It's your opportunity to shine

The search is on for finalists for the 2005 optician Eye Care Awards.

Entry forms were included in last week's issue and entries are now open to optical practices and eye care professionals across 10 categories.

Judging will take place in March and the awards will be presented at a black tie dinner at the Hilton Birmingham  Metropole on April 16, the Saturday night during Optrafair.

There are a clutch of new categories and optician wishes to encourage all its readers to enter and gain the respect and recognition of their peers.

The emphasis this year is on people, with new categories created to find the Outstanding Optometrist and Outstanding Dispensing Optician of the Year. Entries for these categories are welcome from eye care professionals or can be made through nomination from colleagues.

The hunt is also on for the Optical Assistant of the Year. Entrants can put themselves forward or nominations can be made on their behalf by colleagues.

Support this year for the event has been provided by Johnson & Johnson Vision Care which has sponsored the Contact Lens Practice of the Year Award. Grafton Optical and its technology partners Paradigm and Eyescape are sponsoring the Technology Practice of
the Year category and Dollond & Aitchison is once again sponsoring the Contribution to CET Award.

One of the most popular categories from last year, the Start-Up Practice of the Year Award makes a return while new categories have been created to encourage entries from the multiple sector.

For the first time optician will make an award to the Optical Chain of the Year and an Award for the Franchisee of the Year will also make its debut.

Optical chains with more than 100 practices are invited to submit an entry for the Optical Chain of the Year, while franchisees or their franchisor are invited to submit entries for the Franchisee of the Year.

Another new category is the Optical Product of the Year. This category welcomes entries from product suppliers or nominations from practice staff wishing to highlight a particular optical product.