Events continue to be cancelled and postponed, most often by a year, as the pandemic continues to take its toll on the business and education world.
In this region, the latest to succumb is the Association of Dispensing Opticians New Zealand (ADONZ) annual conference which has been postponed to 29-31 October 2021 but will still be held at the Heritage Hotel in Queenstown. The change impacts the annual graduation ceremony for local dispensing optician graduates, which has also been postponed to 2021 when there will be a joint celebration for all 2020 and 2021 graduates.
Taking a holistic view, it was clear early on that Covid-19 would impact ADONZ’s planned activities for this year, said president Vineet Chauhan. “Conference and graduation are landmark events on the dispensing optician calendar… we will certainly make the 2021 Queenstown conference and graduation one to remember!”
The New Zealand Association of Optometrists (NZAO) has also decided to postpone its 90th annual conference scheduled for the end of October this year and push it back to the 29-30 October 2021, again in Christchurch.
In the ophthalmology space, The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Ophthalmologists (RANZCO) has moved its annual conference from 9-13 October this year to October 2021. It will still be held in Brisbane, but dates are yet to be confirmed. While the normally much anticipated Asia-Pacific Academy of Ophthalmology (APAO) Congress in Xiamen, China, 5-9 August 2020 has been cancelled, with plans already underway for its 2021 Congress in Kuala Lumpur, which will be APAO’s 60th anniversary congress.
