Opinion

“The AOP is more of a community than an organisation”

AOP chief executive, AOP Sampson, reflects on his fourth 100% Optical and the strong community and kindness he observed at the show

3 min read

Team of business people celebrate success in work collaboration together

Getty/Govindanmarudhai

Adam Sampson

12 March 2025

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After nearly four years in post as chief executive, I am getting used to the rhythms of AOP life. Some of it is stuff I was already familiar with: the annual planning and reporting cycle; the peaks and troughs of cashflow and the stresses of the year-end and audit process; the AGM and slow changeover of non-execs – all are things which in my 25 years as a CEO have been burned into my inner seasonal clock. In those respects, the AOP is only abnormal in the relative absence of drama that attends any of that work.

But like all communities – and the AOP is more of a community than an organisation – optometry has its own unique cycles. Key among those is the annual ritual that is 100% Optical.

And so, it was a Sunday recently (2 March) that I found myself rocking up at a cold, windy (is it ever anything else?) ExCeL Centre, trudging past the entry to our competitor offerings (this year, Professional Beauty 2025; last year, the National Wedding Show 2024), collecting my lanyard and finding myself again in the heart of High Street eye care.

For us, it is relentless commitment to outcomes and member support that are the markers of professionalism, not outward appearance

In the past, that journey has seemed a strange one, with the destination feeling a little like visiting someone else’s house. But for me, this year, it was familiar and welcoming. Even before I had got across the floor to the AOP stand and member café to grab that first, desperately needed coffee, I found myself stopping to greet people who I knew to get drawn into the mixture of gossip and business that is the currency of 100% Optical. Around me as I chatted swirled tens – hundreds even – of faces that I had seen before or people I could cheerfully spend time with.

And that is the great secret of 100% Optical.

Later that evening, Rob Chapman, commercial director at CloserStill Media, joined me on stage at the AOP and OT evening reception, to thank exhibitors for their invaluable support in growing 100% Optical into the great success it is today. I asked Rob what his impressions were. “We do a lot of healthcare events,” he said. “But this event feels very different. Yes – the commercial aspects are the same. But the other events seem more buttoned up, less relaxed.”

“This one is more fun,” chimed in another CloserStill Media colleague.

The AOP is, I think, an organisational manifestation of the optometry community in general

That struck a chord with me. I remember a debate I had at another organisation where the leadership team and I were working with the staff on trying to decide what our values should be. We had agreed that one of our core values would be “professional,” but during the course of the conversation, it became clear that many of the staff (particularly those from legal and financial sectors) equated professionalism with smart suits and a relentless atmosphere of sober seriousness. I have encountered a lot of organisations, and the AOP is one of the most professional ones I know. But as people who have visited us – or saw us at 100% Optical – will know, our dress code is relaxed rather than restrictive, and regular lapses into laughter are positively encouraged. For us, it is relentless commitment to outcomes and member support that are the markers of professionalism, not outward appearance.

The AOP is, I think, an organisational manifestation of the optometry community in general. As CloserStill Media discovered over the weekend, 100% Optical works on a commercial, business and policy level. But it also works on a human level. You know that bit at the end of Love Actually when the film dissolves into multiple images of real people greeting each other at an airport? You will see tens – hundreds – of those moments every year at 100% Optical when people bump into friends and colleagues they may have not seen since the last show.

And that is optometry. Professional, committed, hardworking and businesslike. But also nice, empathetic and caring. It is a community. And long live that feeling.