LightSPEC West merges creative design solutions with modern, inclusive practices

LEDs Magazine is a media partner of the inaugural LightSPEC West conference and exhibition, which takes place Sept. 21–22, 2022 at the Magic Box @ the Reef, in Los Angeles. Our parent company, Endeavor Business Media, launched this new Lighting Group event to provide a learning and networking experience formatted to meet the unique needs of the West Coast architecture and lighting design community. Curated by top industry experts, the two-day conference program and expo cover a wide range of topics vital to building designers, owners, and operators and include networking events, site tours, product showcases, and CEU-accredited plenary sessions, presentations, and panel discussions.

Under the direction of lighting industry leader Clifton Stanley Lemon, conference sessions are organized into three tracks: Health & Environment, Designing with Light, and Business & Economics. Sessions will cover a wide range of today’s vital industry topics including the future of work; evolving business models; grid-connected buildings; design for operations and maintenance; inclusive design, equity, and environmental justice; the importance of views and daylight; design in the metaverse; career paths in lighting; the importance of beauty and delight in design; and leveraging building data in decision-making.

“LightSPEC West is looking to turn conversations about the role of lighting and controls in the built environment and the value of technology-driven design into new levels of action across not only the execution of engineered spaces but also the business models that municipal authorities, building owners, and real estate managers are using to quantify the outcomes of lighting and building advances,” said Lester Craft, Endeavor Business Media Technology Group executive vice president.

Visionary lighting designer Thomas Paterson, founding principal of Lux Populi, will deliver the Sept. 21 keynote talk, “Craft and the Creativity Myth.” He will exhort the audience to reimagine outmoded ideas of creativity and design and to expand their focus on the holistic craft of operating a lighting practice and creating a culture of excellence that utilizes diverse team skills.

On Sept. 22, Judith Heerwagen, program expert at the U.S. General Services Administration, Office of Federal High Performance Green Buildings, will deliver her keynote, “Healthy Buildings and the Future of Work.” As a representative of GSA, the largest real estate organization on U.S. soil, Heerwagen will explore the connections between shifting work and building use patterns, climate change, environmental health issues, DEI initiatives, and evolutionary psychology. As real estate value in purpose-built office spaces declines in many sectors, building owners are newly tasked with defining how healthy buildings, including those with optimized lighting, views, and daylight, help to manage the future of the modern workplace.

“While many industries can be centralized, exported, or imported following the volatile nature of capital markets, the building industry — of which lighting is a part — remains intrinsically local,” Lemon said. “The LightSPEC West conference platform brings a much needed fresh, local approach to lighting industry events, addresses the most resonant industry topics, and facilitates meaningful conversations, targeted engagement, and valuable networking for industry stakeholders.”

Register for the conference and exhibition at lightspecwest.com.

CARRIE MEADOWS is managing editor of LEDs Magazine, with 20 years’ experience in business-to-business publishing across technology markets including solid-state technology manufacturing, fiberoptic communications, machine vision, lasers and photonics, and LEDs and lighting.

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