Vision Community Joins to Advance Public Eye Health
Alexandria, VA (July 29, 2009) – The vision community joined together last week for the Eye Health Summit, a first-of-its-kind event aimed at building consensus on a public health message. The Summit, held July 21-22 in Chicago, welcomed over 110 representatives from professional associations, trade associations, major manufacturers, non-profit groups, retailers, vision care plans and government agencies.

“In planning the Summit, we knew that having the right people at the event was critical in order for us to make a difference,” said Ed Greene, CEO of The Vision Council, the host of the Summit. “Those who attended the event and those who provided input prior to the Summit added valuable insight to the process of creating a unified public health message.”

The Summit began with attendees conducting one-on-one interviews with each other to learn more about who they were, where they were from and what they hoped to accomplish at the Summit. Interviews from individuals not able to attend the Summit were also shared among participants.

Following the interviews, a compilation video was shown of various eye health messages from various organizations. A panel discussion was then facilitated, featuring Paula Berezin, founder of Social Capital who spoke on best practices for cause marketing partnership, and Jennifer Patterson and Emily Yu of Ogilvy Public Relations, who presented on their work with the Heart Truth Campaign, a partnership between the American Heart Association, the National Heart, Blood and Lung Institute and corporate partners such as Diet Coke and American Express.

“Hearing from the panelists was very enlightening and really helped to show that it is possible for an entire industry to join together to promote a cause,” said Dr. Barry Barresi, executive director of the American Optometric Association. “The panel discussion left us on a positive note to develop ideas for how a unified campaign could work for the eye health community.”

The first day concluded as attendees broke into small groups to envision and then act out what they would consider success in 2015.

Rejoining the next day, Summit attendees broke out into large groups where they brainstormed on the design of the campaign, including core elements of the public health message, communication strategies, the type of organization to manage the implementation and funding possibilities.

Following the Summit, the Core Planning Team, a cross-section of representatives from the eye and vision health community involved with the planning of the Summit, met to review notes and feedback from the event. The Core Planning Team is currently working on an initial event summary, which will be posted to www.eyehealthsummit.com, along with photos and an event video, by August 3. Next steps for the public health message development will also be outlined at this time.

Jeff Todd, chief operating officer of Prevent Blindness America, noted, “Coming together as a community at the Eye Health Summit has been an extraordinary experience. The event encouraged attendees to think about the big picture and how we can effectively promote eye health to the public. We look forward to bringing the plan to action over the coming months and invite the entire community to join us.”

For more information on the Summit, visit www.eyehealthsummit.com.