LEDucation 2022, held March 15-16 at the New York Hilton in midtown Manhattan, got universally high marks from the exhibitors and attendees that EC&M visited at the show. Many lighting folks at the event said they were “Zoomed-out” and quite happy to finally be meeting with customers face-to-face.
With more than 4,000 registrants for the event and close to 400 booths, the show floor was buzzing, particularly on the first day. LEDucation has a different format than LightFair in that the majority of exhibitors were set up in 6-foot tabletop booths, instead of LightFair’s often larger and occasionally extravagant booths. Some companies did have multiple tabletops, and, in many cases, New York area lighting reps had all of their vendors in the same aisle.
Randy Reid, executive director for the National Lighting Bureau (NLB), said vendors like to use the smaller booth format to focus on a carefully curated group of products. Reid reported in his Edison Lighting Report that more than 2,400 attendees were at the show on Day 1. While the show draws primarily from the New York metropolitan area’s lighting community, exhibitors said they saw lighting designers and other lighting pros from other East Coast markets at the show as well.
LEDucation also featured more than 20 conference sessions that attendees could take part in for CEU credit. One of the LEDucation sessions on lighting control offered tips for building owners and tenants on how they can link their lighting controls systems to a building’s HVAC, security, and automation systems for more sophisticated control and maximum energy savings. In the seminar, “Evaluating Lighting Control Sequence of Operations for High-Performing Buildings,” Acuity’s John McBride and Mark Lane said users want lighting control that’s simple, easy to access, and capable of producing major energy savings. Lane said another customer benefit of linking these building systems is cutting down on the number of separate maintenance contracts for HVAC, lighting systems, and other systems.
Several lighting manufacturers won awards at LEDucation from the National Lighting Bureau, which presented its second annual Art & Science of Lighting Awards on March 16. Mary Beth Gotti, chair of the NLB, and Randy Reid presented the awards. The purpose of the program is to give recognition to outstanding products that advance the categories listed below.
The judges on NLB’s juror panel were Jim Benya, Design Services, Inc.; Jean Paul Freyssinier, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute; Terry McGowan, Lighting Ideas, Inc.; Jim Yorgey, retired Lutron executive; Cary Mendelsohn, Imperial Lighting Maintenance Co.; and Howard Lewis, Spectro Lume.
The Science of Lighting Award — Seoul Semiconductor’s Sunlike. The NLB judges gave Sunlike the award for being a lighting product that demonstrates exceptional technical innovation and significantly improves how effectively and efficiently high-quality lighting can be specified and installed, or introduces new applications to high-quality lighting opportunities.
The Art of Lighting Award — OCL Architectural Lighting’s Petals. The company’s new Petals product won the award for its aesthetic appeal and the quality of lighting it provides, based on its innovative use of lighting technology, materials or sculptural forms.
The Art and Science of Lighting Award — Fluxwerx’s Portal. This product met the criteria for both the Art and Science of Lighting categories.
NLB’s jurors also awarded seven Special Citations and four Honorable Mentions. The products winning Special Citations in NLB’s 2022 Art & Science of Lighting Awards competition were Leotek’s Comfort View; Hess America’s Bishop Bollard; Lumenpulse’s Lumenblade; Artemide’s Alphabet of Light; Edison Price Lighting’s Infinity; WAC Lighting’s Strut System; and PureEdge Lighting’s TruTrack. Winning Honorable Mentions for the 2022 NLB awards were Coelux’s HT25; Impact Architectural Lighting’s tiki.aura; RAB Lighting’s L34; and Vode Lighting’s Zip Three Pendant with dynamic white.
LEDucation 2023 will be held March 7-8, 2023 at the New York Hilton.
