A successful show, with few pretentions

摘要

Was Optrafair 2007 the resounding success all organisers of such fairs like to claim? By manystandards, yes. Held this year over the three days of April 21-23 at the National Exhibition Centre, Birmingham, the setting for this bi-annual show now for well over 20 years, Optrafair long ago abandoned all pretensions (if indeed it ever had them) to vie with Mido, Silmo or Opti-Munich for international stardom. Its identity is that of an unashamedly national trade fair for what, by some measures, is Europe's second biggest ophthalmic market. Why is Optrafair no Mido, no Silmo, no OptiMunich even? Partly, no doubt, because the UK nowadays has reverted to its old status as a prime ophthalmic goods importer, not a prime manufacturer; partly because of its optometrically biased ophthalmic retail sector. Optometrists - the main practice-owner group in UK, from Specsavers down to singletons - need frames and lenses, and depend on retail spectacle sales for over two-thirds of income, but are more enthused by the clinical aspects of the eye examination.