Session Evaluation

In a building industry sector as demanding and specialized as lighting, a successful practice is based on discipline in craft, high quality design communication, and careful project documentation. The creativity required to deliver exceptional design projects is not a mystical quality granted to a select few at birth, but is a collective, distributed process facilitated by a deep understanding of fundamental limits, by a balance of different roles and strengths on the team, and by active and ongoing experimentation and learning. In this keynote, Thomas Paterson will explore the foundations of design in craft and how teams can develop a strong culture of excellence that redefines outmoded ideas of creativity.
 

Session Survey
Since LEDs were introduced to the lighting market, it adapted and eventually thrived. Various predictions have been made about the future impact of SSL (most of them wide of the mark) and the industry has become accustomed to thinking that another equally “disruptive” technology is perpetually imminent. This hasn’t quite happened; instead, a potent mix of unforeseen factors – including but not limited to technological developments – have created an environment more complex and chaotic than was foreseen, yet filled with opportunities for those brave and creative enough to recognize and capitalize on them. This talk will address the current state of the industry – important economic trends; unrecognized and surprising growth areas; the impact of ESG and regulatory action – and suggest strategies for coping with uncertainty and conflicting data and predictions.    

Session Survey
Light is a uniquely powerful tool for designers and when used sensitively can greatly enhance the narrative power and experience of interior spaces. This session will present an intimate conversation between two leading designers where they explore their approaches to creating beautiful spaces and delight in our inhabiting them. They will show illustrative examples of their work in residential, hospitality, retail, and office projects that evolve from a natural interplay of light, interior architecture, furnishings, materials, color, and finishes; and will discuss specific techniques and design visualizations that facilitate optimal creative collaboration.  

Session Survey
We’re currently revisiting many of the basic assumptions and practices in design, many of which represent a skewed perspective. The more we look at DEI and inclusive design, the more we see that it is inextricably connected to all the other important goals we have in design - to address health and wellness, climate action, economic and political stability, and even our basic survival. Lighting has lagged behind the other design disciplines in this regard and is now busy catching up. This panel will explore a range of tools and actions to address inclusive design: corporate programs, education and training, cross disciplinary collaboration, and communications strategies. 

Moderator: 
Alana Shepherd - Founding Principal, Intangible Light


Panelists:

Session Survey
The evolution and interdependent effects of many different technologies including SSL, online sales, AI, powerful software, and supply chain automation, are actively re-mapping the lighting ecosystem in surprising, creative, and occasionally disruptive ways. Many actors in the supply chain, especially lighting agencies, have developed rich and valuable service offerings to support lighting and controls products. This panel will explore the rapidly changing lighting supply chain landscape; innovative business models in the lighting agency; transparency, changing scope and responsibilities, and the emerging services and solutions revolutionizing the lighting business.

Moderator: 
Billy Hodges - Co-founder, American Association of Independent Lighting Agents


Panelists:

Session Survey
For a variety of reasons, much of our current built environment does not provide optimal daylight and views. And to use a medical analogy, we often treat the symptoms with technology – replicating sunlight with electric light and developing ever more complex lighting systems – rather than the underlying cause, which is lack of daylight and views. Traditionally daylighting design has not been the purview of the lighting designer, but this is changing, as innovative firms take a more holistic approach to lighting and daylighting design that includes close integration with architecture and other building systems. This 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. 

Session Survey
The lighting industry is a relatively small and interconnected industry compared to others in the wider building industry, but career paths are not as direct, partly due to the lack of academic programs in lighting in the U.S. As the industry grows and evolves, firms are constantly on the lookout for passionate, qualified candidates. This panel will explore career paths for emerging lighting professionals, available certifications and training, new job descriptions, and new skills required to meet the challenges of the future.  

Moderator: 
Christopher Bright - Lighting Designer, Lighting Design Alliance

Panelists:
 

Session Survey
Oyler Wu Collaborative approaches architecture with a critical and rigorous intent that challenges the typical vision of the built environment. The office relies on the constant exchange between architectural projects at very different scales, and an emphasis on craft and hands-on experience. In this session, Principal Jenny Wu talks about the evolution of an integrative and holistic approach to design in her architectural practice and personal work, which includes a highly successful line of jewelry. 

Session Survey
Lighting product design is experiencing a period of creativity and growth as new designs and technologies bring more options to designers and end users. Both architectural and residential lighting products are seeing tremendous innovation in manufacturing methods like 3D printing; controls and systems integration; new forms and systems driven by the unique characteristics of solid state technology; radically new materials that challenge the traditional dominance of metal, plastic and glass; and in a growing understanding of not just biophillic or biomorphic elements, but of deep biomimetic design. This talk will explore the process of designing individual luminaires and connected systems, while incorporating strategies like mass customization, circular economy, and sustainable manufacturing.

Session Survey
The health and vitality of the urban environment is greatly impacted by lighting: done well, it contributes to defining the quality of towns and cities, increasing safety, improving wayfinding, and reinforcing positive cultural experiences for both citizens and visitors. This session will present the design thinking and work of two leading practitioners of nighttime design. 

Session Survey
Los Angeles architecture firm Brooks + Scarpa, recently honored with the 2022 AIA Gold Medal, is a multi-disciplinary practice that includes architecture, landscape architecture, planning, environmental design, materials research, graphic, furniture, and interior design services that produces innovative, sustainable iconic buildings and urban environments. Their exemplary work, which seamlessly blends architecture, art and craft, has garnered international acclaim for the creative use of materials in unique and unexpected ways, and challenges conventional approaches to design in order to more fully enhance the human experience. The firm has also been recognized for pioneering more holistic approaches to delivering award winning environmentally responsive designs. By reworking the processes of design and building – with material, form, construction, light, and even financing – the firm culls out latent potentials in their projects to make the ordinary extraordinary. This talk will describe Brooks + Scarpa’s journey of discovery with design as a way to connect people, places, and experiences.  

Session Survey
Operations and maintenance concerns are typically not given top priority in the design and construction of building systems for many reasons, but emerging sensor and data technologies are making analytics and predictive maintenance increasingly feasible and effective. This session will cover risk management and future proofing in system design; AI and predictive maintenance; managing large facilities; post occupancy evaluations; startup, commissioning, and acceptance testing; and education and training. 

Moderator:

Josh Dean
Executive Director
California Energy Alliance

Panelists:

Session Survey
Who uses the public space and under which circumstances, how is it experienced, which level of freedom is perceived while in the public realm of a city? All these questions help to understand the level of social inclusion and openness a city may have, and consequently, the quality of life for its inhabitants. Generating a sense of inclusion through decisive design is at the core of an ethical response to the increasing global conditions of social segregation and inequality. This session will address how lighting can contribute to or contravene social cohesion in the public realm and which lighting design tools can be applied to enhance a buoyant, diverse, and inclusive public space.

Session Survey
Today many factors are impacting the asset value of commercial and institutional real estate: climate change; DEI initiatives; shifting work and building use patterns; emerging technologies; and health measures. By acting efficiently and holistically, building owners, real estate professionals, tenants, and communities can adapt to these challenges and thrive. This session will address how healthy buildings, including those with optimal lighting, views, and daylight, help building owners to manage the future of the modern workplace.    

Session Survey
Investment decisions in buildings are typically seen through two different lenses - capital expenditures (cap-ex) which go toward acquiring assets, or operating expenditures (op-ex) which go toward maintaining asset value. Today, decisions to acquire, install, and operate smart building technology carry both risk (will it be too hard to operate or be obsolete quickly?) and, increasingly, rewards (we can realize new revenue streams with the data we gather). In this session, Jay will explore 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.

Session Survey
As work patterns impacted by many social, economic, and health factors continue to change in ways that are difficult to predict, employers are experimenting with hybrid environments in an effort to provide a flexible, safe, connected, and inclusive environments for employees. IoT and system integration is happening on many levels, and “digital twins” are being increasingly used to design and operate buildings. In this session Erin will show how we can take digital twins one step further, recreating the workspace in the metaverse and allowing users to not only see what’s happening in their offices but to actively communicate and collaborate with those there or working from home. 

Session Survey
The controls industry has yet to untie the gordian knot that separates the capabilities we want from the ease of use we expect. Emerging technologies and approaches to integrated controls are poised to deliver a future of smart buildings and grid integration, but only if informed decision makers enter the process early. This session will show how building control systems play a vital role past the meter, in managing the emerging connected grid, and how they can deliver previously unrealized ROI while becoming simpler to understand, justify, install, and operate.

Session Survey
Stakeholders in the built environment – tenants, employees, investors, developers, corporations, and governments – are dealing with many short and long-term challenges and uncertainties related to the impacts of the pandemic, remote work, energy availability and costs, and environmental and social governance. This session will explore how the individual and interacting effects of indoor environmental quality: lighting, views, and daylight; heating, cooling, and ventilation; humidity; and acoustics impact the health and productivity of workforces and the value of real estate. 

Moderator: 

Clifton Stanley Lemon
Program Director
LightSPEC Conferences

Panelists: