Optometry Council of India celebrates 10 years

Optometry Council of India (OCI) hosted OCICON2023 as ‘Optometry Mahotsav’ a one-day conference at five different venues across India to commemorate 10 years of OCI. This one-day conference truly lived up to its tagline ‘Optometry Mahotsav’ meaning a grand festival of optometry.

The one-day conference hosted by OCI reached out to 1500 delegates across India comprising of optometry students, practitioners, academicians as well as opticians. This conference was one of its kind in the country because of its unique agenda and coverage across the country. The agenda of the conference remained same at all venues and targeted independent optometry practice and was well appreciated and received. The day’s agenda was divided into three sessions- clinical session, practice management session and legalities in optometry practice. Experts under each of the sessions were identified and some speakers were flown to all the venues so as not to dilute the essence of the agenda. OCI reached out to local partners at each of the venues as well as sponsors for all the venues which was a win-win situation for all.

Sessions:

The clinical session covered topics such as best practice standards, how and when to refer patients and the importance of record keeping. This session was well appreciated as it stressed the importance of maintaining best practice standards and offer comprehensive eye examination services to the public and not just offer refractive services.

The second session on the agenda was on optometry practice management which covered interesting topics such different practice models in optometry and how to start an independent optometry practice. This session also covered topics such as the role of social media in marketing optometry practice and the power of effective communication in winning patients trust.

The final session covered legalities and rights to optometry practice. This session generated a lot of interest as we had a financial planner who helped understand the importance of financial planning for optometrists in practice. The National Commission for Allied and Healthcare Profession (NCAHP) act was recently passed so the optometrist representative at the interim council was invited to talk to the delegates in each of the venues on the way forward for optometrists in India in terms of legalizing the profession as well as their rights to practice. The agenda was packed with all the information an optometrist would require to start or grow their practice. We received a lot of feedback on the agenda and requests for conducting similar sessions in other cities.

Sponsors:

Zeiss was the title sponsor for OCICON2023 at all the venues. They had their stall displaying their products and were given podium time in each of the venues. Essilor and Asira were gold sponsors for OCICON2023. They also had their stalls as well as podium time in each of the venues which received a lot of footfall. Euclid was the knowledge partner for OCICON2023 and were not able to be physically present in any of the venues so a video from EUCLID was played in all the venues. Cipla were the silver sponsors for the Guwahati and Kolkata venues of OCICON2023.