The second sentence on the L+B home page states in bold font, “This means we will definitely hold Light + Building 2022.” Your humble editor is not so sure.
A few stories that cause concern:
- Spiegel newspaper: The German army is preparing to mobilise 12,000 soldiers by Christmas to assist overrun healthcare services.
- Funke Mediengruppe: Overburdened intensive care units may need to move patients between regions to find beds in coming weeks.
- German Chancellor Angela Merkel in her podcast: “Difficult weeks lie ahead of us, and you can see that I am very worried.
I started this article pre-Thanksgiving and the above headlines are from 13-15 NOV before we had even heard of the Omicron variant of COVID-19. As best as I can tell the bold headline from L+B stating they will “definitely hold” L+B was written sometime after 22 NOV.
A second area of concern is from an email I received from Markus Quint, Messe Frankfurt Director of Corporate Communications on 21 SEP regarding the cancellation of the concurrent outdoor event, Luminale. The email states the reasons for the cancellation of Luminale:
- Due to Messe Frankfurt’s economic situation, this is not viable for 2022.
- Unfortunately, after one and a half years of the pandemic, Messe Frankfurt is not in the financial position to handle this project
- We are forcing cuts and maximum efficiency management in all financial areas in order to secure the liquidity of the company
A third area of concern is that big names are missing from the 2022 exhibitor list: Signify, ERCO, Zumtobel, iGuzzinni, LEDVANCE, FLOS, Louis Poulsen, and Xicato, just to name a few. Some of these companies don’t normally build booths at the show, they build small cities. In 2018, I conducted on-camera inteviews with Philips, LEDVANCE, Seoul Semiconductor, McWong, and Casambi. As of this writing, only Casambi and Seoul Semiconductor Europe are listed as exhibitors.
Further down on the L+B website is the following statement, “The current policy decision of the Hessen State Government sets out from Monday 22 November 2021 regulations inter alia for events which reflect the hospitalisation rate. At the moment this would mean ‘2G’ rules for Light + Building (admission only for participants with proof of vaccinated or recovered status)”
L+B is held the same week as LEDucation and its important to note that LEDucation publicly announced their dates first.
EdisonReport believes in a strong Light + Building as the world needs a dominant global show, but if you haven’t purchased your ticket to Frankfurt, you may wish to hold off a few more weeks and see what happens.