felt braver about putting new ideas into their dental world.
As a director at CareStack and VoiceStack, a new but innovative dental technology provider in UK dentistry, you would expect the event to be very tech heavy. Instead, we did the irrational thing and kept all of it off the stage.
We teamed up with Avant-Garde Dentistry as our co-hosts, because like us they push against traditional thinking in dentistry and put the dental community first to tackle the inertia that stops change. Our joint focus was one theme, encouraging dentistry to be bold and dare to be different.
Dare to be different
We also reverse-benchmarked the usual conference habits. We skipped the branded tote bags and swag; let’s be honest, most of it quickly ends up in a cupboard or a bin. The budget went to things people would actually enjoy that day: barista-made coffee, an open bar from lunch, and proper catering people ate and talked about.
We chose a studio in Shoreditch rather than hotel beige, and threaded moments of play and well-timed comedy so people kept leaning in.
Because we kept the agenda off the internet, the room arrived curious. At 12:10 there were 173 in the room, with half from dental group leadership. Then the entrance music hit, Sabotage by Beastie Boys, and the place stood up. That early awkwardness you get at most conferences disappeared, and the message landed cleanly: be bold, dare to be different.
The programme
The programme moved like a ladder rather than a list. High performance coach Raghav Parkash opened by making uncertainty feel normal and decisions feel trainable. Dr Julie Dale, Dr Farzeela Rupani and Dr Raabiha Maan kept it raw and close to the work so bold choices could become daily practice.
After lunch Ash Jones and Claudia Cardinali of Great Influence, joined by Mark Allan from Bupa Dental, showed why building a personal brand matters now and how anyone in a practice can do it.
Which brings me to our headline session, a live interview recording with Rory Sutherland. A global TED voice, one of the most sought-after podcast guests in the world and an adviser to leading companies on behavioural economics, he came to explore how we improve the dental patient journey. You could see the fandom; phones were out, people were hanging on every word, and more than a few selfies were negotiated with admirable professionalism.
More importantly, there were proper exchanges. Dentists told him how the journey feels at the sharp end; Rory asked specific questions about standing out, which signals reassure, and which small frictions push patients away. He was booked for 45 minutes, arrived early, stayed long after and cancelled his evening plans to keep talking.
What moves next
What matters now is what moves next. Because in the corridors I heard independent owners sharing strategies with group leaders, and suppliers moving with principals from chat to pilot plans and trials.
My next step is straightforward: I am contacting attendees to see how encouragement from the day has turned into action and where the first risks are paying off, and I will share what I learn on my channels so others can borrow the moves.
Our next event, and I’m really excited about this one, is the Implant Growth Circle, co-hosted by CareStack and Straumann, runs on 30 October 2025 at Millennium Point, Birmingham. We will show proven implant workflows and the right kind of AI to grow implant cases.
Even if you do not currently offer implants, the takeaways apply to any practice planning growth. Best of all, Rory Sutherland is back to deliver the keynote and bring the behavioural lens to help your team stand out, reassure and turn interest into booked cases so growth in 2026 is real, not theoretical.
Book your space in the Implant Growth Circle here and use code FMC15 for 15% off any ticket class. Spaces are limited.
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This article is sponsored by CareStack.
