SILMO 2026: what really defines an independent optician?
Alessandra Salimbene’s SILMO Talk at SILMO Paris 2026, Saturday 26 September: a new definition of the European independent optician, not by subtraction but by character.
SILMO Paris 2026, Paris Nord Villepinte, Saturday 26 September, 2 to 3 pm. This year Alessandra Salimbene takes the SILMO stage with a SILMO Talk devoted to a simple question, one the industry almost always answers wrongly: who is, really, an independent optician?
The thesis
We usually define the independent by subtraction: the one who is not a chain, who does not have the budgets and the buying power of the big groups. It is a definition made of what is missing, and that is exactly where half the problems of those who work on their own come from. Because if you think of yourself starting from what you lack, you play the whole game on the ground of size, where no independent can win.
An independent optician is not defined by size, but by two things no chain can truly have: the freedom to choose and the ability to be recognised.
The Talk turns the perspective around. You do not need to be big to matter; you need to have character. It is the same idea that runs through Being independent in 2026 and, from the market side, through the analysis of the Jacques Marie Mage model.
A European view
The second thread of the talk is geographic and cultural, not political. Eyewear has deeply European origins, and thinking about independent optics on a continental scale, rather than one country at a time, is not an abstraction: it is a return to the roots of the profession, and today also a concrete competitive advantage in an increasingly global market.
What I present from the stage
During the Talk I show the concrete steps, built on a marketing programme, that make an independent practice recognisable and competitive: the map is the Optical Retail Marketing Wheel, the path is the work on strategy. And I preview a project I have been working on for months, designed for European independent opticians: a first for the industry. The details are revealed there, in the room. Today that project has a name: The Charismatic Practice, the international programme of Optics & Love.
See you in Paris. The story of the event is on Optics & Love’s Instagram and LinkedIn, and on the international channels @opticsandlove. From SILMO also come the video interviews with Piero Massaro and Alain Mikli.
If this theme concerns a decision for your optical practice or a company project, the first step is a call: we start from your context.
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