Celebrity and motivational speakers, fancy dress and an awards celebration all featured at the Hakim Group’s annual retreat. Optical practice teams and suppliers gathered at the Telford International Centre from November 30 to December 1.
More than 2,000 optical industry professionals from six countries attended the conference, exhibition and awards weekend, raising almost £1,900 for Vision Action.
Celebrity guest speakers included stand-up comedian, radio DJ and actor Justin Moorhouse; behaviour expert and author Jez Rose; Olympic gold medallist Sally Gunnell; motivational speaker, coach and author Steve Head; and TV presenter, podcaster and author Jake Humphrey.
Comic Con celebrations
The evening’s Comic Con theme invited guests to dress as their favourite comic book character or film favourite for a night of music, entertainment, food and awards.
The awards celebrated outstanding achievements across the Hakim Group. Fiona Halliday, Hakim Group Practice Buddy, was honoured as HGHQ Team Member of the Year.
Lydia Smith of the Julian Davies Opticians group took home the title of Optometrist of the Year, while Lynsey Arguello from Broadhurst Optometrists was named Shark joint venture partner of the Year.
Special Achievement Awards were presented to Nick Rumney, Austin and Judith Roberts, Jonathan Foreman and Ivan Cammack.
Milestones
Imran Hakim, CEO of Hakim Group, kicked off the event with a warm welcome, promising a ‘packed weekend with some amazing
speakers’.
‘I think this is our best lineup we’ve ever had. And, of course, we’ll have that usual HG ingredient – fun – sprinkled throughout the weekend,’ he said.
He celebrated the group’s milestones, noting that the Hakim Group class of 2024 was poised to reach 500 member practices in the first quarter of the new year.
He congratulated nominees at the Optician Awards, with particular recognition for the teams at David Burghardt Vision Care, Hammond Opticians and Monnow Eyecare.
Hakim attributed the group’s recent announcement as UK Healthcare Business of the Year at the Growing Business Awards to the collective efforts of all those in attendance, and said: ‘This one is dedicated to each and everyone of you working tirelessly in the communities we serve.’
Drawing on a Harvard study, Hakim emphasised that success encompassed four pillars – happiness, achievement, significance and legacy – and challenged attendees to define success on their own terms: ‘If you were financially wealthy but not happy, would you consider yourself successful?’
Insights from guest speakers
Justin Moorhouse then took to the stage, welcoming everyone with humour: ‘My job is sadly… [to be] the glue to the weekend. I’m going to be holding your hand, taking you through it, having fun and dressing up tonight. Can’t wait! I’ve come as Lady Godiva ¬ the horse is in the car park.
‘The big question is “what is success”, and success to me is how many people like me. It is. I’m shallow,’ he quipped.
Jez Rose explained that success depended on willingness to do and see things differently; that it was not an achievement of a goal but a feeling.
He added: ‘The opportunity to change never expires. The opportunity to succeed even more never expires. You can stop and change at any point and decide to go on a different journey.’
Rose left the audience with a final request: ‘When somebody asks you to do something, I want you to respond with “yes, if,” and two incredible things happen. Firstly, you have to work out how you’re going to make it happen, so you become much more solution-oriented. But secondly, it literally changes the wiring inside your brain.’
Jez Rose
Olympic gold medallist Sally Gunnell then spoke about the power of resilience and focus. Reflecting on her athletic career, she explained that what set her apart in a race was not her speed or strength, but her mind.
‘I would say about 70% of it is in the mind,’ she said. ‘If there’s one thing you take away from today, it’s about using this up here. It’s free. It’s just about tuning into it and who knows what you can achieve?’
Jake Humphrey shared his own take on achieving high performance. He said he was often asked if there’s a shortcut, and his answer was ‘yes’.
‘I think that there is a shortcut to high performance,’ he said. ‘Every single person that joins us on [our podcast] High Performance is an optimist. They’ve realised that life is full of difficult, hard, challenging days but they keep going.
‘Life belongs to optimists. Pessimists are spectators,’ he added, quoting French historian François Guizot.
Sally Gunnell
