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CiO VP Awards 2020. A Virtual Affair
The 6th Edition of VP Awards may be a virtual affair with awards announcements and applause being more virtual than physical. If this is the new normal then so be it. As they say the show must go on.
Pandemics are never kind. And the current COVID-19 seems to want to be named as the heavy-weight champion of all pandemics. Other than OptiMunich and the 100% Optical Exhibition, which were in the early parts of this year, there's not been any other event this year. In fact, we consider ourselves lucky that we were able to hold the Jury Event on Feb 4th and could have the online voting for CIO VP Awards this year.
Just to recap the events on Feb 4, 2020 saw the coming together, yet again for the 6th time, of the top retailers of the Middle East to choose what they thought was the best of the best in 2019.
Held at the Windsor Room Dubai World Trade Centre Shaikh Rashid Tower, the jury meet event lived up to the expectations of getting an undeniably experienced and talented group of individuals face to face with products from across the globe that were vying for their attention and feedback.
Jury Members From The Middle East Optical Industry
So we had Mathews Jacob and Abdulla Yateem from Yateem Opticians, while Ahmed Jaber and Saleh Al Shawa represented Al Jaber Opticals. Magrabi Opticals was represented by Yasser Qassas and Khaled Mahmoud. Al Salman Optics had Ahmed Alsalman and Waleed Alsalman providing their expertise while Abdel Halim Yousef and Mutaz Alkhatib represented Eye Fashion Optics.
There was increased interest this time due to the newer brands that had participated and there was unanimity amongst the jury members about the fact that the collection this year surpassed all the previous years.
And unfortunately, the event where the awards were to be announced this year could not take place. Scheduled to be held on 11th April 2020 during the Cairo International Optical Fair at Cairo International Conference Center Naser City, Cairo, Egypt the organisers were hoping that the pandemic would not last long and were hopeful to hold the event in September or October.
However, the way things were, it was just not possible and it was decided to announce the winners in the magazine and on our digital medium. So here we are with the winners of CIO VP Awards 2020.
It may not have the same fanfare, but it does not take away from the products the glory or the pride for having gone through all the jury as well as industry voting to get what they rightfully deserve.
Here's a big hurray to the winners and we look forward to the next year, which we are sure will bring more products with newer and more advanced designs and features, more fanfare and more voting.
And the winners are....
