100% Optical returns to ExCeL London early next year for three days, in what its organiser describes as the United Kingdom's leading annual event for the optical industry.
The show opens on the Saturday, the twenty seventh of February, and runs through to the Monday, the first of March. The year is 2027. Doors open at a quarter past nine each morning.
CloserStill Media organises the event in partnership with the Association of Optometrists. The floor covers eyewear, contact lenses, equipment, technology and practice business services, and the programme carries continuing professional development sessions, a catwalk, a studio section for independent eyewear brands and the Love Eyewear Awards.
The organiser states that the show draws more than 11,000 optical professionals and over 250 exhibitors, with more than 110 hours of accredited development content and nine catwalk shows across the weekend.
The weekend scheduling is deliberate and tells you something about the sector. Optical practice in Britain is dominated by independents and small groups whose owners cannot close the shop midweek, so an event that runs Saturday to Monday is built around the trading pattern of its audience rather than around the convenience of its exhibitors. For suppliers, that makes it one of the few occasions in the calendar where the decision maker and the dispensing optician are the same person standing at the stand.
A caution for planners: parts of the organiser's site still carry labelling from the previous edition while the masthead carries the current dates, so confirm programme details directly.
