Education. Entertainment. Camaraderie. Kim Crawford, Editor Dentaltown Magazine

Tarun Agarwal and Sameer Puri aren’t your typical dentists. They live on opposite coastlines of the United States; run successful, full-time dental practices; have active family lives and run seminar company Townie Meeting, LLC. Read on to find out more about them, how they do it and why.

DT: How did you meet and when did you decide to become business partners?

Tarun: We actually met online on the message boards of www.dentaltown.com. We are both active participants on the message boards and frequently end up on the same discussion threads.

As we talked more and more, we realized our backgrounds were very similar. We both had done an extensive amount of training after dental school in various teaching institutions and our treatment philosophy was very similar. Both of us wanted to provide comprehensive care for our patients focusing on esthetic and cosmetic dentistry.

Sameer: One day in early 2002, Tarun called me and said that he would be visiting Los Angeles. Naturally, I invited him to stay at my house. He accepted and we had him and his wife, Mona, over to our place. Ever since then, we have become better and better friends.

The Dentaltown.com message boards began to gain a tremendous amount of popularity during this time. There were tons of people conversing every day. As people were getting to know one another, several started talking about meeting in person. Tarun called me out of the blue and suggested that we do a meeting for the members of Dentaltown––the Townies. We called Dr. Howard Farran, founder of Dentaltown, and received his permission to use the Dentaltown name in conjunction with the Annual Townie Meeting. We then formed Townie Meeting, LLC to run the meeting.

Full-Time Practicing Dentists

DT: Currently, the Townie Meeting is the main event for Townie Meeting, LLC. How do you manage operating your individual offices and run a growing enterprise?

Sameer: It’s not easy. We both have great office staffs. Without them, it would be virtually impossible to maintain our schedules. Because the staffs are so efficient at running the office, it allows us to concentrate on the meeting and seminars.

DT: Sameer’s office is in Tarzana, CA and Tarun’s in Raleigh, NC. Have you considered relocating to the same state?

Tarun: We have talked about that. It’s difficult though because our families (parents, brothers, sisters, etc.) are close to where each of us currently lives. Ideally, it would be great to practice together, but we both have successful private practices and the thought of selling and starting all over again does not sound too appealing––to either of us.

Townie Meeting, LLC

DT: What is Townie Meeting, LLC’s mission?

Tarun: Simple. Provide affordable continuing education to dentists and their team members that is full of practical information. It is our goal to help each and every dentist to enjoy our wonderful profession.

DT: What is the biggest accomplishment of Townie Meeting, LLC? Of what are you most proud?

Sameer: For me, it’s that we have been able to do all of these events while maintaining a healthy family life and growing our individual practices.

Tarun: Agreed. It has taken dedication, vision, planning, and most importantly support from each other and our wives.

DT: What was the single most important decision in your company history and why?

Sameer: The biggest decision was in June of 2002 when Tarun called me and said, “Let’s do a Townie Meeting.” At first, we thought we would do a small gathering, a get together of sorts. We budgeted and planned for about 200 people to come to Las Vegas that first year. In fact, almost 700 people attended. We never in our wildest dreams thought we would receive that kind of response.

DT: How did your family influence your decision to form this company?

Tarun: This is completely a family affair. The meeting has been able to grow and maintain a reasonable cost because we have enlisted the cheap labor of family! Of course, we would be completely remiss if we didn’t mention the Townies––our message board family––without them this meeting wouldn’t be possible.

DT: What was the worst decision in company history you would take back if you could? What did you learn from that experience?

Sameer: I can’t say there is a single worst decision, but there have definitely been times along the way where we have learned to do things better. We have streamlined our registration process so people can register for our seminars and the Annual Townie Meeting by visiting one Web site. We listen to our attendees by reading our evaluations from each meeting and the Over the Shoulder (OTS) seminar; carefully marking every suggestion for improvement in service and quality. We have taken every single suggestion and implemented action to address it. Our goal is to keep our attendees happy because if we don’t, 50,000 Townies will hear about it on the message boards of Dentaltown. Luckily for us, the positive feedback has been greater than the negative. In the end, we only have our reputations to stand on and we do our best to maintain the highest integrity and standards for ourselves.

DT: What are your plans for the next three to five years? Your biggest future opportunity?

Tarun: Our immediate plans are to grow the Annual Townie Meeting, expand our Over The Shoulder seminar series and our newly created CEREC Training series courses. In 2006, we will be hosting a number of these courses to provide excellent educational opportunities for the attendees. We are also looking into doing more education utilizing the Internet.

DT: Do you have any relationships with dental manufacturers?

Tarun: We work with numerous manufacturers that provide a tremendous amount of product and educational support for the Annual Townie Meeting and the Over the Shoulder seminars.

DT: What sets you apart from the competition?

Tarun: It seems there are more choices for dental education today than at any other time in dentistry. We are different because Sameer and I are full-time, wet-gloved dentists. We eat, live, and breathe dentistry everyday. We face the same challenges that every reader faces. Sameer has established a successful fee-for-service practice and I have established a successful practice that participates with dental insurance. We try to relate our real-world experiences in our techniques, management suggestions and our technology advice. Plus, we make sure that everything we do is fun and entertaining. For example, at each of our weekend courses we take the entire group to dinner or out for a boat ride. After all, the real learning takes place when you are able to interact and enjoy the company of the other attendees.

DT: What advice do you have to offer other Townies who are interested in expanding their business beyond the dental office?

Sameer: Be focused and make sure your practice doesn’t suffer. It’s so easy to lose sight of the practice while you get involved in other things. Make sure your office has a great staff in place, and most importantly, make sure your family life doesn’t suffer. You need to prioritize: family, practice, other things.

DT: Dr. Howard Farran has been influential in your business. Tell us about other mentors you have within dentistry and in the business world.

Sameer: Howard by far has been the largest dental influence on me. Other mentors include the guys in the trenches who share their knowledge and experience on the message boards of Dentaltown ––the Townies. There are so many Townies whose stories and experiences have had a profound impact on my life. It’s because of them that my private practice has doubled in size since I bought it.

DT: Please describe your relationship with Dentaltown.com:

Tarun: Both Sameer and I are active participants of the Dentaltown.com message boards. We have been members almost since its inception and share all we can. That sharing led to people asking us to do seminars and lectures for them. We continue to remain and will always remain active on the message boards.

DT: What is the relationship between your organization and Dentaltown?

Sameer: Townie Meeting, LLC is an independent entity from Dentaltown and fully owned and operated by Tarun and I. It’s a synergistic partnership where you have the online community, the magazine community and the meeting community. We supplement each other nicely, but at the end of the day, they are two separately owned entities.

DT: If someone posts a question on Dentaltown.com about your company or meetings, can they expect a prompt answer?

Tarun: We both participate on the message boards every day; questions are answered promptly and efficiently.

The Annual Townie Meeting

DT: It was mentioned earlier you brought the idea of the Annual Townie Meeting to Howard. Would you give us a little more detail about how you become responsible for the Annual Townie Meeting?

Sameer: Tarun and I asked Howard for his permission to throw a gathering for the Townies. We thought he would want to throw the meeting himself, but he was happy that Townies, such as Tarun and myself, stepped forward to take charge. He said, Dentaltown had a relatively small staff and was so busy with the Web site and magazine there was no time or staff available to run a meeting.

Tarun: Honestly, we didn’t realize the size of the challenge we were accepting. We expected to throw a small gathering for 100-200 people. Were we mistaken! The first Annual Townie Meeting drew nearly 700 attendees. Now, it has grown to 1,000 people.

DT: With all of the challenges, how did you put together the first Townie Meeting?

Sameer: Our first meeting in 2003 was completely done by me, Tarun, his wife Mona and his sister Teenu Hebbar. The four of us did everything from booking the hotel, speakers and exhibitors, to setting up a registration method. I think back on it and honestly don’t know how we did it. This past year we added my wife Meena and Dominique Augins to the team.

Dominique handles all of the exhibitors and sponsors for the meeting, Teenu takes care of all hotel logistics, Meena handles registration and Tarun and I organize the speakers as well as oversee all of the day-to-day operations.

Tarun: During the meeting, our dental office staff is instrumental. Both Sameer’s and my staff travel to Las Vegas, work the registration desk and assist with the daily operations of the meeting.

DT: What was your biggest challenge to the meeting’s success?

Tarun: The biggest challenge with the Annual Townie Meeting was gaining the confidence of dental companies, and thus sponsorship dollars to pay for the meeting space, entertainment, food and beverages, etc. Without the support of the various companies, the Townie Meeting would not be possible.

Now going into our fourth year, this has become less of a worry as we have more companies requesting exhibit and sponsorship space than we have availability.

Sameer: This is a tough question because of our unique situation of being full-time practicing dentists, part-time lecturers and part-time meeting planners. None of this was planned, it just kind of happened. The first Townie Meeting happened, then the OTS series, then lecturing for various manufacturers and societies. It has been a challenge to balance it all and maintain our private practices.

DT: How has Dentaltown.com impacted your attendance?

Sameer: There wouldn’t be a meeting without Dentaltown.com. We receive many of our ideas and inspirations from the message boards. Our marketing is targeted to Townies, so all of the regular posters and lurkers (those members who don’t post) are aware of the meeting. If it weren’t for Dentaltown, it would be very difficult with the limited resources to get the meeting off the ground.

DT: What is your vision for the future of the Annual Townie Meeting?

Sameer: We have had a nice steady growth our first three years and I would like to continue that. Tarun and I also want to continue the tradition of hosting great speakers and clinicians who have so graciously offered their time. Additionally, we want to attract manufacturers who share in the Dentaltown vision of providing great products at fair prices.

DT: How would you like the meeting to change?

Sameer: Just as with anything in life, you want to succeed in what you do. With the meeting, we want it to grow and the way to do that is to provide top-notch education at a fair price and mix in some great social events. One of the highlights of the meeting every year is the opening reception party. This is where Townies, who haven’t seen each other since the last meeting, can really let loose. We have had a theme party for the past two years and will continue that tradition this year with: Townie Prom. We encourage people to get dressed in costumes and a lot of them do. If you look at some of the photos from past meeting on www.towniemeeting.com you will see some amazing outfits. For this year’s meeting, we have rented the entire Voodoo Lounge at the Rio Hotel and Casino. It should be an amazing party, nothing like you have ever seen at a dental conference. Every year, we give the person with the best costume a free tuition to the following year’s meeting. It’s a great social event and one that I want to continue to see develop into the greatest dental party of the year.

DT: What can we look forward to at future meetings?

Sameer: Great speakers, great food, great socializing. Our theme is “Education, Entertainment, and Camaradrie” and we mean it. We are looking to provide more giveaways and prizes at the meeting. In fact, we are going to give away a car to one lucky attendee at the 2006 meeting. Every single paid attendee will have a chance to win a car. It’s bigger and better every single year.

DT: Speaking of Vegas, will the location for the meeting change in the future?

Sameer: That depends on what our attendees want. Overwhelmingly, they all want to come back to Las Vegas year after year. Vegas is such a dynamic town with great hotels, great restaurants and many different types of great entertainment. So, for the time being, the meeting will stay in Vegas.

Over-the-Shoulder Programs

DT: In addition to the Annual Townie Meeting, Townie Meeting, LLC also organizes Over the Shoulder (OTS) programs. What do you cover in the courses and why?

Sameer: The OTS course is a comprehensive two-day program that covers the nuts and bolts of cosmetic dentistry. We take a patient who is in need of esthetic work and do a live prep, temporization and seat of an 8-10 unit veneer case. This program started as a result of Tarun and I showing cases online at Dentaltown.com and a few friends asking us to do a seminar based on those cases.

Tarun: From opposite ends of the country, we assigned each other a particular subject to cover. When we presented the course for the first time, it was amazing how well all of the information fit together. We cover everything including: preparation techniques, temporization, case presentation, material selection, cementation and much, much more. Then, the attendees watch us complete an actual case––start to finish. The courses have been so successful, that we have sold out our last six classes.

DT: What is your favorite thing about Townie Meeting, LLC?

Sameer: The Townies––so many Townies consider the Annual Townie Meeting their own. Many times before Tarun or I have a chance to respond to questions about the meeting on Dentaltown.com, one of them has already answered the question. It’s a great to be a part of something like that.

DT: On behalf of Dentaltown, all of the Townies and myself, I’d like to thank you for organizing the Annual Townie Meeting. There is nothing like meeting the Townies face to face after having watched them on the Dentaltown.com message boards. We wish you continued success in all of your endeavors.

For more information on Townie Meeting, LLC, the Annual Townie Meeting and the other seminars offered by Sameer and Tarun please visit the following Web sites:

Annual Townie Meeting • www.towniemeeting.com

Over the Shoulder (OTS) Seminars • www.thecompletepractice.com

CEREC Training Courses • www.cerecdoctors.com