Vision Expo West – an exhibition, well-renowned in the international optical industry that has been running for a number of years, and this year did not disappoint. With more than 5,000 fashion and luxury brands demonstrating their products and over 320 hours of education, thousands of optometrists, opticians, practice managers, frame buyers and other optical professionals flocked from all over the world to attend this year’s event that took place at Sands Expo Centre, Las Vegas, (education – September 13, exhibition – September 14 to 16).
Optician’s guest reporter, Clare Gaba (of Louis Stone Optical Ltd) attended the expo for the first time this year and was excited not only by the brands on display, but also by how busy the event was and the wealth of impressive talks, panel discussions and personalities that attended the event.
At the Women’s Wear Daily (WWD) Facebook Live Panel: The Eyewear Effect, WWD editor Brandy Joy Smith was joined by other industry experts to discuss the developments of the ever-changing optical market.
The Women’s Wear Daily panel
Scott Harris Shapiro, CEO and co-founder of State Optical, said: ‘Vision Expo is all about new and exciting ideas, different companies are also here to show off new eyewear technologies. The things we see here are on a whole new level.’ A particular technology that stood out to me on day one was the ‘Gear VR – powered by Oculus’ on the Marchon stand; an innovative and slick set of virtual reality goggles to wear and for example, get a feel of how your potential new practice could look with the aid of a simple laptop and iPhone. Additionally, a hidden gem on the walkway leading me towards the exit, the ‘opticwash’, was an impressive piece of machinery that essentially cleaned my Louis Stone Icy spectacles in a mere two minutes, car wash style.
Virtual reality goggles
On the topic of the latest hot spectacle trends, West Groupe’s Beverly Suliteanu stated that ‘what I’m really excited about, after what seems like forever of retro acetate, is starting to see increased popularity in metals. We are starting to see a resurgence and will see a little bit more individuality in people’s eyewear.’ A number of designer brands at the show seem to have already caught onto this trend, such as Nine West and Chloe.
Chloe sunglasses
I also noticed the appearance of crystal frames throughout the show; a rumoured, soon-to-be favourite in the optical industry. Scott Shapiro mentioned ‘storytelling’, and making an effort to find out the steps taken (often by hand), to produce spectacles and the importance of retailers having the ability to tell customers such stories and as Mike Hundert, CEO of De Rigo REM stated, ‘communicate the assets.’ I was especially interested in Suliteanu’s comment about the move away from fashion brands and towards more independent brands.
Las Vegas
Eyewear designers, Coco and Breezy gave a stimulating talk about this season’s trends the following day with particular emphasis on social media (a keen pursuit of mine personally and in a professional capacity for Louis Stone). They found that social media was incredibly useful for market research where (especially with Millennials) you can ask them ‘do you like this frame?’ and also to help establish brand identity. In terms of insider info on everyday frames, Rose Harris of Transitions Optical, mentioned working on tapping into influencers to help enhance their image going forward.
Aside from these trends presentations, I also happened upon a number of other fascinating talks and seminars during the event. A wealth of optical professionals of all ages gathered for a Google Partners talk on better ways to market your business; a really astounding fact that stood out to me here is that in the US, there is a 186% growth year on year of the search term ‘eye doctors near me’.
Imagine what that could mean in the UK? A similar statistic I predict, though I did recently read on LinkedIn that approximately 50% of children of school age have undiagnosed eye conditions – clearly not enough searching for eye doctors with regards to ones’ children in these parts. On the Thursday night, I attended Vision Expo’s ‘Young Professional’s Cocktail Reception’ where myself and around 100 other under-35s, gathered to discuss the goings on at the conference.
An optometrist who owned a number of practices, from Canada told me how ‘useful’ the clinical seminars had been and that he found the whole trip really helpful for this reason. It is always interesting to hear this point of view as (given that I am a marketeer through and through), I would not be the right clientele to judge the worth of such presentations. I also met the owners of Eye Candy Creations, an innovative and forward-thinking company based out of Georgia that works with product placement of spectacles in films and with celebrities – sometimes it takes one to experience these expos to realize such companies exist in the optical industry.
Vision Expo West really opened my eyes to what a vivacious industry we find ourselves in, not only through the hot trends, the events, the discussions, the people, but overall, through the thrilling buzz that you cannot help but feel vibrating through the room – I walked away proud to be a part of that.
Clare Gaba is head of marketing and communications at Louis Stone. She has no commercial interest in any of the products mentioned in this article and received no fee for writing it.