First ever RACGP Practice Owners National Conference a major success

The RACGP Practice Owners National Conference, held last weekend in Melbourne, began with humble plans for a small but informative event. But the college quickly found that interest far outstripped available space.
 
‘We started aiming for 150 delegates, and with three and a half months to go all 150 spots were sold and we had 150 on the wait list,’ Dr Sean Stevens, Chair of the RACGP Business of General Practice Specific Interests network and a key organiser of the conference, along with Dr Todd Cameron, told newsGP.
 
‘We had to move to a larger venue and ended up with 480 delegates and presenters, with approximately 50 on the wait list.’
 
Dr Stevens believes this enthusiasm reflects a strong need among GPs for business-related information and support.
 
‘We get plenty of education on clinical topics in medical school and general practice training – and rightly so – but almost none on business. Yet 85% of practices are small-to-medium private enterprises,’ he said.
 
The conference was designed to help fill GPs’ need for relevant business information, connect practice owners with their peers from across the country, and provide mentoring and assistance for GPs who are aspiring to become practice owners.
 
The conference featured two streams, one for established practices and another for new and aspiring practice owners. Morning teas, dinners and networking drinks also provided opportunities for attendees to network and meet other like-minded general practice colleagues.
 
‘We wanted to improve the engagement and network of practice owners. If you’ve run in to a problem as an owner, there’s usually someone else who’s had the same problem and can help you solve it,’ Dr Stevens explained.
 
‘We also wanted to start an ongoing dialogue between owners, which is why we’ve established a space on shareGP and are already planning our next conference and other educational events.’

Dr Sean Stevens said the conference’s ‘participation, engagement, inspiration and energy have been overwhelming’. 
 
The conference, which provided a slate of nearly 30 presenters who spoke on various aspects of running and owning a practice, from selecting the right business structure to improving clinical outcomes, received an extremely positive response from attendees.
 
‘The participation, engagement, inspiration and energy have been overwhelming,’ Dr Stevens said. ‘The feedback, both in person and on our conference app, was overwhelmingly positive.
 
‘The audience response questions at the end also showed that 95% want to come to next year’s conference.’
 
With such success at the first conference, Dr Stevens, his colleagues and the RACGP are already making plans for a follow-up.
 
‘Our next conference is scheduled for May and we’re going to start the planning for that within the next four weeks,’ he said. ‘We have over 3000 pieces of feedback to collate so we’ll be working through that to make next year’s conference even better.
 
‘We’ll also be looking to roll out other educational events between now and then, so watch this space.’

Email events@racgp.org.au to be added to the mailing list for future RACGP practice owner events.

Business of general practice practice ownership RACGP Practice Owners National Conference