Dear Mado Members and Friends,

I'm Excited to welcome everyone to join me at this year's MADO Educational Conference at the Golden Nugget! This is where Southern Opticians Level Up! Register Now! Earn ABO credits, hands-on workshops with emerging technology, tour the latest technology at Superior Optical Lab with a job per day capacity of 6000 jobs, connect with peers, and learn from technical experts and industry leaders. This year there will be 9 ABO and 5 NCLE credits available. Friday afternoon, register for the lab tour at Superior Optical Lab and an ABO CE following the tour in the lab education center. Tours are available at 1:00 and 3:00, transportation is available from the hotel with transportation to and from the lab. Attend the lab tour and the ABO CE class and receive an evaluation pair of Transitions lenses.

We will also offer a hands-on rimless workshop by Silhouette and a Dispensing workshop to solve patients vision concerns providing patients with advanced vision solutions by Transitions Optical; both are limited to 30 attendees. Attend the ABO review by Jerry Himes with Zeiss to help prepare you to become ABO certified, must be a minimum of 10 attendees. Please contact Julie West either by email (jmw1825@aol.com) or phone (228-860-1825) if you plan to attend the lab tour, take the ABO review, or attend either workshop.

We are also looking forward to a great trade show after classes on Saturday where you will get the chance to order new products and see the latest lens technology all while getting a chance to win some really nice prizes!

Special Thanks to Amer Mourad with IOT and Candace O'Keefe with Younger Optics for sponsoring our Friday night welcome reception for all attendees, exhibitors and their families. Also, a big thanks to Stewart Cage with ES Optical Lab for sponsoring all of the beverages and Eyedok in Ocean Springs and Stacey Soltis with WestGroupe for sponsoring the band 2nd Class Citizen. It will be held at the Maritime & Seafood Museum across the street from the Golden Nugget at 115 E. 1st Street. The museum offers an array of exhibits on seafood, boats, fishing, net making and other numerous historic memorabilia and photographs. It is very important to mark your registration form if you plan to attend and how many so we will have an accurate count for food. We look forward to seeing you at this fun networking event.

We have a block of rooms at the Golden Nugget and Hilton Garden Inn 1.4 miles west on Beach Blvd. There is an elevator that takes you from the parking garage to the meeting area at Golden Nugget without going through the casino, park on the west side.

• Golden Nugget reservations can be made at {800) 777-7568, mention MS Optician group code S260320. The Golden Nugget is offering a room rate of $69.99 on Thursday and $169.99 on Friday and Saturday for a luxury king and $89.99 on Thursday, $189.99 on Friday and Saturday for luxury queen. There is a daily $16.99 resort fee plus 12% tax added to all rooms. Last day to make reservations is April 1 or until block sells out. You will be charged your first night room and tax when reserving room with balance charged at check-in.
• Hilton Garden Inn (1.4 miles west) reservations can be made at (228) 325-2900 ask for 91A group rate of $199 before March 30.

We are very blessed to have wonderful and generous sponsors to help keep registration cost down for this conference. A full list will be available in your packet. Be sure to THANK them.

I look forward to seeing you there.