DEF at American Academy of Ophthalmology (Chicago, October 1-3)
Aidan, Mandy and Rebecca at DEF’s booth at Academy
AAO 2022
This past weekend, Dry Eye Foundation hosted a booth at the American Academy of Ophthalmology for the first time. It was a wonderful experience all round. I have often attended the AAO’s annual meeting in the past in order to attend courses and meet with doctors, but DEF has never had a booth there, so it was an exciting milestone.
Friday
Aidan and I had a 6:00am (ouch!) flight out of Seatac. When we landed in Chicago, it was too early to check in to the hotel, so we went straight to McCormick Place to set up our booth and get everything ready for the grand opening of the exhibit hall Saturday morning.
It was a stunningly beautiful day in Chicago, and I managed to get some free time for a walk that evening.
Saturday - Sunday - Monday
Mandy drove down from Madison, Wisconsin to join us, and brought the all-important Halloween candy and bucket.
For our booth location, which was near registration, Saturday was our busiest day, but we had lots of great conversations with doctors all three days, and we had plenty of visitors from other booths as well. It was fun to see the word getting out.
Our main goal in having a booth was to raise awareness amongst ophthalmologists about the resources we have for patients and the ways in which we are working to partner with the eye care provider community. We have brochures and cards for doctors to give their patients, so we took lots of orders for brochures at this meeting. But I think what we treasured most was the conversations, and connecting with doctors who who have a strong sense of how much people struggle at a practical and emotional level.
It was such a luxury having three of us at the booth - that meant that each of us had plenty of time to get out and do other things, from attending courses to visiting other companies. Another goal I had was connecting with companies who might be interested in sponsoring our Dry Eye Helpline, and I came away with some great prospects.
While OTC products have been quiet lately, there’s lots going on in late-stage new drug development, so I took the opportunity to refresh our drug pipeline page at DryEyeZone. There are actually three drugs currently awaiting a (hopefully) thumbs-up from the FDA, and one more expecting to file their application this quarter.
One of the most noticeable things about this year’s AAO attendance, other than that it was - thankfully - busier than last year, was that the international ophthalmology community are back! We got to visit with doctors from all over South America and Asia as well as Europe. I even met a delightful Greek ophthalmologist from Larissa and her daughter from Thessaloniki (I lived in the latter for eight years in my now distant youth). I don’t often get a chance to speak Greek to anyone but my husband these days, so that was fun.
The beautiful weather continued and I couldn’t resist walking down to the lakefront to catch the sunrise Monday morning:
Tuesday
The Seattle area has been breaking all kinds of summer records for “warm and dry” - making up for what seemed an interminably cool, wet spring - only, the heat is pushing well into the fall now. It seems strange to be looking forward to warmer temps in Seattle! But after a very long weekend away, it’s nice to be home.
Next, the other AAO!
In just three weeks, the three of us will be heading down to San Diego for the American Academy of Optometry!
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