February 23, 2022

4 Months 'Til LightFair: Here's the Skinny

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Our ramblings on masks, vaccines, attendees and exhibitors

LAS VEGAS, NV – Four months from today, LightFair 2022 will be wrapping up its final day of glorious exhibitions and seminars in Las Vegas. It may seem like last year’s LightFair 2021 was just four months ago – and that’s because it was – but we now look ahead to the return of North America’s largest annual trade show to ~~Sin City~~ the City of Lights.

It’s been 8 years since LightFair was hosted in Las Vegas. At the time, 2014 was a record-setting year for the show with 576 exhibitors and over 26,000 attendees. Given the current-day pandemic challenges of live business events, expectations about booth count and attendee count are generally much lower for the 2022 rendition, but the conference programs and the opportunity to re-engage in-person will still draw thousands of lighting people out of their work-from-home cocoons and into the Las Vegas Convention Center. And maybe into a few casinos, too.

Masks and Vaccines: Here’s the current situation

Unlike LightFair 2021, there is no vaccine mandate for LightFair 2022.

On February 10, the State of Nevada lifted its mask mandate. Masks are no longer required in public places, but there are locations where Nevadans and visitors may still be asked to wear a mask. Federal guidelines still apply at airports, government buildings, etc.

LightFair’s website is still showing that masks will be required at the Las Vegas Convention Center despite the state-wide loosening of the restrictions. The current policy acknowledges the lifting of the Nevada mandate but also cites “All LightFair participants including attendees, exhibitors, vendors and LightFair staff are required to wear face masks.”

We were guessing that the show's policy would likely echo the local health mandates. For the moment, that is not the case, but LightFair does indicate that event organizers will continue to evaluate and update its health and safety measures as the event draws closer.

The MAGIC Fashion Trade Show was held last week at the Las Vegas Convention Center with no mask mandate. Show signage recommended masks, 3-foot social distancing and handwashing. As an aside, we think those last two guidelines should be universally applied, pandemic times or not.

West Coast Attendees

With nearly half the U.S. population in the Eastern Time zone, West Coast LightFair venues often benefit from pulling a good number of attendees from the Mountain and Pacific regions. It’s been 6 years since the last West Coast LightFair – San Diego 2016 – so we are eager to see how many regional lighting people rally and return.

The Las Vegas location allows for quick and economical travel from big markets like Los Angeles, San Francisco, Phoenix and Denver.

We will be watching one big market: Los Angeles. The IES L.A. Product Fair is being held this week and by many accounts is expected to be very well attended. Over 150 exhibitors. There’s a litany of lighting talent in L.A. with a strong appetite for lighting events, but we’ve also heard anecdotal reports of L.A./O.C. LightFair regulars sitting this one out. That’s to be expected we suppose, but the degree of participation from the area remains a question mark. We hope that the masses of SoCal lighting people hop in their cars, make a pit stop in Barstow, grab an Animal Style Double-Double and cruise all the way into the Las Vegas Strip.

Exhibitor Plans

The current exhibitor count is 275. Our records show the final exhibitor tally for LightFair 2021 in New York as 219. Also, the Exhibitor map shows that many of the larger booths are holding steady – with no noticeable widespread booth size reductions.

If an exhibitor is going to sign up and prepare a booth (that isn’t lame) the exhibitor timeline window is beginning to shrink. Notable names like Acuity Brands, Lutron, Legrand, Lumenpulse and others are still on the sidelines.

Here are companies that have been added to the LightFair Exhibitors List since January 8.