LIGHTFAIR® International (LFI), the world’s largest annual architectural and commercial lighting trade show and conference, experienced its most phenomenal West Coast show last month. The 2010 show and conference, which took place in Las Vegas, ended with a record-breaking number of 22,000 registered attendees—increasing attendance by 10% from LFI 2008 in Las Vegas and making it the largest in LFI’s West Coast history.

Boasting an exhibit hall of 160,000 square feet and nearly 1,600 booths, the 2010 trade show floor featured 498 international manufacturers—94 of which represented countries outside of the United States. Attendees from 71countries and every U.S. state discovered a robust trade show floor of innovative product designs and introductions, technological advances and lighting solutions LFI 2010 also welcomed 72 first-time exhibiting companies, adding more dynamic product to the show.

This year, LFI debuted a new pavilion on the trade show floor, the Building Integration Pavilion, aligning it with the three established product-specific Pavilions—the Daylighting Pavilion, the Design Pavilion and the Global Light + Design Pavilion. The Building Integration Pavilion featured companies with enterprise system technologies used to maximize and create energy efficient buildings and showcased many of these successful projects.

As the highlight of its renowned Lighting Innovation Awards (LIA) program, LFI honored four companies as the lighting industry’s leaders in innovative product design and technology: Helieon Sustainable Light Module System by Bridgelux and Molex, Most Innovative Product of the Year; Light-Drive Elite by Traxon USA, Design Excellence Award; SSL2102 by NXP Semiconductors, Technical Innovation Award; and LightLouver Daylighting System by LightLouver, Judges’ Citation Award. Overall, the ceremony recognized 14 Best of Category winners. Separately, five additional exhibitors were awarded for unique booth presentation. The 2010 Best of Booth winners were Zumtobel, Hess America, Cantalupi USA and Traxon USA with Bartco Lighting winning the Award of Distinction for Booth Concepts.

LFI’s educational program, which started two days before the trade show floor opened with the Daylighting and LIGHTFAIR Institutes, offered more than 220 hours of programming over five days. This year, nearly 100 industry experts presented 72 sessions, addressing topics that covered lighting fundamentals, software, applications, controls and solutions, as well as design innovation, sustainability, energy-efficiency, product updates and case studies. Two additions to the 2010 conference lineup were the Building Integration track, supporting the new pavilion, and the Design Symposium, offering design-related courses.

"LIGHTFAIR International continues to evolve as the premier event for the lighting industry and as the world's largest architectural and commercial lighting trade show and conference," says Rochelle Burt, managing director of LIGHTFAIR International. "We continue to attract a diverse group of professionals from the lighting industry to create a trade show and conference of necessity. We plan to continue to expand on this successful experience, carrying the momentum into next year as we head to Philadelphia.” “LIGHTFAIR is already poised for another strong show next year with the 2011 trade show floor nearly 90% sold,” adds Burt.