WE ARE opti 2024/2025

Petra Lindner

Master optician, optometrist M.Sc., trainer

Who are you and what do you do in the optical industry?

I'm Petra Lindner and my heart beats for optometry. I support opticians in introducing optometry as a healthcare service in their businesses.

Where do you spend most of your time at opti?

Well, I love beautiful glasses, I have a soft spot for fashionable things, for unusual glasses, but I also like optometry and that's why my heart beats in Hall 4, exchanging ideas with lots of great new colleagues and business partners.

What does WE ARE opti mean to you?

I am proud to be a brand ambassador for opti.

Sabine Siegmund

Owner of Siegmund Augenoptik & Hörakustik, communication coach

Who are you and what do you do in the optical industry?

My name is Sabine Siegmund. I have an optician's and hearing acoustics shop in the bacon belt of Hanover in the historic, beautiful small town of Pattensen. I'm a real team player, both in my rowing yacht and in business. Because you're always more successful in a team than as a lone wolf.

Where do you spend most of your time at opti?

My favourite place at opti is where I feel welcome as an optician, as a customer and as a person. Where I meet a team that lives the optician's spirit and is keen to move optics forward. These are my favourite places.

What is your guilty pleasure?

My guilty pleasure is that I love rowing and the more you're on the water, the more calluses and blisters you get on your hands. But I'm all the prouder of it because I've done more kilometres. Others think it's terrible how my hands look, but I'm proud of them.

What does WE ARE opti mean to you?

For me, WE ARE opti is a team of people who want to work together to make optometry successful. A team of people who have the spirit to say: we are taking a different approach. We belong together and we are passionate and enthusiastic about optometry.

Jean-Pierre Schwalb

Owner of Optik Schwalb in Nidda

Who are you and what do you do in the optical industry?

My name is Jean-Pierre Schwalb. I am the owner of Optik Schwalb in the heart of Hesse and have been working on making the optical industry more authentic since 2020.

What is your favourite place at opti?

I actually love chatting to friendly people to get inspired: Accordingly, I linger in various places at opti.

What is your guilty pleasure?

Taking an ice-cold shower every morning.

What does WE ARE opti mean to you?

It feels like the start of a new era for the authentic optical industry here in Germany.

Boris M. Stolle

Sales representative

Who are you and what do you do in the optical industry?

My name is Boris M. Stolle. I have been working in the optical industry since 1999. It all started back then with a nice apprenticeship in a specialist optician's shop. I stayed there until 2007. I always did the job with a lot of passion. But then I was drawn to the other side, to sales, and since then I have been offering my services to the industry. In my case, to eyewear manufacturers to sell their beautiful products in my area.

Where do you spend most of your time at opti?

At opti, I naturally spend most of my time with the manufacturers I work for. But I also enjoy it when I find the time to visit other manufacturers I'm friends with, as well as new manufacturers, and see what's new. Whether it's glasses, lenses or machines.

What is your guilty pleasure?

I think my Guilty Pleasure is my tidiness. Everything always has to be well organised, like on my desk, for example. And then I take it all out with me to my job.

What does WE ARE opti mean to you?

For me, WE ARE opti is first and foremost a sense of community. Everyone is a super important part of this campaign, this trade show, this industry and plays their part. For me, WE ARE opti also means seeing and being seen, experiencing new things, discovering new things, making contacts, meeting old contacts again, but of course also exchanging ideas and what is also a very nice side effect, meeting friends again.

Lars Teubler

Nupsies Podcast & master optician at Arndt & Weiß in Bünde

Who are you and what do you do in the optical industry?

I'm Lars Teubler, 31 years old and I work in the optical industry as a master optician and we also have a podcast.

What is your favourite place at opti?

I definitely felt very comfortable in the contact lens area in 2024 and spent most of my time there. Then I looked at a few machines. That was also very interesting and of course you can't avoid looking at the frames and finding out about the latest trends. That's the main reason why we're there.

What is your guilty pleasure?

My guilty pleasure is that I talk on the phone with David, with whom I record the podcast, for almost half an hour or three quarters of an hour before and after each time, because we have so much fun chatting.

What does WE ARE opti mean to you?

Yes, for me opti means a big get-together from the whole industry, with all the people, both opticians and exhibitors as well as everyone else who comes along, a big exchange and simply having a good time together.