There is no getting away from the fact that the presidential election has had an influence on proceedings at the 2016 American Academy of Optometry meeting in Anaheim.
The registration process was overwhelmed on the opening Wednesday morning making many delegates, myself included, late for their first sessions. This was due to too few taking the usual early registration option and watching the election instead.
This also explained the many bleary eyes and the topics of conversation around the coffee stalls.
I lost count of how many times I heard ‘interesting times’ and ‘you picked an unusual week to come to the States.’ With one of the first pledges of the new administration being to overhaul ‘Obamacare’, all here have some stake in the outcome of the election, whether positive or negative.
Matters came to a head when an announcement was made of a post-election demonstration taking place between the conference and the adjacent hotels.
Participants were warned ‘Academy as an organisation does not take a position on political issues, if you choose to join the protest we ask that you please remove your Academy badge prior to participating.’
Police were present but, as one might expect, matters proceeded peacefully. The need of very many people to clearly show their need to be dissociated from the election result is palpable.