SCENE + HEARD: Meetings Top Labs Named At Labapalooza By Staff Wednesday, November 12, 2008 6:00 PM RELATED CONTENT Following Obama’s Election: What Does the Future Hold? ‘Trash to Treasure’ Winners Announced at Labapalooza OLA 2008 Focuses on Working Smart OLA Speakers Outline Macro, Micro Views of the Economy Wholesale Lab Panel Sparks Lively Exchanges Hall of Fame Honors 12 Industry Veterans Hot off the presses, Transitions Optical’s Mary O’Hara, Brian Hauser and Courtney Haines thumb through the 2008 Top labs Report. NASHVILLE—The time honored tradition celebrating the release of Vision Monday’s Top Labs Report got a bit of a facelift here on Nov. 7 as the much anticipated Labapalooza debuted at the OLA. This year’s festivities included the release of VM’s Top Labs 2008 Report, as well as the presentation of LabTalk magazine’s Optical Laboratories Web Site of the Year Award. The first annual Trash to Treasure art contest, sponsored by LabTalk magazine, DAC Vision, and Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics, saw 18 unusual creations all created from finishing pads. See story and pictures of the winning entries on page 3. Vision Monday’s Top Labs were honored at the Labapalooza Party. Labapalooza was hosted by Jobson Medical Information and three levels of sponsors. Title Sponsors: Schneider and Shamir. Ultra Sponsors: Gerber Coburn, OLA, Santinelli International and X-Cel Optical. Premium Sponsors: Digital Vision, Inc., Flexlink, national Optronics, Optical Synergies, and The Vision Council. Partygoers were entertained by the sounds of the all optical OffAxis rock ‘n’ roll band. VM’s annual Top labs report, now in its 17th year, ranks both independent and supplier owned labs by net sales. It will be published in the Nov. 10 issue of Vision Monday. 1 Essilor 2 Hoya Vision Care 3 Carl Zeiss Vision Laboratories 4 VSP Optical Laboratories* 5 Nassau Vision Group/Nova Optical Lab The Top 25 Independent Wholesale Labs for 2008 are, in rank order: 1 Walman Optical 2 Pech Optical 3 Luzerne Optical 4 CSC Laboratories 5 Icare Labs 6 Three Rivers Optical 7 Expert Optics 8 Rite-Style Optical 9 Robertson Optical 10 MJ Optical 11 Diversified Ophthalmics 12 Balester Optical 13 Classic Optical Laboratories 14 Hirsch Optical 15 Precision Optical Group 16 Winchester Optical 17 Brothers’ Optical Laboratory 18 Toledo Optical 19 FEA Industries 20 Perfect Optics 21 Katz & Klein 22 Optical Prescription Lab 23 Eye Kraft Optical 24 Southwest Lens 25 Hawkins Optical The Top 10 Optical Laboratory Web Site of the Year Award winners were recognized at Labapalooza. After being listed as a top 10 Web site for eight consecutive years, Katz and Klein optical laboratory of Sacramento, Calif. has emerged as the winner of the 2008 Optical Laboratory Web Site of the Year award contest. For the second year, nominations were solicited from eyecare professionals through Vision Monday’s online survey tool. Over 480 nominations were cast with Katz and Klein receiving 74 of those nominations followed by Cherry Optical with 72 nominations and Diversified Ophthalmics with 70. LabTalk’s editor Christie Walker (center) presents Corrine Hood and Mike Francesconi of Katz & Klein with the Optical Laboratory Web Site of the Year Award. While the top 10 sites were selected based on nominations with each Web site being awarded points for the “popular” vote, these points were added to the scores of the judges to determine the winning order. A panel of eyecare professionals ranked the top 10 sites based on: usefulness to the ECP, ease of use and the site’s overall look and design. The Web Site of the Year award, sponsored each year by LabTalk magazine, was presented at Labapalooza, the Friday night lab party held here. Below are a list of the top 10 optical laboratories and their winning Web sites: Katz & Klein (1st Place) Diversified Ophthalmics (2nd Place) Empire Optical (3rd Place) Tri-Supreme Optical (tied for 4th) Pech Optical (tied for 4th) Cherry Optical (tied for 5th) iCoat (tied for 5th) Classic Optical (6th place) Central Optical (7th place) FEA Industries (8th place) www.katzandklein.com www.divopt.com www.empireoptical.org www.tri-supreme.com www.pechoptical.com www.cherryoptical.com www.icoatcompany.com www.classicoptical.com www.centraloptical.com www.feaind.com Pictured above at rehearsal are (l to r) Robert Shanbaum, David Salk, Andy Karp, Angela Carroll, Bill Gerber, Steve Santinelli and Eric Lindquist. Calvin Howell is not pictured.