Turkey Day in Türkiye – SILMO Istanbul

Thanksgiving, the American vacation that falls on the 4^th Thursday of November yearly, is a time for us to mirror on the blessings we’ve acquired in life and over time. It’s a time spent with household or associates and as is the customized with so many holidays all over the world, a day stuffed with meals. For People, the vacation of Thanksgiving (until you’re vegan)revolves round cooking a Thanksgiving turkey. Even when you aren’t from the USA, your social media feeds had been undoubtedly stuffed with images of those large birds cooked to a wealthy brown coloration. So it’s no shock, that People nickname Thanksgiving as “turkey day”.

Thanksgiving for me this 12 months, for the primary time, was spent away from the household. I used to be as an alternative 6,150 miles away in Istanbul, Turkiye, attending the ten^th Anniversary version of SILMO Istanbul. SILMO Istanbul is held on the Istanbul Expo Heart within the Yeşilköy neighborhood of west Istanbul, close to the previous Ataturk airport, now used principally for cargo flights. For me, it was a 45-minute Metro journey from my lodge within the Yenikapi part of the previous metropolis overlooking one of many ports of Istanbul.

SILMO Istanbul this 12 months began on Thursday, 23 November, Thanksgiving in America. The present was pretty sizeable, coming in at 269,000 sq. ft of exhibitions. Over 200 exhibitors had been exhibiting over 900 manufacturers. Since I’ve been fortunate sufficient to see a couple of optical festivals this 12 months, I wasn’t as a lot concerned with seeing the larger extra well-known model names, as that they had nothing new from SILMO Paris simply two months prior. I needed to see what Turkiye needed to supply to optical.

I used to be not upset both. I discovered a number of Turkish manufacturers I had by no means seen or heard of, which is sort of OK as a lot of them had by no means seen or heard of me. That was one thing we had been in a position to appropriate over the 4 days of SILMO Istanbul. Quite a lot of Turkish manufacturers exhibiting at SILMO Istanbul make stable line of eyewear. Because the Turkish Lira has plummeted in worth this previous 12 months, the costs of many of those eyewear manufacturers are extraordinarily aggressive with eyewear made in China or virtually anyplace on this planet. I discovered each metallic and acetate eyewear extraordinarily competitively priced and located them properly made on the similar time. Probably the greatest cubicles I’ve seen at any present belonged to the Turkish lens model, Novax Lenses, the place the portal to the sales space was an eye fixed.

I additionally discovered a number of Turkish manufacturers that had been very properly made with nice designs and colours, like Mooshu, Jow Method, and EDL to call only a few. Not solely was I in a position to study Turkish manufacturers at SILMO Istanbul, however the weekend prior, I scheduled a couple of days 350 miles west of Istanbul in Athens, Greece. I arrived simply in time to go to Circum Eye, the annual Greek optical commerce honest placed on by Eye Journal in Greece. There too I used to be in a position to uncover a handful of Greek manufacturers in addition to go to with and make new associates within the trade.

After a full day of strolling and reporting on the primary day of SILMO Istanbul, which began on Thanksgiving, I walked round previous city Istanbul that night in search of a restaurant serving turkey. I used to be unable to search out turkey in Turkey, or Turkiye as it’s now known as. I used to be in a position to take pleasure in a spicy hen dinner that evening, the closest I might come to consuming turkey. I didn’t have to attend lengthy for my annual turkey nevertheless, as this previous weekend, the household and I celebrated a ‘latesgiving’ with turkey and stuffing, so now the vacation season can proceed as regular, albeit a couple of days late, which is OK by me.

On Friday night, 24 November, we attended the SILMO Istanbul Awards. As I discussed earlier, my lodge was about 45 minutes away from the conference heart within the previous city of Istanbul. The Awards had been held at Çırağan Palace Kempinski, simply one other 5 miles additional east, however with Istanbul site visitors, one other 45 minutes by Uber. The Çırağan Palace Kempinski is an exquisite lodge on the shore of the Bosphorus Strait. A lodge fancy sufficient for its personal helipad, the Çırağan Palace Kempinski was an beautiful venue for the SILMO Istanbul Awards which highlighted the ten^th Anniversary celebration with nice, food and drinks.

All in all, SILMO Istanbul was a beautiful method to wrap up a 12 months of commerce present journey and I’m so completely happy to have made the journey. As I frequently say to you our readers, stepping out of the consolation zone of the identical behavior of the identical reveals, is an efficient factor. Discovering new manufacturers, making new connections, seeing new locations, and consuming new meals, is an excellent method to develop within the optical enterprise and to develop as a human.

I hope many extra of you’ll be a part of me at a few of these terrific optical commerce festivals all over the world in 2024. In case you can’t, I hope you’ll nonetheless tune in to our Fb Stay, Instagram Reels, and even our LinkedIn movies the place we attempt to share a few of the pleasure of all these fantastic occasions. SILMO Istanbul will return for its 11^th Version, on 20-23 November 2024.