NEW YORK—Are you clear about how customer and patient priorities have changed in the past 18 months? How to recapture their loyalty and recalibrate your connections to them? There's still time to register for the next Virtual VM Summit session, "ALL CONSUMING, A Deep Dive Into the New Consumer Mindset," which is being broadcast for the first time on Wed., Aug. 11 from 3:00  to 5:00  p.m. ET. Experts who have been talking to consumers are going to share how consumer behavior has already changed and illuminate how patient preferences are realigning. And, a special panel of independent optometrists, opticians and retail executives are going to discuss what they've witnessed in the past 18 months and how they've been rethinking their own tactics and approach.

The program will include a welcome and insights from Accenture's 'Life Reimagined' report, about how patients and consumers are emerging from the pandemic from VM's Marge Axelrad and Andrew Karp. 
 
Attendees will learn from a novel approach to consumer research illuminating many new preferences and behaviors from John Dick, founder and CEO of Civic Science, a technology and market intelligence company based in Pittsburgh. He will bring a fast and forward-looking examination of market intelligence to talk about the ways "The Consumer's Behavior Has Already Changed."
 
Stephanie Clarke, SVP of Red Havas, one of the largest communication agencies in the world, will share perspectives about the rise of e-commerce and the rapid developments of social media platforms as a new type of purchasing channel.
 
"The Patient Will See You Now" will be a chat with Destry Sulkes, MD, who is a well-known health care observer and influencer about the advent of technology. He is the executive VP of Klick Health.
 
Attendees will then hear a special conversation and panel, "Capturing the Imagination and Loyalty of Today's Patients." Matt Alpert, OD, Alpert Vision Care, Los Angeles will be guiding a 50-minute discussion with four very distinctive, accomplished eyecare professionals, independents, representing different approaches but all with a singular view of how they are managing their business. They'll share what they've noticed about changing consumer and patient priorities since the pandemic. Panel participants include:

This is the second in a multi-event series this year. VM's Aug. 11 Virtual Summit Session follows the highly-rated VirtualEYES! VM Leadership Summit event this year that delved into teleoptometry's traction and reimbursement trends.  
 
Registration for the Aug. 11 ALL-CONSUMING session includes on-demand access to the June 23 VirtualEYES! event as well. Registration includes both virtual broadcasts, full access to the VM Summit virtual platform, networking, on-demand viewing, door prizes, and exclusive access to attendees-only content after the event. Optometrists, opticians, ophthalmologists and students can register for no charge. All other industry registration is $99. Registration and other program details are posted here.
 
The theme of "Creative Disruption" will be continued in the third component of VM's 2021 Summit—a  live, in-person VM Leadership Summit to be held on Sept. 22 in Las Vegas, just prior to the launch of Vision Expo West. That session will be called "Retail & Healthcare: UPENDED! Ripping Up The Rulebook" and will examine new business models coming onstream. Details about that program and registration info will be posted soon.
 
The Platinum Sponsors of the 2021 VM Leadership Summit are EssilorLuxottica, Healthy Eyes Advantage-PECAA and VSP Global Premier Program. The Gold Sponsor is The Vision Council's Vision Health Alliance and the Silver Sponsors are Alcon and Ocuco.