COMMENTARY | Always learning, always growing

July 28, 2023
Editor-in-chief CARRIE MEADOWS reflects on the engagement with the LED and SSL industry that has supported her career path and continues to influence the focus of LEDs Magazine.

Seeing my name in this space again is a bit surreal as more than 18 months have passed since we bid former editor-in-chief Maury Wright farewell in his retirement and welcomed aboard editorial director Wanda Lau. This is my 10-year anniversary with LEDs Magazine — and the decade has gone by in a blink.

For a time, I was content to carry out my editorial role more behind the scenes. I was comfortable vetting and refining content for our audiences across editorial products, managing workflows, but nothing I considered technically “daunting.”

It wasn’t until I started the LEDs blog that I realized I could develop a voice capable of communicating with the industry while continuing to report on important issues, applications, market forces, and the role of standards and industry interest groups in furthering LED and SSL adoption.

What’s been central to my professional growth is learning from so many different stakeholders across the industry. I engage most with people who are excited about their work and its prospects for profitability, while implementing solutions and practices that reduce our impact on the environment and improve the human experience. Our readers, contributors, and industry colleagues continue to both inspire and educate me every day.

That engagement will allow me to consider our editorial mission more purposefully. At its core, LEDs delivers content, insights, analysis, and events that enable organizations to strategize for profitability. But over the past several years, LED and SSL businesses have begun to adopt a greater awareness of the impact of their products and services — considering environmental stewardship, bringing quality products and inclusive design schemes to serve all socioeconomic and budget levels, and realizing opportunities arising from solutions across other technology sectors. Around the industry, firms are exploring what is possible with artificial intelligence (as demonstrated by our coverage on pages 8 and 26 of this issue), data collection and analysis, new manufacturing and design models, and advanced materials. And so our coverage is also heading in those directions, to pursue what is possible through mindful innovation.

There is always more to learn, to share with our readers, and to consider for our mission as we continue to evolve the brand alongside the emerging use cases for LED and SSL-driven technology. I am excited to move forward with our team, partners, and thought leaders in our community on what’s next for LEDs Magazine. That includes nurturing our relationship with the LED and SSL industry through an editorial advisory board. If you would be open to conversing about participating in editorial and event planning, and helping to cultivate regular contributions on focused topics, please contact me.

Carrie Meadows

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

[email protected]

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About the Author

Carrie Meadows | Editor-in-Chief, LEDs Magazine

Carrie Meadows has more than 20 years of experience in the publishing and media industry. She worked with the PennWell Technology Group for more than 17 years, having been part of the editorial staff at Solid State Technology, Microlithography World, Lightwave, Portable Design, CleanRooms, Laser Focus World, and Vision Systems Design before the group was acquired by current parent company Endeavor Business Media.

Meadows has received finalist recognition for LEDs Magazine in the FOLIO Eddie Awards, and has volunteered as a judge on several B2B editorial awards committees. She received a BA in English literature from Saint Anselm College, and earned thesis honors in the college's Geisel Library. Without the patience to sit down and write a book of her own, she has gladly undertaken the role of editor for the writings of friends and family.

Meadows enjoys living in the beautiful but sometimes unpredictable four seasons of the New England region, volunteering with an animal shelter, reading (of course), and walking with friends and extended "dog family" in her spare time.