Lightfair Day 1 – Its Great To Be Back In New York!

The newly renovated Jacob Javits Centre is a light-filled masterpiece of metal and glass. The show floor is packed and there is a lot of buzz around. Our sources indicate that LIGHTFAIR will break their attendance records. Those will be hard numbers and easily quantifiable. But there are many other factors that determine whether a show is successful and everything we hear so far indicates this is a very successful show.   The energy on the exhibit floor is positive and we heard of no major setup issues. The layout and flow of the show is well managed with many lounges at the right places. Although the show was jam-packed today, the traffic did flow well and it was easy to get around.

Finally, the show provide free Wi-Fi which is a great benefit.  When you are in New York and paying premium prices for everything, it’s nice to get something for free.  Enabling your phone with Wi-Fi now makes the LIGHTFAIR App much more valuable.  If you are looking for an exhibitor it takes about 3 seconds to find them with the App. A great improvement on thumbing through a heavy book.

Another favorite from the exhibitors is the ability to quickly scan badges with smartphones and then add notes with voice.  The scanning process is far less awkward than pointing the old fashioned gun at someones’ badge for what seemed like minutes, hoping to scan, and then having to manually write notes on the paper as the information printed.

There is an Uber desk onsite. But strangely enough, no formal taxi rank outside. Out on 11th Avenue, its everyone for themselves as you try to grab a cab or limo. Thank goodness for the shuttle buses to the main hotels.

If you didn’t know it, all the world is about controls. They are the big hot thing this year. And OLED seems to have gone very quiet. More updates will follow.

Watch Opening Day Highlights from LIGHTFAIR here

Also, there are fantastic new products being displayed:

Link to Edisonreport’s Top 10 “Must See” Products

Link to LIGHTFAIR’s Innovation Awards

05 May