2025 KISS Announcement

Dear Colleague:

The 71st Annual Kraskin Invitational Skeffington Symposium on Vision is scheduled for Saturday, Sunday, and Monday January 17, 18, 19, 2026. The 2026 Symposium (KISS) will be held at The Bethesdan Hotel - Tapestry Collection by Hilton located in Bethesda, Maryland. The Symposium is sponsored by the Institute for Behavioral Optometry (IBO).

The Symposium will be an in-person gathering and limited to 60 participating optometrists. Attending optometrists should commit to fully attending all three days of the Symposium beginning on Saturday, January 17 at 10:00 AM and concluding on Monday, January 19 at 1:00 PM. Optometric Residents and 3rd/4thyear Optometry students are welcome to attend and participate on a space available basis.

The 2026 Symposium will continue in the format debuted in 2024 which combined many aspects of past KISS meetings along with the style of the Conference on Clinical Vision Care (CCVC).  The change encourages greater interactive participation of all those who attend – everyone will be a speaker and a listener. The number of presentations will be limited to allow for group exploration and discussion of the presentations. Following most presentations, attendees will be assigned to a break-out group to explore question(s) raised by the presentation. The groups will rejoin to share their thoughts and responses to the question(s) raised. The goal of the group exploration is to provide each presenter with ideas for future research and expansion of their topic area.

You are invited to present a paper on vision and/or visual training therapy, clinical or theoretical. The first 14 presentations registered will be guaranteed to present. Presentations for KISS 2026 should include at least one question to be posed to the group.  To present, please see "Registration Info" and complete the Presentation Registration Form.  Presentation Registration must be received by December 5, 2025, and must include a synopsis of the presentation.  An electronic copy of your presentation must be received no later than January 2, 2026. This will allow our Symposium team the necessary time to arrange the sequence of presentations.  

To register for the 2026 Skeffington Symposium please click the "Registration Information" tab.  You will need to complete the on-line registration including the "KISS Presentation Registration 2026" form.  If you would like hotel accommodations please click on the "Hotel Information" tab for Reservation Information. Due to limited attendance, Pre-registration is strongly recommended and requested. 

Cordially yours, 

Jeffrey L. Kraskin, OD