2021 optometry meetings update

With the COVID-19 pandemic continuing to affect travel and in-person meetings, many industry groups have rescheduled their large national and international meetings—some more than once—to later in 2021.

Related: Vision Expo East 2021 reschedules

VEE changes date, location

The Vision Council and Reed Exhibitions, the groups who organize and execute Vision Expo East and Vision Expo West, recently rescheduled Vision Expo East (VEE) 2021 to late spring.

Normally held at the Javits Center in New York City in early spring, the meeting was initially pushed back to late May in the same location.

Now, the meeting will take place June 2-5 in a new location: the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando. This venue hosted the American Academy of Optometry’s (AAO) annual meeting in October 2019.

Vision Expo organizers say in a statement that the decision was based on the current restrictions on large gatherins in New York State and the successsful track record of previous events held at the Orange County Convention Center.

Related: SECO 2021 reschedules from February to April

“With strict limitations on large gatherings still in place in New York, we wanted to find a suitable location that would allow us to provide the exceptional Vision Expo experience that the community needs and deserves,” says Mitch Barkley, vice president of trade shows and meetings at The Vision Council, in a statement.

“Given its track record of successfully hosting more than 50 in-person events between March 2020 and December 2020, we are confident the right decision is to move the show to the Orange County Convention Center as the new 2021 host site in order to give our customers every opportunity to network and share their new products. We are committed to getting back to business and growing our industry.”

SECO

The Southeastern Congress of Optometry (SECO), organized by the Southern Council of Optometrists, traditionally takes place in late February or early March in Atlanta.

In early November 2020, organizers announced that the 2021 meeting will be pushed back to April 28-May 2.

SECO 2021 is currently planned to be an in-person even with an option for virtual attendance.

ARVO

Originally scheduled to take place May 2-6 in San Francisco, the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology’s (ARVO) 2021 annual meeting will be fully virtual.

ARVO’s board of announced in early December 2020 that due to travel restrictions and venue capacity, the annual meeting will be not be held in person but virtual only.

AOA

The American Optometric Association’s (AOA) annual meeting, Optometry’s Meeting, is slated to take place June 24-26 in Anaheim, CA.

VEW and AAO

Vision Expo West (VEW) and AAO annual meeting are calendared for the fall.

VEW will take place September 22-25 in Las Vegas, and AAO is scheduled for November 3-6 in Bosston.