LEDs Magazine slates horticultural lighting conference for October in Chicago
Topics such as horticulture, floriculture, vertical farming, light recipes, and plant response to light will be explored in depth with speakers from academia, research centers, commercial growers, and SSL manufacturers at the Oct. 12 Horticultural Lighting Conference.
LEDs Magazine, part of the PennWell LED & Lighting Network, has announced its inaugural Horticultural Lighting Conference scheduled for October 12, 2016 in Chicago, IL at the Palmer House Hilton hotel. The one-day event will feature a roster of speakers packed with horticultural experts led off by a keynote to be presented by Cary Mitchell, professor of Plant Physiology at Purdue University. Key topics at the conference will include horticulture, floriculture, vertical farming, light recipes, and how plant and human response to light differs — helping attendees understand how all of this knowledge can be applied to enable urban farms with greatly improved yields, better shelf life for plants, and reduced transportation burden which benefits the environment.
Interested in articles & announcements on horticultural LED lighting?
Indeed, horticulture has lurked as an important niche application for solid-state lighting (SSL) going back several years. LEDs Magazine has run both feature articles and shorter case studies on the topic including a feature last March. Now, however, LED technology and the science behind optimal lighting for plants are advancing to the stage where broad deployment is upon us. Those facts led to the launch of the Horticultural Lighting Conference.
Highlights of the conference will include presentation of the first research published by Strategies Unlimited focused specifically on horticultural lighting. Strategies Unlimited, the Strategies in Light conferences, and The LED Show are sister organizations along with LEDs Magazine within the PennWell LED & Lighting Network.
The research presentation will come from Strategies Unlimited senior analyst Stephanie Pruitt, author of the new work. "Horticultural lighting is revolutionizing the future of farming with technologies and innovations enabling year-round sustainable fruit, vegetable, and flower production," said Pruitt. “This conference is the first of its kind, providing an exciting new platform designed to connect the companies manufacturing horticultural LED products with the end users on the forefront of the industry. With the market growing at such a rapid pace, a conference of this kind is essential in connecting buyers and sellers as well as sharing information, case studies, and best practices."
Keynoter Mitchell, meanwhile, is a leader in academia in the horticultural world. He has chaired the Purdue Plant Physiology Program for six years and has performed research ranging from controlled-environment agriculture to the use of LED lighting to grow plants for space travel working with NASA's Specialized Center of Research and Training in Advanced Life Support.
The time is surely right for a dedicated horticultural event. The topic is covered each year at the Strategies in Light conferences but the Horticultural Lighting Conference will allow the growers and farmers dedicated to horticulture to share their experience and learn from the latest researchers, and the conference will also enable those practitioners to interact directly with the manufacturers striving to serve the horticultural space.
We have seen an uptick in components and lamp and luminaire products for the horticultural market of late. Just recently Cree, a VIP sponsor of the new conference, announced what it calls a Photo Red LED for horticultural luminaires. Philips Lighting, meanwhile, recently announced a luminaire with color-mixing capabilities for the market.
The Horticultural Lighting Conference will conclude with a networking reception in the early evening featuring tabletop exhibits from prominent lighting manufacturers and researchers in the space. Everlight Electronics is sponsoring the reception.
Stay informed about the Horticultural Lighting Conference — bookmark the event website.
Maury Wright | Editor in Chief
Maury Wright is an electronics engineer turned technology journalist, who has focused specifically on the LED & Lighting industry for the past decade. Wright first wrote for LEDs Magazine as a contractor in 2010, and took over as Editor-in-Chief in 2012. He has broad experience in technology areas ranging from microprocessors to digital media to wireless networks that he gained over 30 years in the trade press. Wright has experience running global editorial operations, such as during his tenure as worldwide editorial director of EDN Magazine, and has been instrumental in launching publication websites going back to the earliest days of the Internet. Wright has won numerous industry awards, including multiple ASBPE national awards for B2B journalism excellence, and has received finalist recognition for LEDs Magazine in the FOLIO Eddie Awards. He received a BS in electrical engineering from Auburn University.
