TEMECULA, CALIF.—The California Optical Laboratories Association (COLA) held their annual meeting here and presented Lori Treadwell, co-owner of Precision San Diego with the 2011 West Coast Good Fellow Award.  The Good Fellow Award honors an individual who is respected and admired by his or her peers and who truly represents a “Good Fellow.”  The perpetual trophy was presented by Terry Yoneda, Younger Optics to Treadwell during the President’s Reception and Dinner on Thursday night.

The second day of the meeting included three educational workshops. Cathy Ives and Shirley Platzer-Stocks from TheOpticalVisionSite.com provided tips and information on how labs can utilize Facebook, Twitter, and other social media outlets to keep their customers engaged and informed.

Ed de Rojas, Quest Optical and Arman Bernardi, iCoat Company presented: AR Coating—What It Will Take to Get It, which included detailed information on what labs need to consider before considering in-house AR.  The last presentation of the day was a panel discussion with lab owners, lens and equipment vendors on Everything a Lab Should Know About Digital Installation.  According to DVI’s stats from 200 labs, in 2007 1.9 percent of all work was digitally surfaced progressives. In 2011, that percentage has increased to 19.8 percent.  The panel compared the advancement of digital surfacing to the advancement in AR and Polycarbonate, stating that digital surfacing was “not going away.”