Midwest Event Eyes Shift

Next year, the Midwest Vision Congress and Exposition will get a new location, lose part of its name, all of its tradeshow booths and its management company.

Organizers announced during the recent show, May 10–12, that next year's event will be called the Midwest Eyecare Congress and consist strictly of an educational conference. It will take place May 8–10 at the Park Hyatt Hotel in Rosemont, instead of the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center — and there will no longer be a tradeshow.

Reed Exhibitions, which owns and also manages Intl. Vision Expo East and Intl. Vision Expo West, will no longer be associated with the Midwestern U.S. event.

"Midwest Vision is really an education-driven event," said Show Manager Eileen Baird, group vice president at Reed Exhibitions. "There's really not a need in the marketplace for exhibits."

Baird said the two other editions of Vision Expo, April 11–13 in New York and Oct. 3–6 in Las Vegas, are enough to meet the national demand for a tradeshow.

This year's Midwest Vision Expo had 17,200 net square feet of exhibits with 103 exhibiting companies.

The North Central States Optometric Council, which owns Midwest Vision Congress and Exposition, will manage the new conference without the help of Reed Exhibitions.

Baird said Reed Exhibitions had been discussing the format change with the council for some time. Ultimately, the council made the decision that it would concentrate solely on education at its meeting.

"They certainly don't need ... Reed to do that," she added.