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MailMay 2022
The WinDSO Momentum
The Women in DSOs (WinDSO) inaugural event was an exciting and elevating event for not just women leaders in the DSO industry but also all leaders in the industry who have rallied their support of the new organization. In this video, Amol Nirgudkar, CEO of Patient Prism, interviews Brian Colao, Member & Director of the Dental Service Organizations Industry Group at Dykema, who also is a member of the WinDSO board.
Amol Nirgudkar: This has been an amazing meeting. How are you going to keep the energy going after attendees leave Las Vegas?
Brian Colao: Everybody knows it's difficult to put on events. Our industry leading Dykema summit had 43 people the first year, and WinDSO has nearly 600 folks. It's sold out. There's incredible energy and enthusiasm in the room. And it's been a professional highlight of my career to be on this board. I got my pink tie today. I'm ready to go with this thing. It's just been tremendous to have been a part of building this thing and the future looks tremendous. I can't wait. We're going to probably double the attendance next year. I just can't wait to see the great things in store for this organization.
Amol Nirgudkar: When you were asked to be involved on the board by Dr. Aman Kaur and Kathleen Titus, what was your first thought?
Brian Colao: I remember that vividly. My first thought is it's an honor for someone like Kathleen Titus, who was an industry legend or someone like Dr. Aman Kaur, who is visionary. I've known her for a long time, a very talented DSO executive.
When they asked me this, I said, "I'm honored to do it, but we have to back it up. We can't just talk about it, we got to do great things." And we all looked each other in the eye and said, "We're going to do great things.”
We were working behind the scenes, but we lost 2020. And it took the whole year of '21 really to get all the planning in place. But here we're in March of '22, it's a sold-out event, and it's an incredible organization. It has already made tremendous difference when you talk about access, opportunities, and mentorship to the many talented women of the DSO industry. Already, you can see the impact of it.
Amol Nirgudkar: How do you plan to keep the momentum of this meeting going after attendees leave Las Vegas?
Brian Colao: We're going to keep in touch with everybody. First, there's going to be the WinDSO Velocity event at the Dykema Conference again this year. And then there are exchange circles and lots and lots of things that they're doing. Even though the interest in this organization has been incredible, we're only scratching the surface on membership. There are hundreds and hundreds of DSOs. We need to have several hundred organizations a part of it. Many have given us commitments, and all of us are going to follow up in the wake of this incredibly successful event. And between now and July, we want to get another 50 or 60 DSOs signed up for this.
A Culture of Collaboration
Amol Nirgudkar: I've been friends with you for a long time, with the Dykema organization for a long time. And I've seen you in meetings with multiple women that have given you counsel over the years.
Whether it's your associate attorneys, whether it's your partners, tell us a little bit about how women partners or women in the organization have made you a better lawyer?
Brian Colao: Associating with women has made me incredibly better at my job. If you look at this wonderful DSO industry, I may have more female friends than I have male friends. I haven't made a list and added it up, but there's a substantial possibility I have more female friends than male friends. I’ve had incredible counsel from people like Kathleen Titus, people like Dr. Aman Kaur, other folks, Andrea Hight that are on our board. What I've noticed is it's a culture of collaboration. It's a culture of not being afraid to say, "We don't know the answer. Let's go get it." It is okay to be a little bit more vulnerable and this has made me a better leader in my organization.
And more than even that, it's made me recognize the value of diversity of perspective, the value of female perspectives in the room. So, females have a say in almost every important decision we make at Dykema for that reason. And all of this is a direct result of my association with the many talented women in the DSO industry, some of which are my closest friends, confidantes, and mentors.
The Next Event
Amol Nirgudkar: We're heading into April. And we've got the Dykema DSO Industry Group, the definitive conference coming up in July 13-15 in Denver.
Brian Colao: You'll be there. Your studio will be there.
Amol Nirgudkar: Absolutely. I'm excited about it because I genuinely believe this is going to be the biggest DSO event ever. The last one was the biggest until then.
Brian Colao: Last year, we had about 1,300 people. Unfortunately, a sellout is 1,500 this year, so I think it's going to be easy to sell that out. And in future years, we're going to look at a bigger venue.
Amol Nirgudkar: And tell the audience that has not been to this conference why they should be attending this next event.
Brian Colao: Well, the onstage content is the best in the industry. I know people expect I'm going to say that because I'm a director of Dykema, but it really is. We don't make a penny on the conference. And I'm not knocking anybody that makes money on their conferences; that's okay. But we don't. Every dollar that we spend goes into the conference. We spend I think $1.4 million to put it on. Every penny went into the conference. We get incredible speakers, incredible keynote speakers, celebrity speakers. We had fireworks last year. There are incredible networking opportunities. There is a sell side workshop as part of the event. There's the WinDSO launch event as part of the event.
There is something for everyone, all facets of the industry. Buyers, sellers, big DSOs, little DSOs, mid-size DSOs—they all come, and it's just an incredible networking event. I can make more introductions in one room at the Dykema Conference in a half hour than I could in six months with emails or Zooms.
And I think the results speak for themselves. We completely sold sponsorships in I think 30 days. We got 90% sold in eight days. We already have 600 people registered, five months ahead. All indications are we're going to sell out at 1,500.
Dykema Industry Group—Top DSO Legal & Strategic Advisors
Amol Nirgudkar: If you are a DSO, a small group that's thinking about becoming a DSO, you should absolutely call Brian and his team. They have done more deals than their next competitor by a margin of 10 to one. One of the things that I've love about Brian and his team is they're very consultative in their approach. They're not here to sell you legal documents. They're here to give you advice and tell you sometimes that you don't need to do something. That's the type of council you want on your side as you're trying to organize into a DSO, growing a DSO, buying new practices, merging with somebody else. Dykema really has the biggest bench strength of any other organization by a mile when it comes to helping DSOs grow and scale their business.
Brian, it's been absolutely a pleasure knowing you over the years and your support to this organization and the event here has been phenomenal. Sometimes you don’t get credit for the work you've done tirelessly to make this industry better by elevating people on your stage, giving them opportunities, and networking to introduce people. You should get credit for all the connections that you've made that have made this industry bigger, better, smarter. And I can't wait to spend the next 10 years in this industry, roaming around the world with you to see it flourish and grow. I recognize you as the most important leader in this space who truly is connecting a diverse group of people from all over the world to make this industry great.
About Dykema's DSO Group
Dykema’s DSO group offers a multi-disciplinary team that provides top-tier counsel, with demonstrated accomplishments and proven experience covering the entirety of the unique business and legal needs of Dental Service Organizations. Dykema's practitioners—whose areas of experience include Litigation to Real Estate, Tax, Brand Protection, Corporate Finance, Mergers & Acquisitions, Employment Law, Health Care, Government Investigations, and Corporate Compliance—provide, both individually and collectively, top-tier legal representation and “go-to” strategic counsel.
Patient Prism Delivers Actionable Intelligence
Patient Prism’s artificial intelligence (A.I.) incorporates machine learning to provide deep insights into dental patient phone calls and conversion analytics.
Managers can easily see how many people asked about implants, the percentage booked, and the revenue opportunity won or lost.- They can see how many people said they had Delta Dental PPO or spoke Spanish.
- They can see how many called in pain with emergency needs.
- They can see how many prospective patients did not book due to the unavailability of near appointments.
- They can determine if team members are uninformed about advertised promotions, don’t know how to respond well to financial questions, or are so pressed for time they fail to demonstrate empathy for callers’ concerns.
It's really quite simple. Patient Prism's dashboards provide unique insight as to what exactly is happening on the phones in any dental practice, including DSO or enterprise dashboards that include all practices' strengths and opportunities in one view.
These insights help managers identify where to expand services, better coach team members, increase staffing during peak hours, consider participation with an insurance provider, and adjust marketing.
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