The next couple months represent my favorite time of year. The weather is usually wonderful, and the back-to-school energy hangs in the air, even for those of us far removed from school.
I remember some first days of school well, complete with the obligatory, informal portraits my mother hurriedly took before the bus arrived. I’m sure some of you have them, too. Every year brought the promise of expanded knowledge and new social experiences — what we’d call “networking” today.
I grew up in a small community and attended public school from kindergarten through twelfth grade so I was never a “new kid” in school. Still, I’ve had my share of first-day anticipation. I experience it even now when I attend industry events, and when our team launched the first LightSPEC West event last fall. I imagine many people who have launched an event have had a similar feeling — like attending the first day of school in a new location, full of promise and unknowns, such as how will it all go, who we will meet, and so on. There are a few such “new kids” to acknowledge on the lighting and controls industry event calendar.
At press time, representatives of the Lighting Research Center at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and the optical society SPIE are welcoming attendees to San Diego for a new addition to the SPIE Optics+Photonics conference: a 3D Printing for Lighting event to be held Aug. 22–23. Back when we first covered the 3D printing announcement, I inwardly bemoaned my inability to attend and hear the compelling research on the agenda. I look forward to hearing from the organizers how it all went.
The fall calendar has two more newcomers, both focused on lighting controls technology. On Sept. 26–27, the DesignLights Consortium will host “Unlocking the Potential of Networked Lighting Controls” in Detroit. The panels and discussions aim to engage DLC members, utility program personnel, and decarbonization advocates in overcoming barriers to implementing networked lighting controls to the benefit of building owners, managers, and occupants. And our old friends at the Illuminating Engineering Society New York City section (IESNYC) and Designers Lighting Forum of New York (DLFNY) — known for organizing the annual LEDucation conference and exhibition — will debut NYControlled in the Big Apple on Nov. 14. The one-day event will feature tech talks and networking opportunities on the exhibit floor at the Metropolitan Pavilion NYC.
And finally, our editorial team itself has a newcomer: Hayden Beeson has joined LEDs Magazine and Architectural SSL as associate editor. Hayden hails from Tulsa, Okla., and has worked as a freelancer and in editorial operations at industrial-machine lubrication media and training provider Noria Corp. On behalf of our LED and solid-state lighting community, welcome!
CARRIE MEADOWS is editor-in-chief of LEDs Magazine, with 20-plus 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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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.
