SOC 2025: celebrating 30 years of CPD
This year’s SOC offered 45 CPD
Sunday 16 November saw the annual Scottish Optical Conference (SOC) held at the Radisson Blu Hotel in Glasgow.
Around 320 delegates, a full show of 60 exhibitors and a wide array of presenters attended with 45 CPD points on offer across three dedicated tracks. This event also marked 30 years of Drs Scott and Roisin Mackie organising such events.
We had an early start, with registration and coffee from 0730. A quick look around the exhibition to get our bearings led us up to the first session on track three.
During this, we welcomed the CEO of ABDO, Alistair Bridge, who talked about the current position of dispensing opticians and the importance of our role, aims for the future and, of course, the Association’s 100th anniversary celebrations planned for next year.
Then we were straight into a series of lectures for our morning session, firstly covering free speech and social media, to ensure we meet professional standards at all times. The second lecture covered the use of technology and new developments to enhance retention of information for ourselves and our patients.
Something for everyone
Catching up with exhibitors
After a quick break, we jumped into a sustainability lecture, covering not just the products we use – but the ways in which our businesses operate. By now, we were ready to stretch our legs and took advantage of an extended lunch slot to have a tour of the exhibition hall.
A full range of suppliers were ready to meet us, talking about lenses, frames, contact lenses, dry eye solutions, technology, even financial and insurance services. This exhibition definitely had something for everyone.
I had a chat with a regular face at these events, Jeff Landucci from Mainline Instruments, who said: “It’s always great to be part of a classic educational event hosted by Scott Mackie and Vision Scotland. To have such a variety of lectures, tracks and workshops available for delegates to attend, this always brings a full house. With its huge selection of exhibitors providing quality for all your practice requirements, it just makes it one of the best events of the year.”
At the exhibition we were wowed by Rodenstock’s explanation and demonstration of biometrically-engineered lenses.
Rewarding CPD sessions
Our afternoon session consisted of some interactive CPD including a voyage through the complex waters of toric contact lenses, and what turned into a crash course in topography courtesy of the excellent Mark Ward from CooperVision. This was followed by Hoya’s Laura Watson guiding us through some of the uses and applications of a range of ‘occupational’ lenses.
Finally, we participated in a peer review session on dealing with challenging communications – hosted by Niraj Shah. This session generated some great conversations, differing viewpoints and discussions of the reasons behind them.
The day was very full-on and rewarded each delegate with up to 15 CPD points, a valuable contribution to our three-year requirement.
Claire (right) with DO of the Year finalist, Sharon Pringle (left) and Jacqui Thomson from Marchon
Awards and celebrations
The evening before, many of us had also attended the inaugural Scottish Optometry Awards hosted by the SOC and the charity, Vision Scotland.
It would be fair to say there were some operational and organisational hiccups but, as always, our fellow professionals worked through it and enjoyed a wonderful evening of celebrations and, of course, networking. We were even surprised by very entertaining singing waiters at one point.
Jenni Minto MSP, our Minister for Public Health and Women’s Health, attended the evening to give us her view on Scottish optometry and introduce the awards and celebrations.
Eilidh Thomson accepts the DO of the Year Award (second from left) presented by Alistair Bridge (far right)
Susan Ferguson of Black & Lizars was named Dispensing Optician of the Year. Unfortunately, Susan was not able to attend to collect her award, which was presented by Alistair Bridge to Optometry Scotland chair, Eilidh Thomson, on her behalf.
Simon Berry’s Visual Fixation System came out on top in the Optical Supplier Product of the Year category. All awards were judged by a range of panellists representing sponsors and supporters from across the profession and wider industry – and the full list of winners can be found on the SOC website.
In total, 13 awards were presented across the evening – with more than £10,000 raised for Vision Scotland.
A highlight of the evening was seeing Scott and Roisin Mackie honoured for their 30 years of running CPD courses in Scotland.
Dr Scott and Roisin Mackie with their special award
ABDO Scotland was ably represented at both events by ABDO vice president, Brenda Rennie, and Graeme Stevenson – so there was plenty of opportunity for DOs to engage with our professional Association and catch up with friendly faces.
Alistair Bridge commented afterwards: “It was a great pleasure to participate in this year’s Scottish Optical Conference, particularly in its 30th anniversary year. Scott and Roisin Mackie can always be relied on to stage a fantastic event that caters for the whole primary eyecare team, including dispensing opticians and contact lens opticians. As well as first-rate CPD, the lively exhibition provided a great opportunity to speak with suppliers about the latest developments in products and technology.”
Next year’s event is already in planning, says Natasha Caplan from Vision Scotland.
The date is set for Saturday 15 November, once again at the Radisson Blu in central Glasgow.