Meeting preview: Vision UK 2014

This year, the Vision UK 2014 conference will be held on Thursday 12 June at the Queen Elizabeth II conference centre in London, UK. Attendees can look forward to key opinion leaders discussing the UK Vision Strategy and emphasizing the initiatives that need to be implemented across the UK.

"The conference is about bringing together examples of best practice," said Anita Lightstone, chief operations officer of VISION 2020 UK and UK Vision Strategy programme director. "Plus, we have some absolute keynote speakers, the leaders in the field, to take forward and bring new ideas so it's about the basis to make things better for the future."

Quite a special year

Nick Astbury, chairman of VISION 2020 UK, is actively involved with the development of the UK Vision Strategy and will be introducing this year's conference. "Topics will include the importance of working collaboratively, sight loss prevention, how to reach the most vulnerable groups, innovative approaches to eye care delivery, emotional support, the latest developments in travel and transport and building successful careers," he said.

To implement and address the priorities of the strategy, the programme this year has been separated into morning and afternoon sessions. Following the welcome reception and key note address will be the 'Morning streams', which comprise four different areas of focus and will be mainly about examples of good practice followed by discussion.

Morning programme

Stream One: Making the Strategy happen

In this session three leading experts will discuss how they have worked collaboratively to put the UK Vision Strategy 2013–2018 into action.

Stream Two: The emotional impact of vision impairment

This session will examine the latest research and projects looking at the impact of sight loss.

Stream Three: Advances in travel and transport

Chaired by Chris Lewis, leading technology expert and chair of the Vision 2020 UK Technology for Life Group, this will look at the latest developments in travel and transport.

Stream Four: Oral Presentations from poster presenters

"As research is so much more important than it was, we've added this last session," confirmed Ms Lightstone. This new session will give poster authors the opportunity to present their studies in quick-fire 10 minute oral presentations.

It will be chaired by Richard Wormald, FRCOphth Consultant, Moorfields Eye Hospital, London, UK, who commented, "This is the first year we've included oral presentation as part of the conference. We'll be showcasing some of the amazing work being done across the sectors across the UK in implementing the UK Vision Strategy. Delegates will get the chance to ask questions of the presenters to get a more in depth understanding of their work."