Vision Expo 2027: March 10-13, Las Vegas
Vision Expo runs March 10-13, 2027 in Las Vegas. It is as much a buying show as an education one, which is exactly why an optometry owner should walk in knowing their optical margin rather than working it out on the floor. Sorso is not an exhibitor, sponsor, or speaker at this event. This is an independent prep guide for optometry practice owners.
The CFO read
Optometry owners almost always know their exam volume and rarely know their gross margin per pair. The practices we see doing well treat the dispensary as a retail business with real inventory discipline, and the ones struggling treat it as an add-on to the exam. Before Las Vegas, calculate capture rate and margin per pair. Those two numbers turn a trade show floor from a shopping trip into a set of decisions you can actually price.
— Stanislav Sukhinin, CFA · Founder, Sorso
Why this matters for your bottom line
Optometry is two businesses in one: the exam lane, which is a professional service billed to vision and medical plans, and the optical dispensary, which is retail with inventory and cost of goods. They have different margins and most practices report them together.
Frame and lens buying decisions made at a show commit real working capital. Walking the floor without knowing your current inventory turns and capture rate is how practices end up with money sitting on a display board.
Vision plan reimbursement compresses the exam side, which pushes more of the profit into optical. That makes the dispensary's contribution the number that decides whether the practice grows, and it is frequently the least examined line.
Online and direct-to-consumer eyewear keeps pressure on optical pricing. Owners who cannot state their gross margin per pair are not in a position to judge whether a new vendor programme helps or hurts.
What to look for
Frame and lens vendor terms, including minimums, return policies, and what a buying-group rate actually nets you
Practice management sessions on capture rate and how to raise it without discounting
Medical billing in optometry, which pays differently from routine vision and is under-coded in many practices
Optical inventory management: turns, aged stock, and how much capital a board really needs
Technology purchases with a real payback calculation attached rather than a monthly payment
Staffing and opticianry models, since dispensing labour is a direct cost of the optical line
Financial prep checklist
Review these before you go.
Split your P&L into exam-lane revenue and optical revenue, and margin each separately
Calculate capture rate: the share of exams that buy eyewear from you rather than elsewhere
Work out gross margin per pair with frame cost, lens cost, and dispensing labour included
Pull inventory turns and identify frames that have not moved in twelve months
Separate medical billing revenue from routine vision so you can see whether coding is leaving money behind
Set a hard equipment budget with a payback period before you walk the floor, not after
What it costs to send someone
Registration is the line everyone budgets first. It is rarely the one that decides whether the trip was worth it.
Registration
Vision Expo has published dates and city for 2027 and has not opened published rates. Budget from what your practice paid last time, and remember that at a buying show the registration fee is the smallest line on the trip.
Coverage and lost production
Four days in Las Vegas is four days of closed lanes unless an associate covers, and exam revenue does not reschedule the way a procedure does. Price the lost exam days first. For a single-OD practice that is usually the whole cost of the trip.
Who else travels
Practices commonly send the optician or optical manager alongside the owner, which is the right call for a buying show and doubles both the travel and the coverage problem.
What comes back as a deduction
IRS Publication 463 allows the travel deduction for a convention where “your attendance benefits your trade or business,” on the ordinary rules for travel away from home. Meals are generally limited to 50% of the unreimbursed cost. Keep the agenda with the receipts, and confirm the treatment with whoever signs your return.
No rates are quoted here. The organizer had published none when we last checked this page against their site on 10 August 2026, and travel is yours to price for your own dates anyway. The point of the list is that the two lines owners leave out, coverage and headcount, are the ones that decide the real number.
Before Vision Expo 2027, get your own numbers straight
Walk in able to check every benchmark on the slides against your own numbers. Three ways owners start with us:
Fractional CFO
Strategic CFO for $3M–$50M clinics
Forecasts, location-level P&L, and exit prep. Starts at $4,000/mo.
Explore Fractional CFO →Accounting
Healthcare-specialist accounting
Books done right by people who understand clinic finance. Starts at $2,000/mo.
Explore Accounting →Free Assessment
A financial checkup before you go
Four minutes. See where your practice stands so every session is measured against your own numbers.
Take the assessment →Going to Vision Expo 2027?
Tell us, and we will look at coming to meet you.
Stan does not have a ticket booked for this one yet. If enough clinic owners want to sit down there, that is what decides it. Register interest and we will confirm either way well before the dates — no obligation, and we will not add you to a mailing list.
Register interest in meeting →
Founder of Sorso and a CFA charterholder. Before Sorso, Stan spent 19 years in corporate finance at institutions including UniCredit and Société Générale — managing a $450M loan portfolio and making senior partner at a major mezzanine lender by 29 — then built a fractional CFO firm exclusively for outpatient healthcare clinics.