Membership

Julie Delcorde (Toronto '18) – Chair, Antoine Paradis-Surprenant (Montréal '17), Jihyun Han (Manitoba '18), Huei Cheung (Manitoba '18), Mathieu Nepton (Laval '18), Mary Tait (Saskatchewan '19), Andréann Guillemette (Montréal '20), Monique Bouchard (Secretariat) – staff support

Note: This report is structure to reflect the Working Terms of Reference of the Committee, as presented at the end of this report. Revised Terms of Reference were approved by the Council at the 2017 AGM.

Activities and Results

1.  Decide on a date and secure a venue for the conference

Summary of the contract that was signed

  • Location: Westin Harbour Castle, Toronto, ON
  • Date: January 11th-14th 2018
  • Confirmed with Dean Haas (University of Toronto) prior to signing
  • University of Toronto dental students officially have Friday, January 12th off school to attend the conference
  • Contract Summary:
    • Meeting spaces:
      • Main room: Frontenac Ballroom
        • Holds ~750 for dinner MAX
      • Large lobby
        • 5 breakout rooms: Each hold 80-120 people
      • 1 office
    • Final program to hotel is due 60 days before arrival
    • Conference packages:
      • Visiting student package: Mandatory accommodation at hotel    
        • The Westin offers a free online booking service where students will register for our room block
      • Local student package: No accommodation at hotel
        • Encourages U of T students who live downtown to attend event

2.   Determine the budget and goal registration for the conference

Approximate HOTEL cost: $184,760.00

  • This  price includes tax and covers the 3 day rental of all conference rooms, food budget and our min hotel room rental agreement
  • Hotel rooms: $242.45 per night after tax
  • Assumes 4 person occupancy*
  • Our min room requirement: 255 hotel rooms (over 3 days)
  • Ideally we would like 340 students staying at the hotel to occupy the rooms
  • Venue rooms increase in cost if the min hotel room rental agreement is not met

TOTAL budget: ~$250,000.00

Conference Registration Opens: Early September

Registration Packages:

  • Registration fees will be finalized after we have a better idea of sponsorship amounts and number of students who can actually attend the conference
  • Current fees: Local registration package $215, Visiting registration package $340
  • *If we cannot confirm enough attendees from other schools, we may only offter the visiting registration package to fill our hotel room block. This will decrease the overall number of conference participants, but may facilitate reaching our budget

Payments:

  • 1st Deposit: Paid Feb 1st 2017: $9000
  • 50% Remaining Balance Deposit: Mon Dec 11th 2017: $87,880.00
  • Remaining Balance Deposit: Due 14 days prior to Arrival
  • Any Outstanding Balance: Due prior to departure

Goal registration from each school:

  • University of Toronto
  • Local: 220
  • Visiting: 25
  • Western: 100
  • Université de Montréal: 75
  • Université Laval: 35 or 30
  • McGill: 35
  • University of Manitoba: 10
  • University of Saskatchewan: 15
  • University of Alberta: 10
  • University of British Columbia: 10
  • Dalhousie University: 10
  • Previous FCDSA members + ASDA: 10
  • Recent Graduates: 10
  • TOTAL students:
  • Local: 220
  • Visiting: 340

*A main priority of the FCDSA council will be to ensure that the minimum number of registrants per school is met, and that their Dean can confirm an approved absence on January 12th 2018 to students attending the conference

3. a.  Invite speakers, student researchers, companies et

  • Generated a list of speakers for the conference
    • We will reach out to majority of speakers in the next few weeks
    • Considerations:
      • Cost of AV per room to determine if it is feasible to have multiple speakers at one time
      • Number of sponsors interested in speaking at the event
      • At this time, we are only inviting local speakers as we are unsure about a budget for travelling speakers
  • Generated a list of companies and organizations that could give hands on demonstrations
  • Contact information of each incoming student president of each dental school was obtained
    • Will send personal invitations to each of these students to the conference
  • Contact information of student research program coordinators at each dental school was obtained
    • Will send personal invitations to student researchers to present at the conference

3. b.  Determine a conference program

4. Generate advertising material and registration resources for the conference

  • We will be creating a website with the help of the FCDSA External Communications Committee
    • Will be used for registration and to share the conference program, sponsors information, contact information etc.
  • Currently we have a Facebook page with over 620 likes and an event with approx 60 attendees
    • https://www.facebook.com/CDSC2018/
  • We created a conference presentation and script to use at school presentations
    • This was presented at the University of Toronto in March 2017
  • Student registration for Hotel rooms will be through the Westin booking website:
  • Conference registration will be through our website
    • We will probably use Eventbrite and Paypal to run this service for online registration

 5.  Form a Local Arrangements Committee (LAC) composed of University of Toronto students

  • Total LAC: 18
  • 3rd years (4): Julie, Becky, Kelsey, Tyler
  • 2nd years (10): Keyvan, Lauren, Jonathan, Parnian, Jamie, Helen, Jackie, Ali, Taya, Chantal
  • 1st years (4): Joanna, May, Saira, Ann
  • Goal: get a few committed students to run their own subcommittees
  • Can work together with FCDSA members
  • Ex: Transportation, Formal etc
  • We will need many student volunteers the weekend of the actual conference
  • Running conference registration table
  • Making conference packages
  • Putting together name tags
  • Table set up for sponsor exhibits

6. Priorities of the Dental Student Conference Committee

  • Ensuring that adequate sponsorship is attained should be a priority of the FCDSA on a whole, and not just the Finance committee since this influences conference budget and events
  • There needs to be more communication between the Conference planning, Finance and Executive committees       
  • More frequent and joint meetings are suggested
  • Representatives from each committee should be present at the other committees meetings
  • The role of the LAC has to be specified, as they are currently carrying out the majority of conference planning
  • The role of LAC members must be specified and the Terms of Reference updates
  • LAC must have the ability to make some decisions to expedite planning
  • We have to determine the best way to use the large LAC team to make conference planning as simple as possible
  • Contact the Deans of each dental school to get excused absences for attending students

Submitted to the FCDSA Council, June 2017
Julie Delcorde (Toronto '18), Dental Student Conference Committee Chair

Working Terms of Reference (Revised Terms of Reference were approved by the Council at the 2017 AGM)

Mandate

To organize the Canadian Dental Student Conference as the inaugural event of the FCDSA.

Objectives

  1. Decide on a date and secure a venue for the conference.
  2. Determine the budget and goal registration for the conference.
  3. Determine a conference program and invite speakers, student researchers, companies etc.
  4. Generate advertising material and registration resources for the conference.
  5. Form a Local Arrangements Committee (LAC) composed of University of Toronto students.
  6. Priorities of the New Conference Planning Committee.
  7. Submit a report for consideration by the Council at the 2017 Annual General Meeting (AGM).

Composition

The Dental Student Conference Committee consists of a Chairperson plus selected members of the Council.

Meetings

The Committee will hold electronic meetings and/or conference calls as needed in consultation with the Chair and staff.

Reporting/Accountability

The Committee will submit a planning report to the FCDSA Council at the 2017 AGM and then periodically to the Executive and the Council as requested

Staff Support

Staff support is available through the FCDSA Secretariat.