ADSO Mid-Winter Technology Meeting, in Partnership with the Dental Innovation Alliance
Join ADSO and the Dental Innovation Alliance (DIA) for the Mid-Winter Technology Meeting
On March 19–20, 2026 - a collaborative gathering of DSO CEOs, technology leaders, and trusted partners focused on AI, technology strategy, and building the right tech stack for scale and performance.
This meeting replaces ADSO’s Winter Florida Meeting.
Dates & Schedule
Thursday, March 19, 2026
9:00am – 11:00am
DIA Annual General Meeting (limited to DIA Investors only)
11:00am – 11:30am
Break
11:30am – 12:15pm
Lunch
12:15pm – 12:45pm
Opening Conversation with Andrew Smith, CEO for ADSO, and Kentucky Morrow, Partner for DIA
12:45pm – 1:45pm
AI Beyond Diagnostics: How AI Can Scale Your DSO
1:45pm – 2:15pm
DSO Staffing Volatility: The True Cost, Why It’s Happening, and Strategies for Success
2:15pm – 2:45pm
Fireside Chat: Sponsored by Flossy
2:45pm – 3:45pm
Getting Paid Appropriately: RCM Approaches with Focus on PPO and Patient Financing
3:45pm – 4:00pm
Closing Session with Doug Brown, Co-Founder and Managing Partner for DIA
4:00pm – 6:00pm
Break & Personal Time
6:00pm – 7:45pm
Casino Night – Dinner & Reception
Friday, March 20, 2026
9:00 – 11:00am
ADSO Executive Committee session (limited to ADSO EC members only)
Speaker Bios
Opening Conversation
Andrew Smith
Andrew Smith is the Chief Executive Officer of the Association of Dental Support Organizations (ADSO). He served as executive vice president of government relations and external affairs for Parallel (formerly Surterra Wellness) where he managed the state and federal government relations teams and served as the company’s chief advocate and spokesperson to policymakers and regulators. Prior to joining the private sector, Andrew spent a decade working in government, campaigns, and public policy. Andrew is a graduate of Georgetown University with a degree in government and history. Originally from Chicago, Andrew now resides in Greenwich, Connecticut.
Kentucky Morrow
Kentucky is a Partner at DIA, where he leads sourcing, execution, and portfolio support for early-stage dental and health technology investments. Throughout his career, Morrow has completed over 40 transactions from early-stage venture to late-stage M&A totaling over $1.5B in total transaction value. He was previously a Vice President of Investment Banking at England & Company, a middle-market investment bank focused on the healthcare, technology, and industrial sectors.
AI Beyond Diagnostics: How AI Can Scale Your DSO
Eric Giesecke
Eric Giesecke is CEO of Planet DDS, a leading cloud dental software platform serving thousands of practices through solutions such as Denticon, Apteryx Cloud, and Cloud 9 Ortho. He brings prior CEO and investment experience and often speaks on cloud transformation and building scalable dental technology platforms.
Rob Jerome
Rob Jerome is Senior Vice President and Chief Digital Officer at Heartland Dental, leading enterprise digital strategy for one of the nation’s largest DSOs. With deep experience in SAP, analytics, and IT, he focuses on using data and technology to enhance the experience of doctors, patients, and teams.
Brett Kessler
Brett Kessler, DDS, is the former President of the American Dental Association and a Denver-based dentist recognized nationally for his leadership in wellness, advocacy, and recovery in dentistry. He has helped expand access to care in Colorado and frequently speaks on clinician well-being, leadership, and resilience.
Ilya Lipkind
Ilya Lipkind is Co-Founder and CTO of claritype, an AI analytics platform that delivers conversational analysis, turning structured enterprise data into an intuitive dialogue. He has deep experience in large-scale distributed systems and data platforms across leading technology organizations, including senior engineering and architecture roles at Amazon.
DSO Staffing Volatility: The True Cost, Why it's Happening, and Strategies for Success
Trey Tepichin
Trey Tepichin is co-founder and CEO of Cloud Dentistry, a real-time marketplace connecting dental practices with on-demand dental professionals. A graduate of Harvard Law School, he speaks on technology, flexible staffing, and the future of the dental workforce.
Fireside Chat: Sponsored by Flossy
Dr. Miles Beckett
Dr. Miles Beckett is a former medical doctor turned serial tech entrepreneur with two successful exits. He began his career as a surgery resident before leaving medicine to co-create lonelygirl15, YouTube’s first viral web series. After building and selling pioneering digital media company EQAL, he returned to healthcare as co-founder and CEO of Silversheet, the leading physician credentialing platform acquired by AMN Healthcare.
Today, Miles is the co-founder and CEO of Flossy, the conversational AI software company behind Fiona, the industry’s first dental AI receptionist. Under his leadership, Flossy is transforming how dental practices answer calls, book patients, and run smarter, more profitable operations. Recognized as a thought leader at the intersection of healthcare and technology, Miles is shaping how AI is redefining the dental front office. He earned his B.A. in Molecular Cell Biology and Neuroscience from U.C. Berkeley and his M.D. from U.C. San Diego’s School of Medicine.
Getting Paid Appropriately: RCM Approaches with Focus on PPO and Patient Financing
Nabil Azim
Nabil Azim is Co-Founder and CTO of Bitewing AI, a dental technology company that uses machine learning and AI to detect and recover insurance underpayments for dental practices and DSOs. Prior to Bitewing, Nabil served as Head of Data & AI and founding engineer at Valdera, a chemical sourcing startup backed by Index Ventures, where he built AI infrastructure from the ground up through the company's Series A. Before that, he spent three years as a Data Scientist at Oscar Health, where he developed fraud detection systems and claims processing infrastructure across millions of healthcare transactions, the same data standards that underpin dental insurance claims. Nabil holds a degree in Neuroscience and Statistics from Columbia University.
Chuck Cohen
Chuck Cohen is Managing Director and third-generation owner of Benco Dental, the largest independently owned dental distributor in the U.S. He is a prominent industry voice on practice growth, culture, and innovation, and he also oversees sister company Clarion Financial’s dental-focused equipment financing.
Mckenzie Fagan
McKenzie Fagan is Vice President of Enterprise Sales at Pearl, where she partners with leading DSOs, DPOs, franchises, and group practices to deploy AI-driven solutions that elevate diagnostic accuracy, streamline workflows, and improve patient outcomes. She brings nearly a decade of DSO and dental technology experience and is recognized for her expertise in centralization, clinical standardization, and creating economies of scale through software, hardware, and best-practice workflows.
Kunal Mehta
Kunal Mehta is founder and CEO of Endeavor Flow, a healthcare payments platform focused on simplifying out-of-pocket costs and expanding access to credit. As an investor at Isos Ventures, he brings a multifaceted perspective on innovation, capital, and patient-centered financial solutions.
Closing Session with Doug Brown, Co-Founder and Managing Partner for DIA
Doug Brown
Doug Brown is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner at DIA. He's also the Founder and Executive Chairman of Local Start Dental, an innovative non-profit dental clinic and learning center in Durham, NC. He previously led and grew two national dental support organizations for over 22 years, most recently as CEO and Vice Chairman of Affordable Care. In the late 90s, Brown organized several dental industry leaders into a group practice study group, which eventually led to the formation of the ADSO.
Important Notes:
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Participation in the DIA Annual General Meeting is limited to DIA Investors
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Participation in the ADSO Executive Committee session is limited to ADSO EC members
The Room Block has now closed, but there are still rooms available in the hotel as of 2/26/26.