December 15, 2015 
opti is much more than just a trade show for product presentations: Opticians get additional technical input for their everyday professional life…
Alone judging from the numbers, it is quite clear that the opti forum promises a comprehensive packet with regards to market orientation: Over 60 speakers offer 860 minutes of information in 37 presentations. Two issues will remain in the focus of the programme on all three days. These first-time key topics at opti will be reflected in the product presentation in the halls: vintage eyewear and digital optometry. The presentations, which are free of charge, will also be available in English.
At the opti forum, 136 students from optometry colleges, optometrists, trainers from professional optical academies, experts from market research institutes and ophthalmologists from Germany and abroad will debate in Hall C2 on the key topics affecting optometry. Instead of lengthy speeches, the opti forum will be providing versatile and at times controversial discussions.
The “Vintage Summit” discussion is all about design and style. Here, the four collectors of vintage eyewear, Mimi Lem (Belgium), Lee Yale (UK), Christian Metzler (Germany) and Matti Piipponen (Finland) will be some of the speakers on stage at the opti forum. They will be talking about their passion for collecting and will also explore the question: What impact does the frame design of the 70s and 80s have on modern frames? The Vintage Summit will be held twice: on Friday (12:45 p.m. – 1:05 p.m.) and on Sunday (3:45 p.m. – 4:05 p.m.).
At the same time, there will also be a new exhibition with cult design classics in the new !HOT area in Hall C1. Here, Christian Metzler, among other exhibitors, will be showcasing a selection from his 500 eyewear collection in Munich: models of the late 70s and early 80s. It will be interesting to see whether his favourite, a black Alpina M1, will be featured. Matti Piipponen operates the Vintage Eyewear Shop, Runebergin Silmälasi, in Helsinki. His private collection features over 100 vintage glasses, solely from the Cazal brand. Among the models he will be showcasing at opti is his “Queen of Hearts”, a Cazal 642.
The opti forum also stimulates other important debates, e.g., in digital optometry. This is the first time that opti is devoted to this subject. The spectrum hereby includes 3D comfort refractions, centring of lenses using digital measuring equipment and integration of the lenses using digitally controlled edging machines. A series of lectures on digital optometry will be held at the opti forum. For instance, Maik Hartung (Carl Zeiss Vision) and Prof Dr Peter Baumbach (Aalen University) will be among the experts who will be, together with journalists and publisher Jörg Spangemacher, discussing about “digital optometry and ophthalmic optics” on Sunday (1:15 p.m. – 2:05 p.m.). The debaters will be looking to answer the following questions: Which benefits do opticians get from digital measurement methods and manufacturing techniques in the production of high-quality glasses and contact lenses? Which tools and machines are expensive but ineffective?
On Saturday (2:15 p.m. – 3:05 p.m.), a discussion will be held under the title “Refraction – where are we headed and what benefits do the new opportunities bring. From 3D refraction to self-refraction on the computer.” The debaters will include Rainer Kirchhübel (CEO of Oculus Optikgeräte GmbH) and Georg Stollenwerk (President of IVBS – Internationale Vereinigung Binokulares Sehen).
In addition to technical presentations, visitors can also find a list of about 20 exhibitors who offer appropriate technologies for opticians. This list can be found at http://www.opti.de/digitale-optometrie under “Exhibitors at a glance”.
The range of topics at the opti forum covers all activity fields of opticians. For instance, two of the presentations will be on the topic of presbyopia. The beginning will be made by Oliver Kolbe, a doctoral student at the Ernst-Abbe-University. He has been researching the effects that lens designs have in presbyopic people who work with screens, and who suffer from asthenopia. He will be presenting the results on Friday from 1:15 p.m. – 1:35 p.m. under the title “Presbyopia and working with screens”.
On Sunday, visitors will similarly be looking forward to new research results in a presentation under the title “Presbyopic care using single-vision Ortho-K lenses” (10:15 a.m. – 10:35 a.m.). Torsten Pirwitz from Beuth University of Applied Sciences, Berlin will showcase the effects of Ortho-K lenses on the close-up sight of persons with presbyopia.
“Will the whole world soon be short-sighted? Myopic research between science and reality” is the title of a panel discussion that will be held on Saturday from 11 a.m. – 12:05 p.m. Here, Prof Dr Focke Ziemssen (senior physician at Universitätsklinikum Tübingen – Eye Clinic), Dr Bastian Cagnolati (CEO of Optometry Cagnolati), and Dr Arne Ohlendorf (Carl Zeiss Vision GmbH) will be among those debating on the subject.
The complete programme of the opti forum will be available online from mid-December. Information on all presentations, speakers and the corresponding times will be available on www.opti.de/programm.