Optical professionals flooded into New York last week for Vision Expo East 2014 at the Javits Convention Centre.
The event, held between March 28-30, featured over 100 first-time exhibitors and was hailed as a success by show organisers.
Reed Exhibitions director of marketing Diane Tiberio said: ‘We came into the 2014 event slightly ahead in terms of pre-registration versus 2013 so we knew we were poised for a very high energy and well-attended event.
‘After day two we were 6 per cent up on last year at that point and the feeling on the show floor is very strong for the overall performance.’
The opportunity to try out the upcoming Google Glass product on the VSP stand proved a popular talking point at the show.
‘Giving optical professionals the chance to get to grips with Glass is very important to us and hopefully they will have a big role to play when it comes to market,’ said Emmanuel Matthews, field guide for Google. ‘The support of partners like VSP has been of huge importance in developing and refining the product.’
Next year’s Vision Expo East will see the Galleria and Underground fashion frame areas moving into the main eyewear hall following a long-term renovation at the Javits.
‘We are always gathering customer insights and what we were hearing was that the Galleria and Underground being a walk away in the North Hall was inconveniencing some people,’ said Tiberio.
‘We’ve been bursting at the seams for four years while the venue underwent a major reconstruction and we are very excited that the final pieces of the jigsaw, including a subway stop right outside the centre, will be in place for 2015.’