Blog

September 16, 2016April 24, 2018

MIDO is Gearing Up for Their 2017 Event

Milan, Italy – MIDO is revving up its engines getting ready to amaze yet again. After a record edition last year, with over 1,200 exhibitors and 52,000 professional operators from all over the world, MIDO is preparing to shine the spotlights on Wonder. From February 25-27, 2017, companies, buyers, journalists and the sector’s leading trendsetters will be in Milan to meet, do business and be inspired by a magical, engaging atmosphere.

The New Campaign

Harmonious spaces, balanced shapes, a virtuous flow of everything beautiful and useful: the new face of MIDO will be lit up by Italian excellence. With three new subjects – four in a few weeks from now – the 2017 campaign encompasses #livethewonder, a combination of art, architecture, tradition and modernity just like Made in Italy. For the 47^th edition, the MIDO communication focuses on “great beauty” that is all Italian.

MIDO: A More Social Show

Last year MIDO doubled, with 100% more social media content and interactions during the show, over 10,000 posts on Instagram and Twitter, and 2,000 new fans on Facebook. The numbers have continued to grow exponentially. The Instagram profile has grown from 400 followers at end February 2016 to 4,400. The website, www.mido.com, has also been totally renewed and made more effective, simple and interactive with cleaner graphics.

Theme Areas

Theme areas that characterized the last edition of MIDO have been reconfirmed; Fashion District, where a large and very dynamic piazza hosts the best players in the world and the small- and medium-sized companies that are inspired by the world of fashion; Design Lab, the unquestionable realm of the most visionary creatives, where they have the luxury of experimenting and being “daring”; Lab Academy reserved for young start-ups with MORE! the absolutely new addition in 2016; Lenses, for the leaders of the lens sector; Tech, the world’s largest exhibition area dedicated to machinery, raw materials and components; and the FAiR East Pavilion, the exclusive area dedicated to the most important companies in Asia.

Don’t miss the prestigious and coveted BESTORE and BESTAND AWARDS for originality, innovation and creativity.

Registration will open on October 1, 2016. www.mido.com

Click HERE to read full press release.

September 16, 2016April 24, 2018

2016 Students of Vision Scholarship Program Applications Now Accepted

LAS VEGAS – Transitions Optical, Inc. is partnering with the Opticians Association of Canada (OAC) to support the next generation of eye care professionals through the 2016 Students of Vision Scholarship Program. Opticianry, optometry and paraoptometric students from across Canada are all eligible to apply for the chance to win the top prizes of $2,500, $1,500 and $500.

To enter, applicants must develop a project in the form of an essay, presentation or video that demonstrates how, as future eye care professionals, they will educate patients and research the best optical lens solutions to make sure they are protected against harmful blue light and UV. A flyer detailing the scholarship program challenge can be found at TransitionsCanadaPRO.ca/StudentsofVision.

Projects will be evaluated by a panel of judges against on the following criteria: creativity, strategic thinking and ethics.

All submissions should be sent to StudentsofVision@Transitions.com by December 2, 2016. The winners will be announced on December 16, 2016.

Click HERE to read full press release.

September 16, 2016April 24, 2018

Safilo Announces New Licensing Agreement for Moschino and Love Moschino

Padua – Safilo Group announces a new licensing agreement for the design, manufacturing and worldwide distribution of the Moschino and Love Moschino collections of optical frames and sunglasses. The agreement will run for eight years starting from January 2018 until December 31, 2025, with an optional extension for a further eight years.

The Moschino and Love Moschino Eyewear collections will be distributed worldwide in quality optical stores, department stores and in all Moschino Boutiques.

Click HERE to read full press release.

September 16, 2016April 24, 2018

Johnson & Johnson Acquires Abbott Medical Optics

Johnson & Johnson today announced a definitive agreement to acquire Abbott Medical Optics, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Abbott Laboratories, for $4.325 billion in cash. AMO reported sales of $1.1 billion for 2015. The acquisition will include ophthalmic products in three business segments: cataract surgery, laser refractive surgery and consumer eye health.

“Eye health is one of the largest, fastest growing and most underserved segments in health care today,” said Ashley McEvoy, Company Group Chairman, responsible for Johnson & Johnson’s Vision Care Companies. “With the acquisition of Abbott Medical Optics’ strong and differentiated surgical ophthalmic portfolio, coupled with our world-leading ACUVUE® contact lens business, we will become a more broad-based leader in vision care. Importantly, with this acquisition we will enter cataract surgery – one of the most commonly performed surgeries and the number one cause of preventable blindness.”

AMO is a global leader in ophthalmic surgery and is known for world-class intraocular lenses used in cataract surgery. The World Health Organization estimates that approximately 20 million people are blind from age-related cataracts and that there are at least 100 million eyes with compromised visual acuity caused by cataracts. These numbers are steadily rising due to population growth and increasing life expectancy.

In addition to the cataract business, AMO has advanced laser vision (LASIK) technologies designed to enhance surgeon productivity and correct near sightedness, far sightedness and astigmatism. The acquisition also includes AMO’s consumer eye health products – over-the-counter drops for dry eye, as well as multipurpose solutions and hydrogen peroxide cleaning systems for patients who wear contact lenses.

The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2017 and would be modestly accretive immediately to adjusted earnings per share. The closing is subject to antitrust clearance and other customary closing conditions. Following the expected closing, sales will be reported in the Medical Devices segment as a separate platform within Vision Care.

September 15, 2016April 24, 2018

Documentary on Vision is First Film Adapted for the Colour-Blind

Sight: The Story of Vision, a documentary on the science, medicine and technology of human vision, narrated by Sir Elton John, is the first film to be broadcast with a colour correction that is adapted for the vision of people with colour blindness. Like Closed Captioning (CC) for the hearing impaired, and Video Description (VD) for low vision and the blind, the colour blind accessible correction (CA) helps those with limited red-green colour sensitivity better see differences between colours they normally struggle to distinguish.

“A few weeks ago, I tried a pair of EnChroma glasses designed to help with colour blindness,” said Kris Koenig, the film’s writer and director. “When I looked through the glasses, greens and reds became more vibrant without degrading the rest of the visible spectrum. It got me thinking about applying colour correction for the colour blind to the film, like EnChroma does with its glasses.”

Koenig worked with EnChroma President and CEO, Andrew Schmeder, to develop a colour calibration method to approximate the effect of EnChroma glasses. Steve Challot, the film’s editor, used the calibration data to implement the correction, which isolates and enhances colour along the red-green axis of colour space. The result improves the viewing experience for up to 80% of people with red-green colour blindness, depending on type and severity. An estimated 300 million people worldwide have some form of colour vision deficiency.

Full Press Release available HERE.