Your humble editor attended the 23rd Annual Wally Whitney Product Exhibition hosted by IES Los Angeles. The show was sold out with 128 exhibitors. Please recall that these IES owns 1/3 of LIGHTFAIR and these types of events are capped at a certain square footage as to not violate the IES/LIGHTFAIR contract. There is a waiting list of manufacturers.
The attendance was good, not great, but almost every exhibitor I spoke with was happy with the show. At $1000 per booth, it probably is the single most cost effective tradeshow in our industry. The volunteers with the IES LA section do a great job of providing excellent hospitality and they fed their audience well throughout the day.
With LIGHTFAIR not spending much time on the West Coast (2017: Philadelphia; 2018: Chicago; 2019: Philadelphia) shows like this become more and more meaningful.
This was the first lighting event where I have seen metal detectors, which is a reflection of the times we live in. There were no lines and registration was managed well.