View from the FMO: Reflecting on 2017

As we come to the end of 2017 inevitably there is reflection, especially as we close FMO’s centenary year and look forward to next year’s historical milestone – 40 years of Optrafair. But the link between professional education and the supply of ophthalmic goods and services goes back much, much longer.

Optics is a small and complex sector, and the developing education and training of optical practitioners was, in the early days inextricably linked with the development of technical innovations, coming together in conferences with their own exhibitions.

In 1929 the Worshipful Company of Spectacle Makers held its 300th Anniversary Conference at what was then Northampton Polytechnic (now City University) with 40 members of FMO’s founder body (the Association of Wholesale and Manufacturing Opticians) exhibiting, and lectures from optical educators who bridged the gap between industry and the profession.