KEY BISCAYNE, Fla.—Informative speakers, business strategies, the rise of digital media and lots of networking under sunny Florida skies were all on the agenda for more than 250 optical industry senior executives and professional association guests at The Vision Council’s annual Executive Summit meeting held here late last month. The 2012 meeting marked the official merger of the Optical Laboratories Association (OLA) into The Vision Council, the culmination of years of discussion following a letter of intent signed in 2010. The OLA will now be the Optical Lab Division of the organization. The association also hosted the TOC (Total Ophthalmic Community) meeting during the event, hosting other vision care professional groups. And the 2012 officers and board were elected. ■


 
 The 2012 meeting marked the official merger of the Optical Laboratories Association (OLA) into The Vision Council. Here, OLA’s Mike Francesconi, (l), with Vision Council chairman, Jamie Shyer. Keynoter, Forbes’ contributor, Adam Hartung, pointed out the dangers of “locked in” thinking. 
REM’s Mike Hundert (l) with guest speaker Brian Beaulieu (c) and ClearVision’s Peter Friedfeld.  A different take on optical presented by economist, author and market trend analyst, Brian Beaulieu, of the Institute for Trend Research.


   
(L to R), Santinelli’s Rick Clemente, Jobson Interactive’s Joe Savarese, Vision Council’s Deb Malakoff Castor, Santinelli’s Gerard Santinelli and Charmant’s Dennis Davis. (L to R), Eyewear Designs’ Tom Maskery and Andrea Gluck played with Wescan’s Bev Sultineau and ClearVision Optical’s Dan McCall.

Mondottica’s Michael Jardine, (l), catches up with Tura’s Scott Sennett. Vision Council Summit program chair, REM Eyewear’s Mike Hundert, moderated a panel on optical’s e-commerce space. Participants included (l to r), Marchon’s Claudio Gottardi; Smith Sport Optics’ Scott MacGuffie; Glasses.com’s John Graham; moderator Hundert; Luxottica’s Dave Plogmann; Katz & Klein’s Mike Francesconi; AOA past president, Joe Ellis, OD; Essilor’s Howard Purcell, OD; and Coastal Contact’s Aaron Magness.