Your humble editor has been involved in leadership positions with various conferences and tradeshows in our industry. One conference I have never served in any official capacity is the IES Street and Area Lighting Conference–perhaps that is why the show is so successful.
It is probably the best conference I attend. Here’s why:
- The sessions are not split, so all 500+ people are together throughout the day.
- Most exhibitors are limited to a table top or a 10 x 10 booth. This forces manufacturers to display only a few products and their market messages are quite focused.
- The kickoff event has a 2-hour open bar.
Here is what we have learned so far and the conference has yet to start.
- Expect a major manufacturer to announce a new LED A-lamp that will either be: 90+CRI (for California requirement) or be Energy Star compliant. This should be launched later this week and we are sworn to secrecy.
- We spotted LED’s in Venture’s booth during set up. Turns out that Venture is displaying their Leaf-Nut control system with a Kim LED luminaire. We learned tonight that the Leaf-Nut control system is technology agnostic and will work with Venture’s Metal Halide lamps as well as LEDs.
- Lot’s of talk about the GE layoff which we reported last week. Several companines report an abundance of former GE people sending out resumes and making phone calls.