France’s lighting syndicate puts the light on Lighting Days !

As a Lighting Days partner, the French lighting syndicate is determined to make this exhibition a flagship event in the sector in France. It’s an ambition that can clearly be seen in the events planned for the coming 2019 edition. We talk with syndicate chairman, Julien Arnal.

The French lighting syndicate is a converging point for all lighting market stakeholders, whatever their speciality. With fifty or so members representing 7000 jobs and the best part of €1.2bn turnover, these member companies alone design and produce more than 80% of the lamps used in light fittings sold in France and 70% of the indoor and outdoor fittings themselves.

Some major issues

With Erco director Julien Arnal in the chair since 2017, this trade confederation that works with everyone across the board involved in lighting is planning to go a lot further than just defending manufacturers’ interests.
“These days, the sector’s manufacturers are offering a mix of electrical and digital technologies against a backdrop of ecological change and economizing of resources. Smart lighting has enormous potential, and we take it on ourselves to assist members in their progress and innovation. We need to become educators and explain how urgent it is to modernize building interior and public lighting, two areas in which France remains a long way behind other countries. And it’s an expensive lag—if the whole country were to switch to LED, France could get by with two fewer nuclear reactors,” Julien Arnal tells us.

An event in the sector aimed at professionals

To create awareness among stakeholders and get them working together, to get them thinking, creating opportunities, the Syndicate sees the need for a yearly, structured event, involving the whole sector and meeting its expectations. “As soon as I took the chair at the Syndicate, I saw the strategic need to organize a big event that brought our issues into the open, showed our solutions, and was able to strike common ground among training bodies, research departments , and manufacturers, as well as project owners and contractors. It’s an event whose purpose is to unite everyone involved in the whole lighting value chain.”

Lighting Days becomes a partner. It has ambitions and it knows where it stands.

As Lighting Days develops, another trade show taking place at the same time—BePositive, dedicated to the energy and digital transition in buildings—has taken note and convinced the Syndicate about the benefits of joining forces and making this gathering a go-to event in the sector. “All our members thought this was a great idea! We have therefore teamed up with Lighting Days, where those members who so desire will be welcomed to a village where we will be organizing conferences, encouraging feedback from the field, and conducting large-scale external communication with local authorities and other public bodies concerning the modernization of interior lighting. We don’t mean to miss a trick when it comes to making the most of the synergy with BePositive.”

This partnership also features another innovation:

The French lighting syndicate and the exhibition organizer GL events will be presenting the Lighting Awards. At this, the first edition, the awards will go to “Femmes de la Lumière”—women in lighting. These are women who, within their organization or company, have worked toward promoting innovation, modernizing regulations, and conducting projects. Would it be fair to say “putting the light on light”?

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