NEW YORK—A renewed atmosphere greeted attendees at Vision Expo East 2018. This year’s show organizers tapped into the creative energy of the Big Apple and rolled out a brand new show featuring new exhibitors, designers, education and events for all to experience. “We’ve been finding that there are a lot of fresh new ideas, bold colors and use of different materials, which has been refreshing. Overall, everyone’s been friendly and we’ve been getting a lot of inspiration from everything we’ve seen here,” said Sophia Pray, Eyeballs, Seattle, Washington.

Friday and Saturday of the show were met with major foot traffic as the Exhibit Hall was filled with energy and buying activity. Over 300 new OPTImum Program members have joined Vision Expo this year, along with over 1,200 new Opticians and Contact Lens Technicians registered for the Show and the dedicated OptiCon @ Vision Expo programming.

Ginny Mercer, LDO, of Roosevelt Vision in Seattle, Wash., has typically attended OptiCon in the past and was making her first trip to Vision Expo East. “This is my first time to the show, and I’ve been very pleased with it,” Mercer said. She said she primarily focused on contact lens fitting courses and also was looking at updates that might be available as improvements to in-office equipment.

For the thousands of eyecare professionals registered for education, the Show launched new topics including the Ocular Aesthetics Track, Attract and Retain Customers series and Supporting the Practice Experience sessions
Gary Parchment of ROJW Optical, a nonprofit organization in upstate New York, said this year’s Vision Expo East marks his 31st consecutive year of attending a spring optical fair in New York. “Primarily, we’re here for the education,” he said. “We find that the courses are very practical."

Parchment said the information and learnings he can access at the show helps him throughout the year “because it’s beneficial for the provision of eyecare.”

In addition to this, 192 of the estimated 715 exhibitors were new this year, and hundreds of new products were launched in the Exhibit Hall.

Kristina Sadewasser of East Vancouver Eye in Vancouver, Wash., said this was her first visit to Vision Expo East, but in the past she has attended Vision Expo West in Las Vegas. “We’re just browsing for frames and looking to see what’s new and out there [in terms of fashion trends],” she said. One element that caught her eye was the large number of round, metal frames available, “which isn’t big in my area yet,” she noted.

Sadewasser said the northwest states are often behind by “a year or two” in terms of keeping pace with new eyewear trends.

Level Three: The Fashion Wing of the show featured an expanded and sold-out New Designer Gallery, with 23 exhibiting designers, offering attendees a fresh environment for designers to distinguish themselves in a curated space. Along with this, the Galleria and the Underground hosted a range of style-centered, curated brands.
“Being in the Galleria, we get the people who are looking for niche, boutique-y frames,” said Sam Tomashover of Matisse Hand Painted Eyewear. “If we were on the main exhibit floor, we’d spend 80 percent to 90 percent of our time sorting out the customers who are not looking for the type of products we offer.”

Many new Featured Events join the lineup including “Private Equity Takes Root,” a new session developed through a partnership of Review of Optometric Business, Vision Expo and Vision Monday where over 300 registrants were slated to attend. Another event included a partnership with Women’s Wear Daily for a panel, “Eye on Design: An Exclusive Talk with Influential Eyewear Designers” featuring leading creative visionaries in the eyewear industry.
With all of the bustling going on, Vision Expo East organizers also rolled out many new destinations for visitors to take a breather. With an assortment of new lounge and cafe destinations, attendees had the opportunity to recharge, relax and enjoy complimentary food and beverage services throughout the day in every corner of the Exhibit Hall.

Not only this, but as luck would have it, Expo East also coincided with St. Patrick’s Day and organizers got in the spirit offering musical performances throughout the halls with a live band kicking off St. Patrick’s Day celebrations. More acoustic Irish entertainment in the Exhibit Hall lounges through lunchtime followed. The lounges featured a rotating menu of snacks, followed by Vision Expo Happy Hours from 4:30 to 6:00 PM with Irish-themed beverages.
For many attendees, Vision Expo is their chance to experience the various facets of the industry that optical has to offer all housed under one glass roof.

“Expo has been very interesting. There are so many beautiful things. You see a lot of different frames and there is nowhere in the world where you can see all the designers together like this,” said Lise Darveau, Optiman Group Quebec, Canada.