Preliminary unaudited attendance figures for International Vision Expo West, held September 21-25, 2011 at the Sands Expo and Convention Center in Las Vegas, indicate that 12,359 eye care professionals attended the show, down 436 individuals from 2010 audited figures. The conference program delivered 388 hours education, 80 additional hours of education over the previous year and drew 4,172 eye care professionals, while the exhibit hall saw 8,187 attendees. A final complete third-party audit of International Vision Expo West will be available approximately six weeks after the show.
"Despite a slight dip in attendance, overall show quality remained high and feedback from the show floor was excellent," said Tom Loughran, vice president for Reed Exhibitions. "Attendees were much more focused in their approach on the show floor than we have seen in the past. They did their research and came to Vision Expo West with the intent to learn, source and buy."
Many Exhibitors reported that this was the best show they have had in years. "The energy and traffic at this year's Expo was positively buzzing," said Jill Gardner, senior vice president of Signature Eyewear. "We had a great show and were excited to see so many customers in attendance. We definitely felt the excitement of the show was a positive direction for our industry even once the show was over."
Holly Rush, senior vice president of sales for Luxottica USA, echoed the enthusiasm: "Vision Expo West was a huge success for us this year. Thanks to the hard work and dedication from our team along with an incredibly inviting atmosphere, the event was a spectacular showing for Luxottica. Our booth was overflowing with energy, customers and orders from start to finish."
"Vision Expo West 2011 was one of our most successful shows to date," said Joseph Tallier, vice president of global sales for Ogi Eyewear. "Although the attendance was down, the amount of traffic in our booth was up considerably. The growing trend among attendees is to cut down the amount of frame lines that they carry and focus on the brands that best suit their practice. Many of our new accounts stressed the importance of high quality products, affordable price points and reliable customer service; the three pillars of Ogi Eyewear."
Kris Kobayashi, OD of Del Rey Optometry at the Marina in Marina Del Rey, CA, also reported a positive show experience after participating in the OPTImum Program. "We had not been [to Vision Expo West] in several years and knew we needed to cover a lot of ground. The 40 minute show floor [tour] gave us access to a lot of wonderful information and the suggestions we received were spot on. Because of that, we are looking to bring in several vendors that were not on our initial interest list." The OPTImum program hosts first time ODs from $1M practices and key buying groups from California, Texas, Canada and Latin America.
"Vision Expo West continues to be successful because of the exhibitors and attendees," said Loughran. "Each year we solicit feedback and look for ways to build upon the initiatives we've put in place to make future shows even better. We know attendees want convenient access to the latest industry news, technologies and learning and we intend to keep providing that to them."
Next year, International Vision Expo West will be held September 5-8, 2012, at the Sands Expo and Convention Center in Las Vegas. Show dates are confirmed with the Sands Expo and Convention Center through 2020 in the September/October timeframe.
For more information about International Vision Expo West, including images and video highlights from attendees, exhibitors and celebrities, please visit www.visionexpowest.com.
For any further information please contact:
Stephanie Sikorski
Tel: (703) 740-2248
Email: ssikorski@thevisioncouncil.org