Ray Molony and I had the pleasure of experiencing “light for playing” at the 2-story ERCO trade fair booth. They offered ERCOplay, an exclusive corridor on a second level of the booth. Back at Nela Park, we were taught to hand the client the lamp. If she took the lamp and held it in her hand, she was more likely to purchase it.
ERCO used this philosophy with ERCOplay. We were split up in groups of six people and we visited six different stations up stairs around the corridor of the expansive booth. Each station had different fixtures, or as Ray reminded me, fittings. In one station, we changed the intivsitiy of the luminaires, allowing the light to penetrate a paper shaper, which projcted letters on the other side. A second station allowd the user to experiement with installing and adjusting different lens to light objects at various depths. A third station allowed the group to work together to change the various intensity and color temperature to meet a certain watts per square meter requirement.
It was a brilliant way to get clients’ hands on ERCO fittings.
About the ERCO booth, it was very sustainable. First, I had to be told by Mark Sieber – President of ERCO Lighting, Inc., that there was no carpet. (I had not noticed.) We were simply on a concrete floor. That would be unappealing a few decades ago when guests were in hills and wingtips. Today, almost everyone wears rubber sole shoes now and the carpet was not missed. Next, the containers that were used to ship the booth did double duty as display cases and even furniture. Third, the wood frame that surrounded the booth was the made from the same wood as the 2018 booth.