The inaugural LightSPEC West event is only nine days away and will be held in Los Angeles, CA. Here’s a sneak peek at five interesting presentations:

• Permanent Chaos, Wishful Thinking, and Real Opportunities – the Lighting Industry Today. On September 21, Wendy Davis, a Senior Research Analyst at Guidehouse, and Clifton Stanley Lemon, the LightSPEC West organizer, present a talk addressing the current state of the industry: important economic trends, unrecognized and surprising growth areas, the impact of ESG and regulatory action. They’ll suggest strategies for coping with uncertainty and conflicting data and predictions. They identify emerging research on lighting, views, and daylight that present opportunities for collaboration with architects, advances in occupant health and wellness, increased value for building owners, improvements in environmental quality, and best practices in inclusive design.
• On September 21, Teal Brogden and Venna Resurreccion of HLB Lighting present a talk entitled Experiencing the Daylight Dynamic. HLB is one of the few lighting firms in the U.S. with a deep and robust practice in daylighting design, and they’ve developed an exemplary practice in integrating daylight with electric light. Their talk will focus on the design process and the many health and wellness benefits of daylight and views through a series of exemplary case studies. Teal and Venna will describe ways in which regenerative lighting design uses daylight first before considering electric light, and how the two can be balanced. They will present data on the impact of views and daylight on real estate value, productivity and other metrics from studies of schools and daylight, and health outcomes from hospital rooms with access to views and daylight. They will also evaluate specific qualities and forms of architecture that provide optimal views and daylight and how these can be put to best use for electric light as well.
• On September 21, a panel entitled Inclusive Design as a Catalyst for Change will be presented. Moderated by lighting designer Alana Shepherd, founder of the North American Coalition of Lighting Industry Queers (NACLIQ), and including Mariel Taviana Acevdo of Portland, Oregon lighting agency Solus; Archit Jain, principal at Oculus Light Studio; and Thomas Paterson, principal at Lux Populi, the panel will explore a range of tools and actions to address inclusive design: corporate programs, education and training, cross-disciplinary collaboration, and communications strategies.
• Controls expert and consultant, John Arthur Wilson, will be delivering a talk on September 22, entitled Simplifying Controls and Evolution of Grid-Connected Buildings. This talk will show how building control systems play a vital role past the meter in helping to enable and manage the emerging connected grid and how they can deliver previously unrealized ROI while becoming simpler to understand, justify, install, and operate. He’ll also talk about how lighting controls can drive integration of other building systems in ways that provide ROI on sensor and operational data, aid predictive maintenance, and increase user control and comfort. John Arthur feels that most of the real impact of IoT in buildings is, at least initially, around the control systems. Because lighting controls are the substrate for energy strategies like demand management and occupancy-based approaches. They’re a natural leverage point to facilitate grid-connected buildings. Eventually, we’ll see a grid where buildings produce, consume, and share both energy and data in two directions- to and from the grid and internet.
• Jay Wratten, Senior Director at WSP will present a talk entitled Beyond Occupancy – Risk Management and Revenue Streams on September 22, in which he will explore investment in smart buildings from the perspective of building owners and operators. He’ll show how smart, integrated building systems not only allow decreased op-ex, by enabling things like predictive maintenance and energy efficiency but can provide operating revenue from increasingly valuable data streams and analytics. He’ll also explore how becoming more involved in building system integration, and data architecture is an increasingly important collaborative role for systems engineers, IT professionals, and lighting designers.

To register for the event, visit the LightSPEC West site here.

David Shiller

David Shiller is the Publisher of LightNOW, and President of Lighting Solution Development, a North American consulting firm providing business development services to advanced lighting manufacturers. The ALA awarded David the Pillar of the Industry Award. David has co-chaired ALA’s Engineering Committee since 2010. David established MaxLite’s OEM component sales into a multi-million dollar division. He invented GU24 lamps while leading ENERGY STAR lighting programs for the US EPA. David has been published in leading lighting publications, including LD+A, enLIGHTenment Magazine, LEDs Magazine, and more.

See Full Bio