About Optometry's Meeting™

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Optometry's Meeting™ is the premier event of the optometric profession. Every summer, thousands of ophthalmic professionals gather at Optometry's Meeting™ to network, learn, and have fun. Optometry's Meeting™ attracts thousands of

Optometrists
Paraoptometrics
Optometric Students
Optometric Educators
Ophthalmic Industry leaders

Optometry's Meeting™ is a combined meeting, bringing together the annual meetings of several optometric professional groups including:

The Annual AOA Congress
The Annual AOSA Conference
many others

Continuing Education

Optometry's Meeting™ supplies over 200 hours of top-quality continuing education. Courses take place Wednesday through Sunday for Optometrists, Paraoptometrics and Students. Most Optometrist courses are COPE-Approved, and several are Transcript Quality courses. Many Paraoptometric courses are approved for ABO or NCLE. Student education includes NBEO preparation courses.

Exhibits

The Optometry's Meeting™ Exhibit Hall is a spectacle for any optometric professional. Packed with the latest ophthalmic technologies from industry leaders, Exhibit Hall attendees can receive hands-on demonstrations of new products and services and make business contacts to help their practices grow. The Exhibit Hall also offers many opportunities to win prizes including cash, plasma TVs, and much more. The Exhibit Hall also hosts fun events, like Friday's Buck-a-Beer Night.

Events

The Beach Boys rocked the 2006 Presidential Celebration in Las Vegas.

Attendees of Optometry's Meeting™ are treated annually to entertaining, and sometimes historical, keynote events. Included in registration is admission to the AOA Opening General Session, sponsored by Essilor. Recent speakers at this special event include Scott Adams, creator of the Dilbert cartoon series; political commentators James Carville and Mary Matalin; and Former President Jimmy Carter.

In his 2002 Opening General Session speech, President Carter challenged attendees to create a program to address the thousands of cases of undiagnosed vision disorders in American children. That challenge inspired the creation of the InfantSEE® program.

Optometry's Meeting™ 2007 attendees heard from Ben Stein, the intelligent and witty host of Comedy Central's "Win Ben Stein's Money." Ben Stein is an accomplished author of several books, as well as a regular contributor to Barron's, Los Angeles magazine, New York magazine, The Washington Post, and The Wall Street Journal, Op. Ed. Many will recognize him as the boring teacher from "Ferris Bueller's Day Off." The classroom scene in which he starred was recently voted one of the most memorable scenes in American movie history.

The Presidential Celebration supplies attendees and their guests with lasting memories every year. Sponsored by HOYA, past attendees may recall the concerts of The Neville Brothers, the World Classic Rockers, and the Beach Boys. In 2007, attendees had the opportunity to attend a concert of the Boston Pops, one of the premier orchestras in the United States.

Locations

Optometry's Meeting™ travels around the United States offering attendees the opportunity to travel to many of America's great cities. Attendees and their guests often take advantage of the recreational highlights of the year's location. Recent locations of Optometry's Meeting™ include New Orleans, LA; San Diego, CA; Orlando, FL; Dallas, TX; Las Vegas, NV; and Boston, MA. Future locations include Washington, D.C. in 2009, Orlando, FL in 2010, and Salt Lake City, UT in 2011.

Optometry's Meeting™ is the official annual meeting of the American Optometric Association and the American Optometric Student Association.