Philips Lighting Hospitality Event 2013 shows the business case and vision for creative LED investment

Just returned from an excellent event organised by Philips Lighting at the inspirational 8 Northumberland Avenue venue in central London where we saw some extraordinary LED lighting installations and also a vision of the future.

I was delighted to be at this annual Hospitality industry event, this year hosted in London by Philips Lighting. The two-day event ran over an informal first evening and a packed second day, and we had been invited to attend by Oliver Bryant, who heads the Hospitality division at Philips because of our work to reduce energy consumption across a number of UK hotel groups.

There were illuminating contributions from Charles Boyd, Director of 8 Northumberland Avenue, who gave us a sense of the building’s unique qualities from both a historical perspective and as a much-sought after venue that lays strong claim to be the most central event location in London, being just 77 steps away from the official centre of London.

And, as Robert Bain, Editor of LUX Magazine advises in the current issue (June), 8 Northumberland Avenue has successfully completed a comprehensive installation of a new and dynamic Philips Kinetics RGB LED lighting system that has boosted business at the venue threefold, with no increase in energy bills.

Charles Boyd says that this represents an implied saving of 66 per cent on pure energy costs and much lower maintenance costs that added up to a Return on Investment within six months.

We saw some of the frankly astonishing lighting effects during a tour of the venue and heard more about the Philips transformational vision from Ronald Gelten, who is responsible for bringing new lighting solutions to the European market.

Such solutions typically include a customised combination of lamps, luminaires, controls, software and services. Ronald shared his broad experience in lighting technology and business development of new products and solutions, from both US and in European perspectives.

I also enjoyed visionary Futures Keynote by Professor Dale Russell (Russell Studio) and her workshop with Patrick Downing from Ten Spaces.

Professor Russell is an internationally renowned design practitioner – as futurist and academic. She advocates innovative design through the synthesis of foresight, research and practice to initiate people-centred design. She introduces narrative insight and understandings as we shape our future and her creative and strategic guidance inspires visionary design cultures and projects within design and technology teams.

Professor Russell has built long-term consultancy relationships as both creative director and design futurist across a diverse blue-chip portfolio including: Philips Lighting; Ideal Standard; Nokia; Unilever; Altro and Samsung Design Europe.

She is Visiting Professor, Innovation Design Engineering MA/MSc, Royal College of Art joint course with Imperial College and contributes to postgraduate teaching and research across disciplines, and is also Visiting Professor, Central Saint Martins College of Arts and Design, University of the Arts London. More details here.

My main takeaways from this superb event are that lighting is central to both our business and personal lives. Managed creatively, correctly, it transforms spaces and is also a strong business booster – and does not need to cost the Earth. If you are looking for quality LED solutions that cuts your energy consumption and reduces carbon emissions, talk to us about your needs on 0845 123 5464.