Art Deco splendour and a double celebration were among the highlights of this weekend's Optician Awards presentation where the names of the 2012 winners were announced.
The great and the good of optics thronged into the Ballroom of the Hilton Hotel on London's Park Lane to celebrate excellence in optics on Saturday evening.
Kirit Patel was perhaps the happiest man of the night scooping two trophies; the Optometrist of the Year sponsored by BBGR and his practice, Radlett Opticians, the Technology Practice of the Year sponsored by Grafton Optical and its Technology Partners, Optovue and Riechert.
The night's winners were the first to be presented with the newly designed and Art Deco inspired Optician Awards trophies which were met with delight by the recipients. Hosting the presentation was the BBC's Tim Vine who wowed the audience with his rapid fire one-liners and legendary punning.
Proceedings started with a drinks reception to the strains of a string quartet overlooking Hyde Park before guests moved through to the Ballroom and a welcome from Optician Editor Chris Bennett. Following dinner an audio visual show featured finalists, footage of the judging process and live-edit video of the guests arriving earlier that evening.
The winners were then interviewed in front of the Optician video wall to give their reactions. Footage from the video wall can be viewed at www.opticianonline.net and images from the night downloaded.
Once the awards had been presented guests were invited to dance the night away to the live band, Big Ocean, or try their luck at the charity casino which was sponsored by GfK. Those at the end of the evening with the most chips were offered a selection of prizes provided by Luxottica and a selection of champagne. All of the proceeds from the casino are to be donated to Vision Aid Overseas.
