BLOG

The week that was 3 – 7th September 2018

Singapore – Amsterdam, Weekend 8-9th September 2018
With the usual hectic meetings and last-minute demands the first two days of the week, I finally left on Tuesday night for Amsterdam to attend Signify’s Pioneers of Light event with at the centre of it all the Lighting Design of Things round the table conference.

KLDC
The week started with a strategy meeting to decide on the content of our planned KLD Convention (KLDC) right on the heels of PLDC in Singapore. As I will have most of my team together to attend PLDC it is also a unique occasion to catch up and discuss the way forward with the company into the future. With the help of Mark Stuart, a professional corporate trainer who has helped our team over the last 2 years and specialises in helping companies prepare for the digital age, we discussed the content for our 2-day in-house event. We put a provisional program together and are excited about the directions and potential outcomes, very much centred around our LDoT platform.

IoT Players
We now pretty much meet every week with new potential IoT players for collaborations or partnerships. One thing is for sure if you want to make a dent in the lighting-IoT world you can only do that through collaborations and partnerships. The IoT world is too complex and extensive to be wanting to be and do everything. On Monday we met with another new player previously not known to have anything to do with smart lighting, but like us they are moving forcefully ahead and we may well collaborate with them on our Punggol digital district project as they have already been approved by the client as a smart supplier…there you go…

Punggol Digital District
Speaking of which we had another major and crucial meeting (literally hours before I flew off) with the client to make sure they are well aware of what we are doing. While we are coordinating our design development with the lead architect and the rest of the design team on a nearly daily basis, making sure the client is on the same page is critical to avoid abortive work as we move ahead. The client, practical as ever, is not surprisingly principally focussed on cost saving and the ease of operational management…all good so far…

Pioneers of light – Amsterdam
The rest of the week for me was dedicated to the Pioneers of Light event held at the famous Amsterdam Arena stadium, home to probably Hollands most famous soccer team Ajax and not in the least linked to arguably Hollands greatest player, Johan Cruyff.

Philips Lighting, now aptly renamed Signify, also held a world partner event at the same time which saw some 250 partners from all over the world congregate at the Arena to learn more about Signify’s IoT platform called Interact. A market place was created for everyone to see the various Interact platforms in action in dedicated applications. The Pioneers of Light event however was only for a very selected few, literally handpicked by Signify’s management based on their strategic importance to the business. We started on the first night with a welcome get-to know-eachother-network dinner. Nice and relaxed, allowing us to get familiar with each other and each others background.

The Edge
No, I am not talking about U2’s famous lead guitarist but about arguably the world’s most smart and intelligent building, which was our first stop the next day. Occupied mostly by Deloitte the building is a living example of what todays smart and intelligent IoT technology can achieve. We were given some great presentations and shown around the building to get a feel of the IoT capabilities of the building which came into operation in 2014. You can google the Edge Building, Amsterdam for more information. While the achievements are impressive, it did not come about without lots of challenges and obstacles and not surprisingly with what they have learned the Edge is now preparing for V2.0 as technology has kept on improving at a fast pace…a very impressive visit indeed.

Lighting Design of Things
Back at the Arena and after some further introductions about the Interact platform it was finally time for our LDoT round the table discussion, a studio event that was being pre-recorded for posting as a web/pod cast in the coming days on the Signify Lighting University site expertly managed by Jaap Schuuring, who is in charge of customer learning. Moderator for the discussion was independent lighting designer and writer Alan Tulla and his task was to extract as much as he could from not only myself as the only active lighting designer of things but also Laura Taylor, Head Design Exploration at Signify, Nathanael Meyer, Head of Design at GSM Projects and Peter Raynham, LET Lecturer at the University College of London. The diverse backgrounds of the panellists providing a large variety of expertise for a great discussion. The one and a half hour during discussion, through Alan’s skilful moderation, delivered everything that one would like to know on the current state and impact of the IoT on the future of lighting design…a great value discussion…can’t wait to relive it when the webcast comes online! Thanks to the Signify Team (Anissa, Jaap, Pierre-Yves, Mike) for making this possible and thanks to my fellow panellists for their great insights.

Amsterdam at night
We concluded the event with a sunset canal boat dinner and a walk about the city narrated and guided by an expert city architect and lighting designer to give substance to the beautiful city skyline. We un-boarded at the famous Hermitage building and walked our way to the city centre taking in the beauty of the canals, bridges and “grachten huizen”,Amsterdam is famous for.

Partnerships
I mentioned it before and I do it again in rounding up my blog…it will be crucial for the future and the Pioneers of Light event has certainly contributed in planting the seeds to develop these oh-so necessary partnerships!

PS: I will be away for a short break…back in 2 weeks when I am presenting my LDoT platform at Light Middle East 24-25th September in Dubai… have a great weekend!

The Edge



The Edge presentations

Amsterdam Arena

Interact Introduction



Pioneers of Light – LDoT

Canal boat dinner and city night tour

Of course the social media…

 

 

 

08. September 2018 by Martin Klaasen
Categories: city beautification, Light & Learn, light and health, Light and inspiration, light watch, lighting and culture, lighting and the economy, lighting applications, lighting design, Lighting Design of Things, lighting design practice | Leave a comment

Leave a Reply

Required fields are marked *