Club Inter-Optiques 20th Anniversary Conference

The International Opticians Association (IOA) as international partners joined Club Inter-Optiques (CI-O) in France for their twentieth anniversary celebrations and conference. In this article you can hear from Elaine Grisdale, IOA Director of Development, and learn more about the Club.

The Club Inter-Optiques has a long history of collaboration with ABDO, (the Association of British Dispensing Opticians) to share information on trends in the marketplace and reflect on topics affecting the future of the optical sector.

The CI-O was formed 20 years ago as a think-tank incorporating key actors from all of the branches in the optical space, including opticians, ophthalmologists, educators, manufacturers of lenses, frames, contact lenses and equipment, chains, insurers, and legislators. The idea was to be able to talk openly and constructively in confidence about preoccupations, dangers and opportunities to advance and protect the optical sector. This initiative was then shared with partners from abroad when the CI-O invited first the ZVA (Opticians Association of Germany), then ABDO and more recently, the Vision Group (the largest independent group in Italy) to be intellectual and professional partners. This selective international think tank is known as the Opti G4. More recently, the IOA has also developed a collaborative partnership with the CI-O, bringing a global angle to the European group.

The twentieth anniversary conference was a chance to celebrate the success of this forward-thinking organization, to reminisce on its achievements and to thank founder, long-time president and visionary Harro Lotz and other founding members. The conference took place on the Montebello, a boat moored on the Seine facing the Eiffel Tower. On a beautiful, sunny day, the environment was idyllic and put everyone in a festive mood.

The morning saw presentations from the different countries present. Vincent Torrilhon (Krys) spoke about the need to speak out about the values of being opticians and to be proud of the duality we have with expertise in commerce and eye-health. He stressed the importance in the future of working to deliver exemplary children’s vision in collaboration with consumers, ophthalmologists and orthoptists. Eye protection both from a physical point of view (screens, physical problems) and by providing advice on eye health and sign-posting to ophthalmology. One of the most important roles the optician will have is to provide optimum visual comfort. He said we needed to talk more about this and explain why it is important and what we can do to improve the quality of life of patients in all age categories.
Having spent 12 years in France in an international role in optics, ABDO’s Head of Professional Services and International Development, Elaine Grisdale followed with a presentation in French, about the UK eyecare market. She stressed the complexities of the market which is very different from other European models. This makes gathering accurate and detailed market intelligence regarding sales of product very challenging. Seventy-one per cent of all consumer spend in the UK is with three retailers (Specsavers, Boots and Vision Express). As well as this, there is still a large optical laboratory network in the UK which is not the case in other countries. Elaine finished by presenting a guide to degree level apprenticeships in the UK and how it was hoped that the scheme would encourage more employers to put their staff through professional training and attract more young people to consider training this way, thus bringing more dispensing opticians into the sector.

Thomas Truckenbrod, immediate past president of the ZVA who led the profession for over 15 years, spoke about the German market and its relatively modest growth. He highlighted that internet spectacle sales were not as important as was first feared. He then made a mark on the audience referring to the competition from the internet as a ‘mosquito in a bedroom’. It is present, it makes a lot of noise, it is a permanent annoyance, it may sting but it won’t kill you.

Marco Procacciante, managing director and founder of Vision Group, gave a detailed presentation of the optical market in Italy where 80 per cent of optical practices are independent. Vision Group has 2700 stores in Italy, with 200 directly operated, 300 franchised and 2,200 independent stores with their own banner. Italian consumers are increasingly focussed on visual well-being which provides the sector with opportunities. In a recent survey, 65 per cent of consumers who were questioned said that they intended to spend more on visual well-being. 71 per cent agreed with the statement, “I assign increasing importance to prevention in children’s eyecare”. He outlined the opportunities coming to the sector in terms of presbyopia (with the aging population needing vision correction), myopia management and the need for good vision and protection due to the rising role of computers and smartphones in society. He stressed that the key to success in optics was proximity.

The final presentation was from Austrian optometrist Peter Gumpelmayer, past president of ECOO and current treasurer and executive committee member. He gave a detailed and interesting overview of the MDR European Medical Device Regulation rules for eyecare in Europe. Peter had been personally involved in many thousands of hours of meetings with committees and think-tanks in Brussels to have spectacles recognised as Adapted Medical Devices to make the MDR legislation as light as possible.

After the break it was time to reminisce and Club Inter-Optiques founders were invited to share their memories and hopes for the future. This was followed by a fantastic selection of photos from past meetings accompanied by music. Harro Lotz was deservedly given a long and heartfelt standing ovation from all the invited guests.

Lunch provided the chance for delegates to mingle, catch-up and to discuss the morning’s proceedings while the boat left its moorings and sailed from the Eiffel Tower down past the Ile St Louis and back to the Eiffel Tower in time for the afternoon programme. Delegates left while the international partners sat down to an Opti-G4 meeting covering sustainability, market developments and future trends. The view into the future was kick-started with a presentation given by Jean Philippe Sayag from technology experts ACEP on technological advances such as Lidar, Web AR, Web 3.0 and Metaverse and how they will affect optics.

Everyone was in agreement that with the world shrinking due to advances in technology, with IT influencing changes to the sector, collaborative working between international associations and intelligence sharing remains necessary to ensure positive outcomes for opticians around the world.