San Diego, California – May 3, 2021 – Eyes On Eyecare hosted Eyes On Dry Eye on Friday, April 23 and Saturday, April 24. The two-day virtual event was attended by nearly 4,000 ECPs—with 3,500 of them optometrists and 1,150 practice owners. This event set an attendance record for the largest event—live or virtual—dedicated to Dry Eye Disease treatment and management. Attendees consumed more than 850,000 minutes of content presented by 30 distinguished speakers. Twenty-two sponsors, including Allergan, Novartis, Alcon, Dompe, EyeEco and ScienceBased Health, participated in the virtual Exhibit Hall and fielded over 3,000 attendee booth check-ins.
Highlights of the event included 8 hours of free, COPE-approved CE on cutting-edge topics in dry eye; group chats with lively discussion between attendees; more than $5,000 in raffle prizes; early access to the 2021 Dry Eye Report; and the chance to speak with representatives of top pharmaceutical, medical device, service, and other organizations in dry eye treatment and management.
Educational sessions took place in two tracks and were moderated by the Eyes On Dry Eye Co-Program Chairs and event co-founders, Ahmad Fahmy, OD, FAAO, Dipl. ABO and Damon Dierker, OD, FAAO: the Clinical Track, moderated by Dr. Fahmy, and the Implementation Track, moderated by Dr. Dierker. Exhibit Hall moderator Matt Geller, OD, co-founder of Eyes On Eyecare, hosted interviews with dry eye experts and industry leaders in live sessions. Recordings of select presentations will be made available to watch on-demand soon. Outside of the panels and presentations, attendees chatted with booth agents from companies like Bio-Tissue, TearLab, Lumenis, and more.
The event began on Friday with a lecture from Paul Karpecki, OD, FAAO on managing ocular surface disease in the pandemic, and a panel featuring Janelle Davison, OD and Selina McGee, OD, FAAO on crafting a dry eye patient workflow. The day concluded with an all-star CE panel featuring Dr. Fahmy; Eric Donnenfeld, MD; Dr. Karpecki; and Walter Whitley, OD, MBA, FAAO, who discussed innovative technology and the future of OSD treatment. The event wrapped up on Sunday with a never-before-seen Dry Eye Game Show featuring dry eye experts Laura Periman, MD; Jake Lang, OD, FAAO; and Jerry Robben, OD; plus a video contest where attendees voted on the best video submissions from ODs on Instagram.
Eyes On Dry Eye was a resounding success, with a net promoter score (NPS) of 74 according to a post-event survey of 440 attendees. The event received overwhelmingly positive feedback from attendees on everything from the CE talks to the educational fun of the Dry Eye Game Show and the Instagram contest. Attendees described the event as “an awesomely unique format,” “outstanding content,” and “a great and informative event.” “COVID-19 doesn’t stop us from learning—thanks to doctors like you!” raved one doctor. International attendees joked that they had stayed up late just to catch the sessions—all the way from Germany, Great Britain, Kenya, and Australia, among others.
“Eyecare professionals have a huge opportunity to make a difference in the lives of their patients with dry eye, and with events like this we see the passion and commitment that our colleagues in the industry bring to their practice,” says Matt Geller, OD and CEO of CovalentCreative, the parent company of Eyes On Eyecare. “We couldn’t be more excited for the future of dry eye treatment and management, and we’re so proud of how positive the reaction has been to our virtual events for both specialists and the eyecare community as a whole. We’re going to take everything we’ve learned here and at Eyes On 2021 to make future events even more powerful and engaging.”
Eyes On Dry Eye 2021 was produced by CovalentCreative, the company behind eyecare’s premiere virtual event platform. Click here to see a list of upcoming Eyes On events. To learn more about sponsoring an Eyes On event or to reserve one of the remaining sponsorship slots for Eyes On Glaucoma 2021, Eyes On 2022, or Eyes On Dry Eye 2022, please email CovalentCreative’s COO, Dr. Brett Kestenbaum, at brett@covalentcareers.com.
About Eyes On Eyecare
Eyes On Eyecare is a digital publication that focuses on providing clinical and career education to the young generation of optometrists and ophthalmologists. Eyes On Eyecare is operated by CovalentCreative, which has launched notable brands like CovalentCareers, CovalentCreators, OptometryStudents.com, and NewGradOptometry.com. Based out of San Diego, CA, CovalentCreative boasts an elite team of nearly 30 individuals with a combined 50+ years of clinical, media, content, and talent acquisition experience in the optometry and ophthalmology space.
