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NEWS TRANSITIONS ACADEMY 24 march 2015 opticallabproducts.com Activating Success Transitions Academy once again hit some high notes. THE 19TH ANNUAL Transitions Academy was the frst one since Essilor of America, Inc. has acquired 100% of Transitions Optical, Inc. Latin American ECPs were not invited to this year's event at Disney's Contemporary Resort in Orlando (January 26-27) but 100 North American ODs were, bringing the number of attendees to nearly 500. XTRACTIVE The theme was Activate Now and focused heavily on Transitions ® XTRActive ® lenses. "We want to activate success and the Transitions brand," Bertrand Roy, general manager, Transitions North America, stated in his introduction. "Our audience is focused on the North American market where there is still untapped potential," said Catherine Rauscher, global director for lenscaster partners. "Fewer than 5% of ECPs are actively dispensing only two pairs of Transitions products a month," she added. SELF DIRECTION Sally Hogshead's keynote address about "How to Fascinate" encour- aged attendees to remember "your greatest value is to become more of yourself." A person's average attention span used to be 20 minutes and is now only about nine seconds, so we all need to make an impression quickly, she asserted. 2015 GOALS On day two of Transitions Acad- emy, Sherianne James, global director of marketing at Transitions took to the stage to say the photo- chromic lens category is growing at twice the rate of ordinary lenses. Catherine Rauscher, global director for lenscaster partners and Bertrand Roy, general manager, Transitions North America, welcomed attendees on the frst day. Sally Hogshead, author and motivational speaker, opened Academy with a key- note address. An afternoon panel session included Brian Conley, Optical Prescription Lab; Jason Johnson, Henry Ford OptimEyes; Denny Geuder, Expert Optics; Christine Breton, Opto-Réseau; Vito Romano, Costco Optical; Tory Moore, OD, Dumas Vision Source; and Marie-Josée Mercier, Lunetterie New Look Eyewear. An Orlando-based team building company, Play with a Purpose, conducted experiments and activities in the afternoon to help attendees look at Transitions XTRActive lenses in a fresh way. Having fun experimenting outside with Transitions XTRActive lenses. Paddy McDermott, president of Transitions, summarized key points. "We'll continue to activate the brand," said Patience Cook, Transitions' associate director of North America marketing.