Today, CCJR meetings host 1,500-2,000 attendees annually from, literally, all over the world.
There are two every year in the United States. One in the Spring in Las Vegas/Cleveland. The other in Winter in Orlando. International meeting venues inclusive of Greece, China and Brazil have added to the recognition of the CCJR brand.
CCJR’s DNA
“Over the years CCJR’s program has reflected innovations in orthopedics. We began many years ago teaching cemented hips and then we went to cementless hips. We’ve gone from cemented knees to, now, cementless knees are on the rise. We’ve moved through dozens of different surgical approaches, innovative instrumentation inclusive of today’s emerging interest in robotics.”
“As physicians become more familiar and more sophisticated about the nuances of what it takes to drop the knife and minimally assault the soft tissues, orthopedic surgery outcomes consistently improve.”
“A CCJR meeting comes down to three ingredients. 1) You have to have an appreciation of orthopedics as an emerging discipline and how it is always changing. You have to be up on that. 2) You also have to figure out how you can get people to sit in a room from 7:30 in the morning to 6:00 at night and come back for 2-1/2 days. You have to have a diverse program. Presentations, debates, literature reviews, problem cases where you’re trying to stump the experts, live surgeries and video surgical techniques. 3) The sine qua non of each successful CCJR meeting is the staff around me that for over 30 years has continually contributed to optimizing the meeting logistics. They have bought into it, in much the same way as the faculty, recognizing that CCJR’s continued success rests, in large measure, on all of their shoulders.”
What’s Next?
The terms of the sale were not disclosed, but we do know one thing.
The most important condition of the sale was that Greenwald’s reputation for being the “Switzerland” of orthopedics—unbiased and unbought—would remain the foundation of the meeting.
Greenwald is not retiring. He will continue to play his customary role of rounding up the faculty and with their help crafting each meeting’s agenda.
“I’m remembering Robert Frost, a great American poet, and I’m dating myself, but back in the 1960s, shortly before he died, I had a chance to hear him speak. He recounted his life as an American poet laurate. Then he read one of his most famous poems called The Road Not Taken.”
“It really stuck in my gut. Life is like that. You’re in the woods, you come to a bifurcation, crossroads in the road, and they are pathways. Which one are you taking? Go left? Go right? You can’t really see beyond the trees. Sometimes you just go and take a chance.”
Early in his career, Seth reached a bifurcation on his road and has paraded on it for more than four decades.
No doubt spending dozens of hours on the phone with each faculty member, he and they put together what is essentially the succession plan for CCJR. The faculty, who understand the unique and monumental value of the educational experience he has created, will make sure it will always be Seth’s meeting.
