Lightfair, the lighting industry’s annual trade show and conference, was held this year from May 3 to May 7 in New York at the Jacob K. Javits Center. According to event producer AmericasMart (AMC), the trade show achieved a record 29,900 registered attendees (up 15 percent from 2014), 599 exhibitors, and 268,580 net square feet of exhibition space. Of the exhibitor total, 108 companies were there for the first time and 110 companies came from outside of the United States.

In addition to the trade show, the event featured an educational lineup of workshops, seminars, and keynote speakers, as well as a new Controls & Connectivity Forum. (Read senior editor Wanda Lau’s report from this forum, “The Future is in Lighting Controls”). In all, 198 hours of educational content were presented via 78 accredited courses.

On the products front, the annual Lightfair Innovation Awards, in its most streamlined presentation to date, gave attendees a good preview of what awaited them on the show floor. Read associate editor Hallie Busta’s detailed look at the 2015 winners. And while there were a number of new fixtures on display, many of the product introductions focused on software that allows lighting to take on a dynamic range of control options from color tuning to managing entire illumination systems.

The pulse of this year’s show and the state of the lighting industry is captured in architectural lighting’s second annual installment of videos from Lightfair. The first video (bit.ly/ALLightfair2015) is an overview, and in the rest we speak with industry executives who share their thoughts on how they see their companies in the lighting marketplace amidst continued lighting technology developments. This year, we spoke with the following people:

Maryrose Sylvester, President and CEO, GE Lighting (bit.ly/ALLightfairGE)

Jes Munk Hansen, President and CEO, Osram Americas (bit.ly/ALLightfairOSRAM)

Amy Huntington, President, Americas, Philips Lighting (bit.ly/ALLightfairPhilips)

FX Souvay, President and CEO, Lumenpulse (bit.ly/ALLightfairLumenpulse)

Lightfair, always a valuable resource, particularly in terms of industry networking, will take place in San Diego next year. Show dates are quite early: April 24–28, 2016. For details go to lightfair.com.