LIGHTFAIR® International (LFI®) will produce its 2018 trade show and conference in Chicago in a strategic move designed to accommodate its continuing growth, according to Jeffrey L. Portman, Sr., vice chairman, president and chief operating officer of LFI managing partner AmericasMart® Atlanta.

The May 6-10, 2018 event marks LIGHTFAIR’s first Chicago staging since 1995 and will afford the global lighting design community the extensive accessibility, convenience and service benefits present in the city and in the vast facilities of McCormick Place, which with 2.6 million square feet of exhibition space ranks as the largest U.S. convention center.

“We expect Chicago and McCormick Place to help deliver a LIGHTFAIR experience of extraordinary relevance and resonance,” notes Portman.  “The spectacular scope of LIGHTFAIR exhibits, together with its extensive conference programming, demands an environment of the scale which McCormick Place offers – one that our customers will embrace and enjoy,” Portman adds.

LFI is the world’s largest annual architectural and commercial lighting trade show and conference produced alternately on the east and west coasts.  LFI 2017 will take place in Philadelphia May 7-11 at the Pennsylvania Convention Center.  In its 2016 showing in San Diego at the San Diego Convention Center April 24-28, LFI set new trade show floor and west-coast attendance records. 

“Chicago and LIGHTFAIR enjoy closely aligned postures within the global lighting design community,” notes Marsha L. Turner, CAE, chief executive officer of LFI partner International Association of Lighting Designers (IALD).  “Both command pivotal roles as centers of lighting and technology innovation and thought leadership.  We look forward to all that the 2018 trade show and conference will achieve in this uniquely advantageous setting,” Turner adds.

LIGHTFAIR® International brings the industry’s newest and most innovative products and technologies to a global attendee population of lighting designers, specifiers, architects, consultants and engineers from around the world.

“With LIGHTFAIR’s consistent and continuing growth must come exploration of different venues and new approaches to its staging,” notes Timothy Licitra, executive vice president of LFI partner Illuminating Engineering Society (IES).  “Chicago and McCormick Place create for LIGHTFAIR and particularly our exhibitors a new canvas for innovation and expansion,” adds Licitra.

Throughout the trade show floor, LFI exhibitors showcase exclusive introductions and a large spectrum of solutions such as LEDs, OLEDs, luminaires, controls, energy-efficient products, alternative energy including solar power, decorative, integrated design, exterior and roadway, software, solutions, IoT and innovative design.  LIGHTFAIR also features six pavilions: Design; Exterior & Roadway Lighting; Global Light + Design; New Exhibitor Pavilion; and – new for 2017 – Intelligent Lighting Pavilion and IoT Pavilion.

For LIGHTFAIR International 2017, the Pre-Conference program will take place from Sunday, May 7 – Monday, May 8, 2017 and the LFI Trade Show and Conference will run from Tuesday, May 9 – Thursday, May 11, 2017.  For more information about LIGHTFAIR International, please visit www.LIGHTFAIR.COM