LightFair International (LFI) has officially postponed the planned May 3–7, 2020 Las Vegas event due to the spread of the coronavirus Covid-19, and organizers say they hope to reschedule the tradeshow for the late summer or early fall. The organization cites visitor safety as the driving factor and certainly that should be paramount.
“There is no question that the safety and wellbeing of all LightFair attendees come first,” said Dan Darby, LFI show director. “We have been carefully monitoring the official updates and conferring with the leadership of IALD and IES, LightFair’s co-owners, on the best course forward. At this time, postponing the show is our most responsible action.”
Realistically, as organizers of the OFC event discovered in San Diego, CA this week, people just won’t attend a major event even if someone chooses to hold such an event. Reports have indicated that perhaps 1000 people attended OFC, an event planned for tens of thousands.
LFI is just the latest event to be cancelled in the LED and solid-state lighting (SSL) sectors. Light + Building would have been held this very week in Frankfurt, but was postponed effective Feb. 24. That event has since been rescheduled for Sept. 27–Oct. 2. That move led to the cancellation of the LED professional Symposium that was scheduled for late September in Austria.
Moreover, LEDucation that was scheduled for next week in New York City just announced this past week that it would also postpone. The event has been rescheduled for Aug. 18–19 in New York City.
The late summer and fall tradeshow calendar will become uncomfortably congested at this point with multiple events rescheduled in close proximity to one another on the calendar. Moreover, there are other fall events such as the IES Street and Area Lighting conference in October.
More than before with the earlier event cancellations, however, the LFI move was expected. Indeed global society has seen everything from professional sporting events to political rallies shut down or cancelled. Our industries and business in general are in for a short period of unprecedented unrest.
