New Just-Announced Policies are a Welcome Improvement
fair (noun) an exhibition to promote particular products: the Contemporary Art Fair
fair (adjective) moderately good; acceptable or satisfactory: gave only a fair performance of the play; in fair health.
fair (adverb) without cheating or trying to achieve unjust advantage: they were not playing fair, breaking every rule in the book. We expect all athletes to play fair.
fair (noun). LightFair is scheduled to be held at Javits Center in New York City 27-29 OCT 2021
fair (adjective). LightFair 2021 will be like no other LightFair. At best, attendance will be fair. EdisonReport conducted a survey Friday through Monday, and we focused the survey on people that normally attend LightFair. Of the 657 responses only about 10% will ‘definitely attend’. When we add in the ‘probables’ we get to 20%. Slightly over 50% say they ‘will not attend’ and the ‘will not attends’ combined with ‘probably won’t’ attends is a striking 70%.
fair (adverb). LightFair management continues to work with the industry to accommodate the changing needs of the exhibitors and attendees. LightFair is doing its best with a bad situation and making the show very fair. Your humble editor spoke to show director Dan Darby and learned the following:
- Exhibitors will now be able to change the size of their booth. Dan explained that most booth sizes were chosen in 2019 and the needs of exhibitors have changed. Some exhibitors want smaller space and now they can have that without penalty. He explained that the difference in cost would be rolled over to the 2022 Las Vegas show. This policy is available to all exhibitors—even the ones that have already canceled.
- Dan explained that he doesn’t want someone showing up at the show and expecting LightFair as usual, therefore, once per week, LightFair will publish a list of all companies that are registered. This list will encompass exhibitors, attendees, non-profits like the IES, IALD and NLB and even media companies. EdisonReport will publish the list as it becomes available.
- LightFair is waving the admission fee to the exhibition. Anyone that wants to attend the show floor can at no cost.
LightFair could use a strong-arm approach and keep the money and wish everyone well. But they are being fair, I would say extremely fair. Make no mistake, there are no easy answers here and we think the LightFair team is doing the best they can. We believe these creative approaches will make the show more acceptable and will go a long way in protecting the LightFair brand for future years.