Through the EssilorLuxottica Eyecare Roadshow, OPSM and Laubman & Pank optometrists have had the chance to zoom out and understand the importance of their work on a macro scale. It’s also an opportunity to form tighter bonds with colleagues, celebrate achievements and hear from Australian and New Zealand optometry thought leaders.
Ms Cheryn Goh’s experience as an optometrist is a familiar one. She finds immense fulfilment from her day-to-day duties, but sometimes it’d be nice to step away from patient-facing work and share clinical insights with her colleagues away from the consulting room.
“As optometrist’s our days are usually focussed on our patients,” says Goh, a managing optometrist at OPSM Carindale who was recently promoted to area eyecare manager for QLD/NT/NSW for EssilorLuxottica.
“Even when we do work alongside our fellow colleagues, it is sometimes challenging to find the time to discuss the complexities of life, the latest research and the evidence-based best practice.”
Her employer, EssilorLuxottica, has acknowledged that a fully engaged optometry team is one of the hallmarks of successful optometry networks today. With more than 430 stores and over 1,000 optometrists in the OPSM and Laubman & Pank network in Australia and New Zealand, the company does this through several channels, but during the past two years it has elevated this through a month-long roadshow across ANZ.
The 2023 roadshow took place across August with another planned for mid-2024. It sees optometrists across the network flock to their nearest major centre for face-to-face events to hear key updates from leaders in the business, in addition to presentations from their peers, CPD sessions, dinner and an awards ceremony, plus more.
All up, the roadshow visits six capital cities – Perth, Brisbane, Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney and Auckland. Meanwhile, optometrists living in more remote locations meet at one of 11 regionally based satellite events that are beamed into their respective state event.
This year Goh attended the Brisbane event where her OPSM Carindale team featured heavily in the state-based awards program recognising:
- Early Career Optometrist of the Year
- Regional Community Award
- Mentor of the Year
- Clinician of the Year
- Patient Choice Award
- Optometrist of the Year
Goh herself was awarded Optometrist of the Year for the QLD/NT/NNSW division.
“These events are of utmost importance as I believe that when we gather together, we can collaborate, learn from and inspire each other. It is wonderful that EssilorLuxottica sees the value in their optometrists and subsequently these roadshow events bring together the professional body to grow and develop,” she says.
“We all enjoyed leaning in and learning from the leaders in our business, and also the optometry profession, so that collectively we can strive to lift the bar of clinical excellence and provide an amazing customer journey for our patients.”
Goh says the awards ceremony always generates a buzz where individual optometrists in the business can be recognised and celebrated by their peers for their consistent hard work and dedication.
“For me personally, there was some special moments where our Carindale optometry team rallied around to celebrate each other’s achievements,” she says.
“The roar of applause and cheers from the team when it was announced that Dorota Kuchcinska, one of our full time optometrists and pillars at our store, won the award for Clinician of the Year still gives me goose bumps. It was such a magical moment that demonstrated the strength and cohesiveness of the team.”
A time to connect, share best practice
Ms Sephora Miao, senior manager of eyecare operations at EssilorLuxottica ANZ, says the roadshow is a fresh concept first devised in 2022 when it was dubbed the Next Level Eyecare Roadshow.
In previous years, EssilorLuxottica ran smaller local cluster workshops of 20-30 optometrists. There was a clear appetite for more face-to-face and the business listened, making the important step of aiming to reach all optometrists within the network.
The 2023 version – themed The Evolving Lens – was refined after feedback from the inaugural roadshow. Although it’s a significant undertaking sending the roadshow to so many centres within a short window, Miao says it provides an enriching experience for the OPSM and Laubman & Pank optometrists, so it will likely remain an annual fixture.
“It’s important to bring all of our optometry colleagues together from across our ANZ network to connect and share best practice,” she says.
In the 2023 roadshow, optometrists heard directly from key leaders in the business, with senior executives such as EssilorLuxottica’s general manager of ANZ retail Mr Matteo Accornero and senior vice president of ANZ store operations Mr Carl James attending the events. Optometry thought leaders Dr Kate Gifford and Dr Rohan Hughes capped off the events with sessions on myopia control, with attendees able to add this to their CPD portfolio.
All up, the roadshow connected with more than 600 optometrists in 2023, presenting the majority of EssilorLuxottica ANZ’s permanent optometry workforce.
Each year, Miao hopes to improve the roadshow user experience. Surveys are sent to attendees for feedback, which is factored in when drawing up the agenda for the upcoming year.
After the 2022 roadshow, two recurring themes shone through. Firstly, optometrists were interested in their own professional development and wanted to know the steps EssilorLuxottica was taking to facilitate this.
“So, as part of the roadshows in 2023, we incorporated a section on Leonardo, which is our global training platform, and looked at all of the new eyecare-related modules that are available to our optometrists,” she says.
“The second theme that came through was our optometrists wanted to understand what’s in the pipeline for their talent development. It’s great to see all our optometrists invested in their own growth, so we spoke about the work we are doing with our HR team to better define the structure of our career progression pathways. We are building a new platform to facilitate those conversations with our optometrists while also increasing the number of opportunities for our high performing talent and our most engaged optometrists.”
Another key component of the roadshow is the awards ceremony. First introduced in 2022, Miao says the feedback shows this is one of the most valued aspects. As voted by not only their optometry peers, but also store colleagues, the category winners within their region were recognised, in addition to three runners-up.
A new addition in 2023 featured sessions by key opinion leader optometrists within the network.
“These are optometrists who practise in our stores day in, day out with expertise in a particular field. For example, we had one of our Myopia Leaders present on stage in each state and share their myopia control expertise,” Miao says.
“We received a lot of great feedback about this; our optometrists loved seeing their colleagues on stage.”
The graduate experience
For graduate optometrists still finding their feet, the roadshow has proved invaluable to learn from more experienced colleagues and become more ingrained in the company culture.
This was the case for Ms Nha-Uyen Tran. She’s a graduate in the South Australia Metro Relief Team, a role covering for practices in the metro Adelaide region. She joined the ANZ National Relief Team in January 2024 to continue servicing EssilorLuxottica’s regional stores across Australia and New Zealand.
To recognise her eyecare efforts in regional and remote communities, she was awarded the Regional Optometrist Award for South Australia at the Adelaide roadshow in 2023.
“For me, a huge highlight of the night was having an interactive myopia control seminar from Dr Kate Gifford herself, to keep us updated with the clinically evidenced management options available to us currently, as well as those that are being researched and may be accessible in the near future,” she says.
Tran believes collegiality built through events like the roadshow are a major aspect of efficient, evolving eyecare.
“I’ve worked in both solo-consulting and multiple-consulting practices, and often find it is beneficial to learn from and share tips with my fellow colleagues, especially when coming across all the unique and wonderful things optometric care has to offer.”
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