A series of probing breakthrough panel discussions, which will illuminate a pathway to the lighting industry’s future, will debut at LIGHTALKS, a new feature at Light Middle East on 18 January at the Dubai World Trade Centre (DWTC).
The LIGHTALKS will be part of Light Middle East | Intelligent Building Middle East - the region’s premier networking and sourcing platform for the lighting and building services technology eco-system.
Hosted by the Light Collective consultancy, the talks, which will be delivered live in-person and virtually, will further the industry’s post-pandemic evolution with downloadable recordings of the events being available on-demand online, post-event.
Revolving around five key sessions, the individual 80-minute talks will feature a keynote and panel discussion involving teams behind the lighting design process from end user, developer, architect, consultant and designer to manufacturer and supplier. Sessions will address lighting design and the circular economy, the impact of AI, Blockchain and digital Integrations in lighting design, how lighting design can preserve and improve the relationship between humans and the night sky, the artistry in creating immersive light festivals, and the role of women in the industry.
“The talks’ aim is to rediscover the industry’s progression, address its key challenges and gain powerful insights from experts who have adapted to the post-pandemic world,” explained Dishan Isaac, show director of Light Middle East | Intelligent Building Middle East. “They will feature the most influential professionals who will explore every angle of the industry’s challenges and the most effective solutions for the regional.”
Panellists have been drawn from 11 nations across the Middle East, the UK, North and South America, the Sub-continent and Levant.
The series will open with a curtain raiser keynote by Kevin J Grant, Founder & Creative Director of the UK’s professional lighting design consultancy Light Alliance. He says the series will help chart a constructive course to a better future.
“The challenges of our time now present new opportunities to rethink the way we design, how we collaborate, to play a larger role in the overall design process from a much earlier stage, to reimagine how our buildings and spaces are designed and experienced,” said Grant.
The impact of advanced technology integration will be examined in a keynote session and panel discussion led by Mark Lien, Industry Relations Manager of the USA’s Illuminating Engineering Society.
“AI is playing a growing role in the function of a wide variety of systems - lighting control systems can be combined with data analysis to create self-learning control systems that respond to user preferences automatically. Digital Twins create real-world mirrors that allow outcomes to be monitored, predicted, and reacted to in almost real-time. Other systems merge the physical and digital using data to create lighting effects that quietly communicate meaning and infer a link to real-world scenarios. This machine intelligence is also moving into the world of design with artistic generation systems facilitating the rapid visualization of concepts. We will explore whether we are entering a new design age, explore current technology and practices, the future of lighting design, and how we might need to adapt our working methods to benefit,” explained Lien.
Hosting the Circular Economy session, Praveen Thampi, Creative Director of India’s The Ministry Of Light said the Middle East could be in the vanguard of the industry’s sustainability drive.
“The Middle East is uniquely placed to consider plans for a more sustainable lighting future with projects like Neom in Saudi Arabia, where an entire city is being built from scratch and with most regional construction having taken place in the last twenty years, there is an opportunity for the region to be a forerunner in circular thought when it comes to lighting specification, future planning and re-use and recycling,” said Thampi.
Light Middle East|Intelligent Building Middle East will run at DWTC from January 17-19. The 16th in the annual series, the event is expected to be the biggest in its history with over 160 exhibitors from 28 countries. The event, which will be themed around Innovative Design, Sustainable Future and Seamless Integration will also debut the Smart Buildings Summit.