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Learn, Change, Learn was a familiar refrain at keynote presentations and workshops delivered at this year’s Eyecare Plus annual national conference.
Held in Sydney at the Sheraton on Park from 12-13 October, the conference attracted 350 attendees from the Eyecare Plus group, who heard from serial adventurers James Cartrission and Justin Jones, inspiring business woman Catherine DeVrye, and leading members of the optometric community.
The two-day conference was MC’d by television personality James O’Loghlin while the conference dinner was MC’d by Lisa Ricketts – the ‘face’ of Eyecare Plus and a champion performer at Theatresports. Attendees included special guest Patrick Cherrier, President of Essilor Asia-Pacific.
We need to change the definition from subservience to helping and we need to change our attitude from she’ll be right to get it right
High Energy, Shared Ideas
From the very beginning, this conference was high energy and all about the open exchange of positive ideas to building business in an ethical way. In her opening address, former IBM executive, Catherine DeVrye had plenty to say about doing this by delivering exceptional customer service. As she said, many of her suggestions would already have been well known among the audience – however often those ideas slip to the back of the mind – they simply need to be shaken forward.
One of Ms. DeVrye’s most interesting observations was one about our attitude towards delivering exceptional service. She said traditionally people have confused with service with subservience – something no one wants to be. However if we choose a different definition for service – ‘to be useful’ – we all have something to aspire to and take pride in achieving.
“We need to change the definition from subservience to helping and we need to change our attitude from she’ll be right to get it right,” she told her audience. Ms. DeVrye highlighted research that found 67 per cent of Australian consumers have higher expectations than five years ago and 30 per cent have the same expectations as they had five years ago. (3 per cent have lower expectations).
She said optometrists should focus on “opening a customer relationship for the long term” rather than “closing a sale” and that practice managers need to be aware that their business is only as strong as the weakest link.
Following Ms. DeVrye’s motivational presentation, the audience heard from EyeCare Plus marketing about the group’s latest initiatives before breaking off to attend workshops. A variety of workshops ran concurrently throughout the day enabling delegates to choose from topics that included ‘Understanding ESPF and the patient benefits’, Planning the right mix of frames; ‘What’s new in technology, products & the industry’; Contact lenses and the internet’; ‘iPad optometry’ and ‘Improving Rx sunglass sales in your practice’.
Motivational Presentations
On Sunday morning, the morning kicked off with an emotionally moving and highly inspirational presentation by James Cartrission and Justin Jones, two extreme Australian explorers who constantly push the boundaries of human endurance. Cas and Jonesey (as they are best known) spoke about their recently completed journey to Antarctica where they made history by completing the longest unsupported polar expedition from the edge of Antarctica to the South Pole and back. Following their presentation, a seemingly endless queue of people eagerly waited to purchase signed copies of the duo’s books and DVDs which sold out very quickly.
The morning’s presentations continued with ‘Real life member success stories’ moderated by Eyecare Plus’ John Carroll and concluded with a presentation by CEO Michael Jacobs.
Philip Rose, National Business Development Manager for Eyecare Plus, said the conference was an enormous success. “We moved the conference by one year to get out of the ODMA rhythm so we’ve had two conferences in two consecutive years. Despite this, and the fact that following the departure last year of 28 EyeQ practices from our group, we achieved the same attendance this year as we did in 2011.
“I was approached by many people who remarked on what a great event the conference was. One person said that apart from the buying advantages, events like this are so nice they wouldn’t miss it.”
Mr Rose said this year’s conference had a greater emphasis on workshops than in previous years and there were a total of 21 CPD points available.
With attendees in Sydney from around the country, the opportunity to catch up with friends, exchange ideas on a less formal level and network with suppliers, was embraced. Exhibitors including Essilor, Mondottica, Alcon, AMO, Device Technolgies, Domani, Safilo, CooperVision, Maui Jim and Optometry Giving Sight were all onsite with trade displays.