ORLANDO, Fla.—ClearVision’s Long Island-based home office group and many on the company’s sales team overcame significant obstacles to make it to this sunny Florida venue for the company’s national sales meeting earlier this month.

In the wake of Hurricane Sandy, which wreaked such damage in the home region and disrupted communications and travel on much of the East Coast just a few days prior, ClearVision’s execs and planning team debated the options, but decided to proceed with the meeting, and with a great deal of extra effort, pulled off a positive, forward-looking event.

The meeting featured the celebrations, a “Breakfast of Champions” recognizing service, a Halloween and an open afternoon/evening at nearby Epcot.

Dan McCall, ClearVision’s chief sales officer, noted, “Our theme, ‘CV & You – Together we make the Difference,’ enabled us all to come away with some key discoveries, and an increased focus to support our customers. This national sales meeting brought us a great opportunity to showcase the excellence in our company as we launched our President’s Council program for Sales Excellence, and recognized other sales leaders in several categories. We discovered ways to gain synergies across our internal and external resources, and I feel that we are in a great position to finish 2012, and begin 2013, in a strong position.”

Mary Crisafulli, ClearVision’s chief talent officer, added, “The 2012 National Sales Meeting was a celebration of the perfect pairing of CVO and our Best in Class Sales Team. We emphasized the business expertise that our sales team brings to the table and what we can offer our customers beyond an outstanding product. We spent time as a team to reinforce our strengths and shore up our skills for the coming year. We had an opportunity to preview our 2013 product line and marketing materials so that we can enhance our customers experience and business practices.”

Guest speakers made it down to Florida, too, despite Sandy. The Vision Council’s Rene Soltis, senior director of meetings and education, talked to the ClearVision sales team about “Power of YOU…Creating your brand.” Jay Binkowitz, president and CEO of GPN, talked about managed vision care, its impact on the industry and how sales reps can offer value propositions to customers in the face of managed care. Marge Axelrad, Vision Monday’s SVP/editorial director, presented an overview of 2012 industry stats and a look at some of the trends likely to shape business in the coming year. ■