The virtual.COMPAMED: "Definitely a different experience"

Dr. Klein, please recapitulate briefly: What were the main topics of your presentation at virtual.COMPAMED?

Dr. Thomas Klein: My presentation was about optical coherence tomography (OCT). This is a biomedical imaging procedure, similar to ultrasound, but with light. That means, you can look inside the body, but you get a much better resolution than with an ultrasound. You can see much more detail, but the depth is limited - typically only 1 to 2 millimetres. But that is sufficient for many applications.

For example, OCT can be used in ophthalmology to examine age-related macular degeneration or to monitor the progress of treatment. The special thing about Optores' OCT methods is that they are much faster than other OCT methods. This enables us to perform real-time 3D OCTs, i.e. to record and display three-dimensional data live.

What was it like for you to speak for the first time at a virtual trade fair and thus in front of a virtual rather than a live audience?

Klein: It was definitely a different experience, but everything worked out very well. I particularly liked the fact that people could ask questions during the presentation, which is something you don't have with live presentations. The questions were then dealt with and answered. And I also enjoyed the discussion after the lecture.

Was there anything that did not go as you would have liked?

Klein: No. Unfortunately, I personally find it difficult to evaluate how many people actually watched the lecture. Especially when you give the lecture yourself, it's hard to get information about it. Whereas at a face-to-face event, of course, you have an eye on everything that is happening in front of you and how the interest is. This direct contact with the audience is of course simply missing a bit.

What effects of the pandemic have you noticed in your company in terms of research and sales?

Klein: Fortunately, not much so far, since we are currently still selling a lot to research groups and universities, which are mostly funded by subsidies and have correspondingly long lead times. I assume that we will feel more after-effects next year. Especially with our corporate customers, projects have been discontinued or orders cancelled. We generated less revenue than last year, but not a dramatic amount. But I fear that next year we will notice more of it.

Can you imagine that taking part in the fair could change this?

Klein: That is always the hope, of course. But it usually doesn't show up immediately. Our products are high-priced, which means that they are not products that you buy from one day to the next. And that's why we always notice our trade fair appearances only after a considerable delay.

I am curious to see what the results of our participation in the trade fair will be this year. I had the impression that the presentation was quite relevant for the audience.