The week that was 16- 20th April 2018…

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The week that was 16- 20th April 2018…

Singapore, Weekend 21-22nd April 2018

An unexpected week in Singapore, well almost…due to some visa issues I could not travel this week as planned which resulted in an unexpected week without meetings and commitments! But it did not stay like that for long as I took the opportunity to take people up on “catch up” meets and go to Malaysia midweek for a meeting with Gooee, our first knowledge partner for lighting and the IoT. As I am developing our Lighting Design of Things platform (LDoT) this follow up meeting after Frankfurt, was a welcome day away from the office. It was planned at some point in time in the coming weeks but with this opening in my schedule I jumped on it. Later more.
The relatively “free” week also allowed me to finalise details of our LET Bangkok event as well as continue some work on PLDC. Our practice would not be our practice without some unexpected things happening and this week we finally received the RFP for a big project in Malaysia that was supported with so many design briefs and legal documents that we are still studying what is actually relevant towards putting together a complying fee proposal bid. So, what initially looked like a relatively quiet week turned out to be quite intense after all…

PLDC
We are now really nearing confirmation on our Gala dinner venue and I think it is going to be a nice one, not even known to many Singaporeans. Once we confirm with the venue we will start developing the theme and concept for the night. Our approaches to the government are really slow with many bureaucratic hurdles, even something simple like getting CPD accreditation seems difficult! The team is working hard on all these details. Like always the confirmation of participants is slow and from experience we will see a wave of registrations just before closing date (end of May) for the early bird rate. For those interested you can register here: (https://pld-c.com/registration/). The first PLDC excursions (the glorious Gardens by the Bay and the award-winning Atlas Bar) have now also been confirmed and are now featured on the PLDC website.

LET Bangkok
We are finalising the participation of the last sponsors as well discussing the details of PLDC’s participation as a warm up event, with a special PLDC night planned on the Friday night after the day’s proceedings. If we can all make it work that will be great! The promotional campaign is in full swing and both internet and social media are now a regular target of the events promotion. Come join us in Bangkok 10-12 May 2018! My presentation will be about, what else…Lighting Design of Things 😊. So, if you want to know more of what’s cooking in the IoT kitchen of lighting design come and listen to my presentation! For more information visit: (http://www.ledexpothailand.com/international-led-summit.html)

The cutting edge – Jakarta
And, as if we I am not talking enough about LDoT, on the Monday (7th May 2018), prior to the Bangkok event, I have been invited to deliver a keynote address in Jakarta at an event organised for architects, interior designers, developers and key specifiers about the future of lighting. It will be a full day seminar about the cutting edge of lighting, which for me means to enlighten the participants about lighting design and the IoT or as I call it LDoT.

LDoT
So where am I with that, some of you may want to know. We have now secured our domain name www.lightingdesignofthings.com and are developing a platform where clients, lighting industry players and IoT partners can reach out and connect with each other. After all we now live in a connected world so to me it makes total sense. My midweek trip for technical discussions and strategy planning with Gooee energised my thinking again and with that renewed energy I worked on our presentations in anticipation of the meetings ahead with other future thinking lighting and IoT players that are scheduled in the coming time. More on this in the coming months!

One thing seems to emerge from all that. While everyone in the IoT seems to agree that the trend is irreversible, nobody really knows where exactly we are going, let alone what and when things will be possible. The metaphor I use to explain the speed of development is that of the mobile phone…10 years ago on your old Nokia you could only phone and text, today that has become video calling and social media “apping”. But by far most functions have nothing to do with phoning…drawing, photography, gaming, translating, scanning, paying, you name your mobile phone can do it. It’s not difficult to imagine that with lighting we are rapidly moving in the same direction! If we not want to be caught out by another “Kodak” moment we need to make the switch to LDoT…

T4
On my way to Malaysia I used for the first time Singapore’s newest terminal 4 which is beautifully designed and integrates the most modern and smart technologies. I am not a budget airlines guy, but I was certainly impressed! Well done to all designers, including the lighting designers!

Have a great weekend