NEW YORK— The program for Vision Monday’s 6th Annual Global Leadership Summit, to be held here on Wednesday, March 21 is themed “Innovation Everywhere: Embracing Creativity, Rethinking Competition” and several speakers are now confirmed for the upcoming daylong event. The program will explore new ideas transforming communications, business, products and company cultures, including new disruptive technologies that are changing long-term business models and will feature speakers from outside and within the vision care field. Session topics will include: “The New Innovation Mandate,” “Innovation and the Eye,” “Maintaining an Innovate Edge in Vision Care,” and “E-commerce Innovations.”

 
Addressing the new innovation mandate in business will be: Mickey McManus, president, CEO, and principal of MAYA Design, a technology design and innovation lab “focused on designing for people in a trillion-node world.” He spearheaded the launch of MAYA’s Pervasive Computing practice to help companies kick-start innovation around business challenges in a vastly connected world. McManus is the coauthor of Trillions: Thriving in the Emerging Information Economy, to be published by John Wiley & Sons. Also speaking will be John Shagoury, president, Eliza Corporation, an experienced health care executive who will talk about Eliza Corp’s unique take on the radical changes impacting health care delivery.

Showcasing emerging trends in self-service health care, consumer empowerment and social media will be Bart Foster, founder and CEO of SoloHealth, a leading health care technology company that specializes in interactive health screening kiosks, as well as other platforms, to empower consumers about their health through awareness, education and action; its SoloHealth Station recently won the Intel Innovation Award.

Among those speaking at a special session examining “Innovation and the Eye” will be: Dr. Ramesh Raskar, an associate professor at MIT Media Lab and the head of the Lab’s Camera Culture research group who will talk about new technologies including EyeNetra.com and EyeCatra.com; Barbara Barclay, general manager, Tobii North America, who will shed light on new eye-tracking technologies; Innovega’s co-founders Steve Willey, CEO and director, and Jerry Legerton, director, will discuss the company’s range of new eyewear-based displays and mobile accessories products leveraging rich, HD, 3D smartphone content; and Jim Little, VP of R&D for Second Sight, a leading developer of retinal prostheses who will discuss the company’s Argus II Retinal Prosthesis System which restores vision for people blinded by outer retinal degenerations, such as retinitis pigmentosa.

 
Among a panel focusing on “Maintaining an Innovative Edge in Vision Care,” including the optical retailing arena, will be Alan Ulsifer, OD, CEO, president, and chair of FYidoctors one of the largest and fastest-growing providers of eyecare services and products in Canada, with 101 locations and a team of 260 optometrists and over 1,100 staff members. Also speaking about keeping an edge will be Don Bye, vice president of Optical Services for Shopko, who oversees all aspects of Shopko’s optical centers for the Green Bay, Wis.-based, $2 billion retailer with operations throughout the Midwest, Mountain and Pacific Northwest regions. Among those taking part in the “E-commerce Innovations” session will be John Graham, general manager, Glasses.com.

Registration for the Vision Monday Global Leadership Summit is now open for the daylong event and exclusive forum, geared to senior-level executives in the retail, professional, lab and supplier sectors of the optical industry. Go to www.visionmonday.com/summit to register for the event which will be held at The Times Center, from 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., on March 21, the Wednesday prior to the start of International Vision Expo East.

The 2012 Vision Monday Global Leadership Summit’s lead sponsor is Essilor. Supporting sponsors include: Alcon, CareCredit, DAC Vision, Luxottica, Shamir and International Vision Expo. ■