More than 1570 unique visitors, a range of well-known speakers, a professional organization and goodlooking booths of almost all contactlens- and instrument suppliers in the industry. The Dutch Contactlens Congres indeed developed into one of the most important contactlens gatherings worldwide which is certainly a major compliment for the organization. I’m not qualified to comment on the level of the presentaions and lectures but I got inspired by Helmer Schweizer, President of Euromcontact, who informed his audience about the worldwide developments in terms of sales and market penetration. Sales of contactlenses worldwide increased to an amount of 7,5 billion euro. Almost one third of this figure is realized in the United States of America with only a very small percentage of the total world population. It indicates there is still something to win in Europe. Schweizer pointed out the importance of innovations. Innovation drives markets and guarantee growth in many different ways. This is extremely important for independent retailers who can use innovations to distinct themselves. The optical industry offers many innovative products, not only in contactlenses but certainly also in frames, sunglasses, lenses and (eye measurement) technology but most of them are poorly communicated to the consumer and should be used much better to inform and convince people to choose for independent opticians. The lack of communication offers smart suppliers, both business to business as retailers, the opportunity to gain larger parts of the market as they should. Time to work even harder on better communication of all the advantages of new techniques and products. This is certainly an interesting topic which maybe did not get enough attention at this edition of the Congres. Probably a good idea and a worthful addition for the next time?!
