All The Fun Of The Fair
It was all the fun of the fair on Saturday as Valli Opticians held their annual Valli Vision Conference at Cedar Court Hotel. The conference was attended by every staff member from across the company with the aim of the day being bringing people together for team building and bonding. The event was sponsored by 3 main suppliers, Hoya Lenses UK, Coopervision Contact Lenses & Dunelm Optical Co with representatives from each company playing their part in the days activities.
It has been 2 years since Valli Opticians took over A H Mertons Optical group which made the Valli group grow from 7 Yorkshire based practices to the 14 strong group it is today with practices stretching from coast to coast across the North of England.
The idea was to twin a Yorkshire practice with a North West practice for the purpose of sharing ideas, support and friendship, much like town twinning is in Europe.
The tables were arranged into twin teams and activities were centred around people getting to know each other and sharing ideas. The activities were fun and interactive and everyone enjoyed getting to know their new twins, creating a team name and logo.
After lunch the indoor fairground was unveiled with clowns, jugglers and emus, candyfloss & popcorn. Each team tried their luck at traditional fairground games that had been given an optical twist.
Clinical Director Chris Jones ran the “Play your prescription cards right” stall entertaining the crowds with his jaunty dancing and quick wit to the cries of “Higher” and “Lower”.
Coopervision Contact Lenses hosted the Coopervision Coconut Shy and Tin Can Alley as team members tried to knock down boxes of contact lens solutions and contact lenses to win points.
Hoya Lens Uk made a great effort with their fancy dress costumes and managed three stalls for the afternoon. The Hoya hoop game had everyone aiming to win with the giant inflatable basketball game. Hoya darts game focused the team’s throwing techniques with many hitting the bullseye and the Hoya buzz wire had everyone trying to keep a steady hand.
The Dunelm Optical rep manned the “Hook-a-Frame” game which tested the teams fishing skills as they hooked frames from buckets.
Each team member kept a score card and the team with the highest average score were presented with the highly coveted Valli Team Cup which had been handcrafted by Moin & Rachel’s son Eisaa especially for the event. The cup was won by team Woodburn (Twin team of Lockwood & Blackburn) who each get to keep a part of the trophy.
The event was a great success as new friendships blossomed and everyone united as one big family. The fun and festivities carried on into the evening with the annual Valli Staff Awards.
