Queenstown, New Zealand & Brisbane, Australia – August 2026. Eye Hero continued building its presence across Oceania this August with appearances at two major professional events: Snow Viz 2026 in Queenstown, New Zealand, and the OCC2026 Optometry Clinical Conference in Brisbane, Australia.
Across both conferences, one topic repeatedly moved to the centre of conversations with optometrists: what happens to vision training once the patient leaves the practice.
For practitioners working with children in particular, maintaining consistent engagement with prescribed activities between appointments remains a familiar challenge. At both events, Eye Hero presented its approach to supporting that part of the treatment journey – connecting structured work in the practice with guided activity at home.
Starting the Journey at Snow Viz in Queenstown
The first stop was Snow Viz 2026, held from 5–8 August at the Crowne Plaza in Queenstown.
Snow Viz combines professional education with an unconventional conference format. Clinical lectures take place in the mornings and late afternoons, while the middle of the day is left open for skiing and local activities. This year’s programme covered areas including neuro-ophthalmology, myopia research, surgical management and hands-on professional development workshops.
Eye Hero exhibited alongside its New Zealand partner, Ophthalmic Instrument Company (OIC), giving practitioners an opportunity to see the platform in practice and discuss how digital vision training can be incorporated into existing clinical routines.
Many of the optometrists visiting the booth were already familiar with the idea of digital vision training, even if they had not yet used such a solution themselves. The strongest interest came from practitioners regularly working with children, where keeping patients engaged with training between visits can be particularly difficult.
Being able to follow a child’s home training through the Eye Hero platform helped turn an abstract conversation about digital therapy into something more practical: a way of maintaining continuity beyond the consulting room.
From Awareness to Hands-On Experience
Eye Hero has worked with providers in New Zealand for several years, but the company’s collaboration with OIC has highlighted the importance of having a strong local presence.
For a relatively close-knit professional community, relationships matter. A local partner can visit practices, provide direct support and maintain a presence that is difficult to reproduce from an international headquarters.
The experience at Snow Viz also pointed to an important next step. The challenge is increasingly not whether practitioners have heard of digital vision training, but whether they have had an opportunity to experience it, understand where it fits clinically and learn from colleagues already using it.
For that reason, Eye Hero’s plans in New Zealand are moving beyond conference exhibition alone. Through 2027, the company plans to expand professional education through webinars, in-practice workshops and CPD-accredited conference lectures, involving partner clinics, key opinion leaders and optometrists who can share their own experience with peers. A clinical study involving partner practices is also being planned.
Continuing the Conversation at OCC2026 in Brisbane
Only days after Snow Viz, Eye Hero travelled to Brisbane for the OCC2026 Optometry Clinical Conference, held on 9-10 August at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre.
The two-day conference brought practitioners together around new developments in eye care, research, interactive workshops and clinically focused education. After a period in which much professional learning moved online, OCC2026 also highlighted the value of having practitioners in the same room – comparing experiences, discussing cases and exchanging ideas face to face.
Eye Hero presented the app together with its supporting vision therapy materials and introduced visitors to the company’s ongoing interest in clinical research, including work examining traditional and digital approaches to treatment.
Unlike in a newer market, many conversations in Brisbane began with familiar faces. Existing Eye Hero providers, industry contacts and key opinion leaders were among those visiting the booth, creating opportunities to discuss not only what Eye Hero is, but how it is already being used in everyday practice.
Extending Vision Training Beyond the Practice
Independent practice owners showed particularly strong interest in the role Eye Hero can play after the examination or in-office therapy session has finished.
The proposition is intentionally straightforward: Eye Hero is not intended to replace therapy delivered by an eye care professional. Instead, it can support the work taking place in the clinic by giving patients structured training to continue at home between appointments.
Practitioners already using the solution described incorporating Eye Hero as regular homework alongside in-office vision therapy rather than treating home training as an optional extra. According to the feedback shared with the Eye Hero team, this approach has helped them maintain patient engagement between appointments and continue from the patient’s previous training when they return to the practice.
That continuity matters particularly in busy practices. Instead of each appointment becoming a restart, the activity taking place between visits can become part of a longer, connected treatment process.
And across both New Zealand and Australia, the underlying concern was remarkably similar: practitioners are looking for practical ways to support children with binocular vision difficulties while keeping young patients involved throughout the course of treatment.
Building a Stronger Eye Hero Provider Network Across Oceania
Australia is becoming an increasingly important market for Eye Hero.
The Australian College of Optometry is already using Eye Hero and supporting Brock string materials in its clinics, while Eye Hero currently works with approximately 40 providers across Australia and New Zealand combined. The goal is to double that network through 2027.
A key part of that growth will be developing stronger local partnerships in Australia, following the model already established with OIC in New Zealand.
For Eye Hero, the objective is not simply to increase the number of practices using the platform. A larger provider network also makes the solution more accessible to families looking for professional support close to home.
The team is already seeing interest coming directly from parents searching for Eye Hero and asking where it is available. The Eye Hero website therefore directs these enquiries towards eye care professionals who can prescribe the solution – reinforcing the role of the provider network at the centre of the Eye Hero model.
What Comes Next
The August trip confirmed that interest in digital vision training is growing, but it also reinforced something equally important: technology becomes valuable in clinical care only when practitioners understand how to use it effectively within their existing workflow.
That makes education, peer experience and local relationships a central part of Eye Hero’s next stage in the region.
Eye Hero will return to New Zealand later this year, with planned appearances at the Eye Institute Auckland Optometry Conference on 1 November 2026 and the RANZCO 57th Annual Scientific Congress from 6–9 November 2026.
For Eye Hero, these events are part of a broader effort to deepen relationships with eye care professionals and continue the conversation around one of vision training’s most persistent challenges: maintaining continuity between appointments. From Queenstown to Brisbane, and into the next stage of Eye Hero’s growth in Oceania, the focus remains on helping practices extend care beyond the consulting room and into patients’ everyday lives.
About Eye Hero
Eye Hero is a vision training platform, developed to help bridge a gap between clinical excellence and users everyday life. Traditional vision training homework can oftentimes suffer from low compliance, as users lose motivation. Eye Hero solves this problem by providing users with a fun gamified training program, while offering providers full insight to progress through remote monitoring.
