We Won!

Just before Christmas we closed the practice for 2 days, headed down to Knock Airport and flew to London as we had made it to the final of the UK and Ireland Optician Awards. We were finalists for Fashion Practice of the Year and we were up against x5 other practices from London, Manchester, Cardiff, Birmingham and Norwich so we were definitely the underdogs.

The Optician Awards are like the Oscars for the Optical World. Fashion Practice of the Year is one of the most sought after awards so it was an honour to be selected amongst such established and successful practices. We stayed in an Airbnb and got all scrubbed up for a fun night. The awards were held in The Hilton on Park Lane and we arrived into a jam packed champagne reception and got chatting to lots of other finalists. Most people had never heard of Sligo and one English man even asked me where in Scotland Sligo is. I did a quick Choose Sligo presentation, so hopefully we might have some optical tourists coming to Sligo sometime soon!

Like the Oscars. the awards ceremony kicked off after we were all fed. As the Fashion Practice of the Year is a much sought after trophy it was one of the last ones to be called out. When they announced our name as the winners I was completely gobsmacked and I had to drag the full team up on stage with me to collect the award.

We had a fun night dancing away and catching up with old friends. Lots of practice owners from big cities all over the UK came up to congratulate us and asked how we do what we do in such a small town. I definitely had a bad dose of imposter syndrome kicking in but I said it may be a small place but it’s full of amazing people with fantastic taste in eyewear! And that’s the truth, we wouldn’t have been able to win the award without all you guys and your support, so a big thank you to you all for trusting us and choosing such great eyewear from us,