Interview with Burt Grant and Caroline Rinker
LEDucation celebrated its 10th anniversary by putting on a tremendous show. I attended this year in two roles: as your humble editor, as well as an exhibitor for my day job, which gives me a different perspective from other media. Full disclosure. EdisonReport is a media sponsor for LEDucation 10.
Exhibition: A Exhibitors were happy. The design of the show is tabletop, so 6 feet wide by 7 feet tall keeps the show at an intimate level and allows for much interaction. The exhibitors were divided into two rooms and LEDucation leadership did a good job of moving traffic through both halls. Having a lounge and food in the second hall was especially smart. There were 330 exhibitors and I am not privy to their selection process, but these were all grade-A exhibitors. At some shows, you walk by a booth and scratch your head and ask, “How did they get in here?” I never did that at LEDucation.
Attendance: A+ If the New York specification community is the target, I know of no better value than LEDucation. This show was jam packed with 4200 attendees including lighting designers, architects, engineers, and specifiers. In addition, there were distributors, a few contractors and even some end users. There were no distractions. Virtually every attendee that came to my booth was valuable.
Programs/Content A+ Over eighty educational tracts were submitted, Craig Fox and Wendy Kaplan narrowed the list to 30 and there were some big names: Sabedra, Ngai, Haugaard, Blitzer, Miller, Hartranft, and Ziegenbein. We heard nothing but positive comments on the education tracts.
We sat in on the TM-30 discussion, which was excellent. Michael Royer conducted the presentation and displayed a red fabric which looked absolutely stunning under a 50 CRI source (because of the saturation) and it looked dull and lifeless under the 75 CRI source (because of lack of saturation). His goal of proving that the old CRI system was imperfect was well done. Although I am no expert on TM-30, I’m getting there.
Max Hoover spearheaded Mission Control; kiosks where one can mix and match lamps, luminaires and controls. Last year, one specifier brought his own fixture to test real-time. The kiosks offered four different dimming technologies and were crowded throughout the entire event.
Awards: A+ As the show celebrated it’s 10th year, Cliff Starr of Lighting by Gregory and the DLFNY presented awards to co-founders Peggy Meeham, Robert Nadel, and Burt Grant. This ceremony was conducted in the pressroom, which was completely full. Our video is shot from a side angle because this was the room was so full.
Location A+ The Hilton Midtown was our host and the location was great. Jeff Heller reminded me that Lighting World (predecessor to LIGHTFAIR) was held in the same hotel 33 years ago.
Wi-Fi: D To my best knowledge, there was no Wi-Fi available for the general public even if one wanted to purchase. As a media member, I did receive access to Wi-Fi on the second day, but the general public was forced to use their wireless plans.
Press Accommodations: A+ Like Light + Building, LEDucation treats the press like royalty and we had full access to everything we needed. The media consultant, Cindy Foster-Warthen did a great job.