Wellington, host to this year’s CCLS conference.

The Cornea and Contact Lens Society’s (CCLS’s) mix-tape-themed conference is looking ‘Dressed For Success’, offering the latest research and best practices, opportunities to connect and, of course, plenty of fun!

This year, CCLS has taken the entire Wellington Harbourside Function Centre (formerly Mac’s) venue for its two-day conference from 22-23 March. “Harbourside is perfect as we will have dedicated spaces for plenary sessions, workshops and the sponsors’ area. The central location is also a plus, with a good choice of hotels and restaurants nearby,” said CCLS president Adele Jefferies, inviting optometrists and ophthalmologists from around the country to join them.

The conference's welcome function starts in the sponsors’ area at 5pm on Thursday 21 March, followed by a day packed with sessions, workshops, a specialists’ round table and the CCLS ‘world-famous’ dinner at the Wharewaka Function Centre on the Friday. More sessions, workshops and a second-round table will follow on the Saturday. “You will leave the event feeling energised and excited, with new ideas playing in your mind!” said Jefferies.

Simply the best

Sessions will cover ocular therapeutics, myopia management, dry eye, contact lenses and anterior segment surgery, featuring a lineup of prominent international and local speakers, including University of Auckland researchers Drs Kalika Bandamwar and Isabella Cheung, plus Jo Dykgraaf, Catherine Jennings and Professor Jennifer Craig, head of the Ocular Surface Laboratory. CCLS favourites Adele Jefferies, Alex Petty, Richard Johnson and Eleisha Dudson will also make a welcome return.

Professor James Wolffsohn, head of the School of Optometry and Audiology at Aston University, UK, will also present. The academic chair of the British Contact Lens Association, Prof Wolffsohn has published more than 300 peer-reviewed papers and presented at numerous international conferences. He is also the International Myopia Institute’s chief scientific officer, was joint-chair of the IMI white-page taskforce ‘Reflections on the implications for clinical practice’ and is on the board of the Tear Film and Ocular Surface Society, alongside Prof Craig.

More than words

The 2024 conference is also an opportunity for CCLS members to brush-up on their photography skills, perhaps capturing the progression of a contact lens fit, an interesting pathology, a complex anterior segment surgery or just something beautifully weird, said organisers. Members are welcome to submit as many of their photos as they like, with great prizes on offer, they said, adding that images cannot contain identifying patient features and must be the member’s own work. Shots will be published on the CCLS members’ private Facebook forum and on the password-protected members’ section of the CCLS website. Entries close 10 March 2024. See CCLS Photo Competition 2024 for more.

For more information or to register, click here.