EVENTS
The Future of Urban Spaces Event
Words by: Elise Blight
What a pleasure it was for us to host in Lyon, an event bringing together our partners and clients from around the globe, to explore the future of urban spaces through a series of workshops and seminars and plenty of open discussions.
It’s been a long time since we have had the opportunity to hold a face to face event with people able to travel and mingle. While we have, over the past few years, spent much time discussing lighting solutions behind the screen over teams and google, we were longing to bring everyone together to take a deeper look into what the future looks like when it comes to responsible, exterior lighting solutions, sustainability, balancing the need to protect our night skies and ecosystems and minimise light pollution while catering for our nightime economies.
Thus, on Day 1 our guests were welcomed by Thiemo Cordes and Renaud LE BEC into the exciting event hub. Everyone was assigned a small group to split off into for the afternoon to enjoy a range of a few topics that will all eventually get covered across the next 2.5 days (at different times by each group).
The topics include New products and innovation concepts, Sustainability, GOBO technology, Dark Skies, Longevity and much more!
The first day ended with a spectacular dinner in the dimly lit WE-EF Lightbox adorned with chandeliers from the ceiling and a magical multi-sensory dining experience where guests were blindfolded for appetisers and forced to engage senses other than sight, then enjoy a course with red light and try to guess the ingredients; dessert was also a guessing game of ice cream flavours.
Colours and projectors were changing throughout the evening to deliver a lovely experience for Day 1.
On Day 2 many groups participated in a seminar by Simon Thorp from LAPD on the future of urban spaces within which trends, challenges and the future were openly discussed and pondered. While we as a globe confront many challenges, particularly in balancing the human and biodiversity needs for a sustainable future, it was great to discuss some of the positive changes that cities can consider and to finish the seminar with a sentiment of hope for a positive future for all species!
Several groups also had the opportunity to check out the recently upgraded Lightbox, which is simply sensational!
Further topics were covered including the amazing lighting design studio in which WE-EF showcased many of the custom solutions it has developed over the years to address specific client project/application needs. With customisation core to our DNA, it was great to see many unique bespoke solutions!
Some fun with VR goggles with the talented WE-EF France lighting design studio also created much excitement and wow factor!
The day concluded with an interesting visit to the 16th Lyon Contemporary Art Biennale.
Finally, a fun warehouse soirée saw many of our guests hit the dance floor 😊
We covered a great deal, made a lot of international friends, learned about the beauty in darkness and the critical need to deliver responsible, carefully considered and controlled night sensitive lighting solutions. And of course we peered into the future with several exciting new products and lighting concepts showcased throughout the event and inside the secret innovation lab shhh!
It’s been also exciting to hear what were the main highlights of the event for our guests and we would like to share their thoughts with you.
A huge thank you to everyone for joining us in Satolas, it’s been super to host you! And of course a big thanks to the entire team behind the event, well done everybody! Merci beaucoup!
