NEW YORK and PARIS—Readying its plans for the 2016 edition of Silmo, to be held Sept. 23 to 26 at the Paris Nord Villepinte center, organizers report that over 100 new companies will be attending the exhibition along with new add on services, special concept areas like themed pop-up stores, interactive terminals, trend spotlights and new education for exhibitors attending from around the world.

The bright yellow Silmo advertising campaign is still the theme for the trade fair’s signage and branding, linking up the different areas of the trade fair. In addition to the fair’s comprehensive offering (optical frames, sunglasses, lenses, contact lenses, low vision, equipment, optical instruments, store software and more), training and information will be a big focus as will the Silmo d’Or awards for innovation and creation.

Also new this year is a new collaboration between Silmo with Premiére Classe, the well-known influential fashion and accessories show. Starting on Sept. 2 at the Porte de Versailles exhibition centre in Paris, Première Classe will host a dedicated area for eyewear designers under the “Silmo Paris” banner.

The 300 square-meter area will group together some 30 brands, to be jointly selected by the two event planners. At the Sept 23 to 26 Silmo at Villepinte, Silmo will feature an area for fashion accessories under the Première Classe label. It will be a way of complementing this partnership between the fashion accessories and the optical industry shows.

Registration for the upcoming exhibition is open now and all details are posted at http://en.silmoparis.com/.

To convey more about Silmo’s plans for the upcoming 2016 show and its plans to translate Silmo to other markets around the world, Vision Monday spoke to Eric Lenoir, director, Silmo.


A Q&A With Silmo’s Eric Lenoir

Vision Monday: Can we convey the organization of the 2016 show— how will the segments be arranged on the floor plan, a brief description of each, how many exhibitors are anticipated so far?

Eric Lenoir: No changes have been made to the exhibition’s configuration; we still have the Village, the fashion and luxury brands, the spectacle and lens manufacturers, materials and so forth. For this 2016 edition, we are expecting nearly 1,000 exhibitors, with 900 companies signed up to date of which 85 percent are regular attendees and around 120 are new, exhibiting for the first time.

In 2017, we will be celebrating the 50th anniversary of Silmo which will be an opportunity to rethink the segmentation.

VM: What are the key points that Silmo visitors need to know?

Lenoir: Silmo remains a major business trade fair, but it is also a platform for dialogue and information. We offer exhibitors and visitors a number of useful tools: trends forums, the Trends by Silmo digital magazine, Silmo TV, Silmo Academy and more.

This year, we will debut a new exhibition area dedicated to digital technologies and intended for eyewear stores: The Experience Store is a totally new information forum presenting the most appropriate digital solutions designed to meet the needs of opticians and their customers by creating an interactive immersive experience.

VM: We reported recently about the ‘Reading’ theme of the Silmo Academy program 2016. Can you updated us about the way in which courses and education will be organized for the September show?

Lenoir: The highlight of this 7th edition of the Silmo Academy is the award of a €10,000 grant to a research project in the field of optics and vision science. An exhibition of posters and written communications open to all professionals will also be on display at the entrance to the exhibition.

In addition, we are running a lecture program over three mornings, from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., on the theme of “Reading,” featuring reading and reading processes on Saturday, Sept. 24; reading processes in children and adults on Sunday Sept. 25; and finally on Monday Sept. 26, speakers including Professor Resnikoff, the World Health Organization’s (WHO) head of the vision program, will discuss the specific processes involved in Reading as a public health project.

VM: What’s been happening with Silmo’s international expansion? We know you added a Silmo Istanbul recently. What else is planned for 2016 and what’s coming up in 2017?

Lenoir: We remain fully convinced of the relevance of the trade fair media providing that it incorporates a strong digital dimension in order to be accessible throughout the year (this is certainly true of Silmo which has deployed an effective networking strategy for the exhibition) and that market developments are closely monitored from both a global and local perspective.

For this reason we have launched new initiatives such as a collaboration with the Première Classe accessories show in Paris in September, along with a presence at Silmo Istanbul in December, standing at the crossroads of the major Eastern markets, and we will be extending our reach to the Southern hemisphere via Silmo Sidney next March.

These new additions under the Silmo umbrella meet the demands of business development in high-potential markets, enhancing the standing of Silmo Paris, the major international exhibition which brings together professionals from the sector.