NEW YORK—Labapalooza, Jobson’s annual celebration of optical labs, will return to Las Vegas this Fall at International Vision Expo West. The festivities, which are set for Thursday, Oct. 7, from 6:15 to 8:00 p.m., will feature live music and cocktails, as well as several new elements, event organizers said.

Labapalooza will again feature a preview of Vision Monday’s 2010 Top Labs report, including the Top Labs ranking. LabTalk magazine will present its Optical Laboratory Web Site of the Year Award and Trash to Treasure contest, in which lab personnel are invited to create artwork made from finishing pads.

New to this year’s Labapalooza festivities, the Lab Rock Lyric Contest ( www.visionmonday.com/labapalooza2010/contest.html) will take center stage as contestants are invited to submit parody lyrics to two popular rock songs. Building on Andy Karp’s tradition of parodying a rock ‘n’ roll song classic—including Takin’ Care of Lab Business, Free Formin’, and My Generator—Jobson is inviting lab personnel to contribute their own lyrics to Sweet Lab O’ Mine (based on Sweet Child O’ Mine by Guns N’ Roses) or Addicted to Labs (based on Addicted to Love by Robert Palmer). Contestants can rewrite either song’s lyrics to portray life as a laboratory technician or depict any lab related topic. Jobson has supplied partial lyrics for both songs which contestants can add to or else submit entirely new lyrics.

The contest winners will be invited to perform the song with the members of the EyeRock Band during Labapalooza. The performance will also be videotaped and displayed on Vision Monday’s Web TV, the Labapalooza website, and YouTube, and the winning lyrics will be displayed on the Labapalooza website. Please submit all lyrics by emailing them to [email protected].

Schneider Optical Machines is the Title sponsor; Gerber Coburn, X-cel Optical, Transitions Optical and Shamir Insight are Ultra sponsors.

Additional details are available at the official Labapalooza website www.visionmonday.com/labapalooza2010. ■ ■