Silmo director Eric Lenoir

Silmo president Amélie Morel, a fourth-generation member of well-known, family-owned French eyewear company, Morel, and long-standing Silmo director Eric Lenoir welcomed representatives from the international media to the 2019 Silmo fair.

This year, Silmo attracted 970 exhibitors and 35,888 visitors. This was a 2.5% rise on last year, with 56% from overseas and 44% from France.

“Everybody is here to do business, but hopefully also for pleasure,” said Lenoir, highlighting this year’s more relaxed additions, including the new champagne bars and Silmo retro gaming area.

Silmo’s international family

Lenoir also talked about the growing Silmo family. The 52-year-old flagship Paris-based event now has two, albeit far smaller, annual regional events bearing its name in Istanbul and Bangkok. Conspicuous by its absence was Silmo Sydney, which didn’t rate a mention, confirming the end of Silmo’s relatively short-lived support for an Australasian event rivalling the biennial Optical Distributors and Wholesalers of Australia (ODMA), now O=Mega, conference and fair.

The newest members of the Silmo family are two boutique local fairs: Silmo Showrooms and Copenhagen Specs, both of which appear to be thriving.

Silmo Showrooms, described as “primarily a social event”, showcases a limited number of about 40 brands, brought together for one day at a carefully picked, upbeat location for local buyers to network with local, and not-so-local, independent frame and optical product manufacturers. It’s an “alternative business experience,” said Lenoir. Next year, Showroom events are planned for Lisbon, Prague and Beirut.

Copenhagen Specs is another successful extension to Silmo. Launched in 2014 in the Danish capital, Copenhagen Specs’ goal is to “highlight independent eyewear to independent opticians looking to offer their customers different products to distinguish themselves from mainstream and mass-produced eyewear.”

Held each year in March in Copenhagen, the boutique fair added Berlin in October last year, and will include Barcelona in May next year.

As for the next Silmo Paris, that will be held from 2-5 October 2020.