The 1st Academic Meeting of the Korean Ophthalmological Society (KOS) was held in 1949 in Seoul and about 20 free papers were presented. With the exception of cancellation during the Korean War in 1950 and 1951, the scientific KOS congress has been held annually until 1967 and became biannual in spring and fall afterwards. The archives prior to 1961 were lost, but there were 14 presentations at the meeting in 1962. The number of presentations has increased rapidly since 1985 and there were 104 free papers and 62 poster presentations in 1997. The meetings had been held at the hall of medical universities or the conference hall of the hotels until 2002, but the limited space in the hotel could no longer hold the growing number of participating members and the exhibitions. In 2003, the spring academic congress of KOS was held at BEXCO, the largest convention center in Busan. From 2006, the fall KOS meeting has been held at KINTEX, the convention center in Koyang. In 2007, more than 1,700 ophthalmologists and member in-training of the academy registered and 160 free papers, 277 posters, and 33 videos were presented at the fall academic congress.

Two-day programs of the fall meeting were expanded to three-day programs in 2003 to provide the members with more opportunity to present the results of clinical and basic research and share up-to-date information.

In September 1997, the fall meeting was held at the Walkerhill Hotel in Seoul as the Society? 50th anniversary commemorative conference. After one more decade passed, at the fall meeting in 2007, KOS celebrated the 60th anniversary of the Society by holding a commemorative ceremony and special exhibition to reflect on the 60-year history of the Society. The fall meeting in 2008 will be the 100th Academic Meeting of KOS.

The programs of the meeting include free papers, symposiums, project reports, posters, and video presentations. Since 1992, the meeting in the spring had been focused mainly on free papers or poster presentations, while the meeting in the fall on education programs such as the symposium and the lectures. Since the 2000s, the Korean Ophthalmological Society has introduced various instruction courses and lecture programs at its annual academic meeting.

Besides the periodical meetings in spring and fall, there have been international meetings occasionally held in Korea. The biennial Korea-Japan Joint Meeting of Ophthalmology, which Korea and Japan took turns hosting, had been held from 1982 to 2000. The 12th Asia Pacific Academy of Ophthalmology (APAO) meeting was held in 1989, and the 4th International meeting on Cataract, Implant, Microsurgery and Refractive Keratoplasty (ICIMRK) in 1991 in Seoul. The 3rd congress of Asian-Oceanic Glaucoma Society (AOGS) was held in 2001, and the first Asian Angle-Closure Glaucoma Club (AACGC) conference was held in 2002.