June 16, 2025
This Might Be America’s Best One-Day Lighting Event
Light! Design Expo delights lighting people from Northern California and beyond
On a breezy June afternoon, the San Francisco waterfront became more than just a postcard view — it turned into the epicenter of a rare feat in the lighting industry: full-scale collaboration among numerous lighting industry stakeholders.
On Thursday June 12, Pier 27 played host to Light! Design Expo, where over 1,600 lighting professionals gathered under one glass-wrapped roof for a one-day event that has quietly evolved from a modest 2017 Illuminating Engineering Society (IES) showcase into perhaps the most beloved one-day lighting event in America.
Above: Lighting people take in the scene at Light! Design Expo, with the San Francisco Bay and Bay Bridge providing a striking backdrop.
While rooted in Northern California, the event draws attendees from across the West and beyond — including Washington, Oregon, Southern California, Arizona, Nevada, Colorado and even Western Canada — many of whom return year after year, often bringing clients in tow.
What sets Light! Design Expo apart isn’t just the breathtaking Bay Bridge views or the high-caliber exhibitor list — it’s the uncharacteristically unified front of the eight competing Northern California lighting agencies that work together to rally exhibitors and attendees, not despite their rivalries, but because of them.
Rivals with a Shared Mission
“We put competition aside and come together for the lighting community,” said Maryanne Berger, Principal at ALR, whose firm has long been the leading agent in the Bay Area. She’s not just being diplomatic. Light! Design Expo isn’t a single-agent production or a scattered coalition. It’s a fully unified front, with participation from every major lighting agency in the region — including ALR, sixteen5hundred, CAL Lighting, Lighting Systems, Archetype, Healy Mattos, DZ Cook, and Wunder Lighting.
The coordination is baked into the event’s DNA: the local IES section that runs the show includes active board members from many of these firms. This creates a platform where agents, normally fierce competitors for project specs and distributor shelf space, set aside business lines to build something better — together.
“The success of the show can be attributed to strong synergy among the agencies for the greater good,” said James Kaentje, Associate Principal at HDR.
Above: Lighting people visit exhibits in the CAL Lighting section of Light! Design Expo
Limited Space, Unlimited Impact
With 151 exhibitors packed into the sun-drenched pier venue, the show made every square foot count. But success has its complications. Not every manufacturer who wanted in made the cut. Spots are limited, and some exhibitors are rotated in on an alternate-year basis depending on their standing with agent portfolios. It’s a balancing act of logistics, diplomacy and high demand.
That said, the event is more than a trade show. Attendees were treated to four free IES and AIA-accredited seminars, reflecting the Expo’s commitment to education and professional development. And the audience? A who’s who of the lighting ecosystem — designers, engineers, distributors, developers, and contractors, with firms like HLB Lighting Design, J S Nolan + Associates, ELECTROLIGHT and WSP making the rounds.
Could this become “West Coast LEDucation”?
Unlike sprawling multi-day conventions, Light! Design Expo does in one nine-hour day what some events try to stretch across two or three days. That efficiency, set against the stunning backdrop of San Francisco’s Embarcadero, is part of the show’s magic. Attendees moved from booths to seminars to bites of maple-glazed doughnuts from Johnny’s, chicken sliders, or Indian street food from Curry Up Now, all without missing a beat.
There’s speculation — quiet but persistent — that this show could become the West Coast’s version of LEDucation which recently drew 470 exhibitors and 10,000 attendees to the New York Hilton Midtown. Some manufacturers certainly see the potential. But others wonder if scaling up would dilute the very thing that makes the Expo feel different. Moving from Pier 27 to a larger, more conventional venue might boost booth counts — but would it dim the magic?
For now, the consensus seems clear: Light! Design Expo works precisely because it isn’t trying to be something else. It’s local. It’s dynamic. And it’s built on an unusually cohesive spirit that turns competition into connection. In an industry that often runs on fragmentation, that's a refreshing kind of glow.
