Are You Ready for #LDI2012?

It is the calm before the storm, the Wednesday before LDI 2012 opens in Las Vegas. I am already in town preparing for the long weekend of lighting goodness. Before the festivities commonsense, there is still some work to be done. Here at iSquint, we have been hard at work for the past couple of months preparing for the big day on Friday.  We have something special to announce!  We are in the final stages of preparing for the big news. So, before you head to the show floor on Friday, make sure to check out iSquint.net.

Now, are you ready for this long weekend? Here is a listing of some of the big things going on around town.

• Thursday: The Parnelli Golf Tournament at Arroyo Golf Club
• Thursday Night: PLASA Rock Our World Awards
• Thursday Night: Las Vegas Club Crawl
• Friday 10am – 5pm: SHOW FLOOR IS OPEN
• Friday Night: The LDI 25th Anniversary Party
• Saturday 10am – 5pm: SHOW FLOOR IS OPEN
• Saturday 5pm: LDI Awards Ceremony on the show floor
• Saturday Night 7pm: The 12th Annual Parnelli Awards
• Sunday 10am – 3pm: SHOW FLOOR IS OPEN

If you are walking the show floor and have a mobile device, save a tree and download the FREE LDI 2012 Mobile App.  It is available on Apple App Store, GooglePlay and Blackberry Store. It is SO much better than the paper edition and a TON lighter. It includes all the great information found in the print edition along with the ability to get directions on the show floor, plan an agenda and some neat other features.  So SAVE A TREE!

Safe travels everyone and see you all around Vegas and the show floor!

PLASA 2013: Goodbye Earls Court, Hello ExCel

Big news on one of the largest trade shows in our industry. PLASA 2013 will no longer find home at the famous Earls Court in London England. The PLASA Show will find a new home at the UK ExCel. Not only is PLASA moving locations, but timeline as well.  PLASA 2012 will be the last time the show takes place in early September.  PLASA 2013 will now happen in early October, 6-9 2013 to be exact.

What does this mean for the other big trade show in our industry, LDI which happens at the end of October? Time will tell, it is over a year away. Learn more about the PLASA show at www.plasashow.com and the new ExCel location at www.excel-london.co.uk.

Breaking News: PLASA Focus Stamford in November 2012

Just before PLASA Focus Nashville opens tomorrow, details have spilled that PLASA is planning yet another Focus series of mini/regional trade shows in Stamford, CT in November 2012.  The only details released so far is that PLASA Focus Stamford will take place November 12-13, 2012.

PLASA is sure to announce more details about PLASA Focus Stamford tomorrow or in the next couple of days while PLASA Focus Nashville is underway.  Stay tuned for more details. You can check the PLASA Focus website in the next couple of days to learn more.

Recap: 4Wall New York Vendor Show Case 2012

Where does time go? It has been some time since the 4Wall NY Vendor Show Case and I am just getting around to posting about it.  Back on May 17th, 4Wall held their annual Vendor Show Case in their NY warehouse.  There are a couple of reason why I love this event.

1. The BBQ! These guys go all out with Jimmy Cannon and Brian Dowd from ACT Lighting manning the Grills, Smokers and cutting boards. There is so much BBQ, hamburgers, and sides that you think you would be easting your last meal!
2. The intimate setting: I love massive trade shows, but the smaller ones are the best! Vendors have 6 feet area on top of road boxes to setup and show their products.
3. Smaller crowds: While I am sure 4Wall would love to pack the warehouse with guest, the smaller crowds mean more one-on-one time with the vendors!

It was a great event with a nice turn out of 4Wall customers and friends from around the NYC metro area.  Everyone showed off their latest products as well as some sneak peaks at what will be coming out later this summer and early fall. 4Wall not only filled up their warehouse with customers, but clients as well!

A.C. Lighting ACT Lighting Altman Lighting Apollo Arri Lighting BriteShot Center Stage Repair Chauvet Chroma-Q Chromlech City Theatrical Clay Paky Coemar USA Color Kinetics Desisti

Elation Enttec ETC Field Template GAM Products German Light Products Hippotizer Indu ElectricLee Filters Leprecon LEX Products Lighting & Electronics Litepanels Lycian Martin Professional Nila

Osram Prism Projection Robert Juliat Rosco SeaChanger Strand Lighting Strong The Black Tank Times Square Lighting TMB Tomcat Ultratec Special Effects UsedAV.com UsedLighting.com Vari*Lite

 

Here is a time lapse of the setup, the show case and a bit of tear down. Gotta love fitting 4 hours into under 3 minutes!

Photos from the 4Wall NY Vendor Show Case 2012

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New Trade Show iOS App – LightFair Int’l

LightFair 2011 is less then a month away in the city of brotherly love, Philadelphia, PA.

LIGHTFAIR International (LFI) is the world’s largest annual architectural and commercial lighting trade show and conference. LFI has a proven track record of bringing top international and domestic Architectural, Design, Engineering and Lighting professionals together with exhibitors from around the world.

Lightfair has recently announced the release of their iOS app, LIGHTFAIR INT’L.  Almost every larger trade show is putting out an app for their event.  It make sense!  You have the entire show catalog in your pocket rather than having a printed version in your bag or hands. Hey, it saves trees too!

Here is more about the app.

LIGHTFAIR INT’L is the official application of LIGHTFAIR® International (LFI). Use this tool to navigate the show floor, search the exhibitor directory, view networking events, create your own show agenda and review the Conference schedule.

Lightfair 2011 runs from May 15th to May 19th at the Philadelphia Convention Center.  Learn more about Lightfair at their website www.lightfair.com. Visit the iTunes App Store to download the LIGHTFAIR INT’L app for FREE.

#LDI2010: Live Design Releases LDI Show App for iPhone

If you have been to a trade show in the past year, you may have seen that event organizers are developing apps for our portable devices to guide us through the trade show.

I applaud trade show organizers for developing and producing these types of apps.  In the old days, pre-iPhones and smart portable devices, we attendees relied on a printed playbill if you will to organize our time at the show.  The down side was that these trade show guides were not available until you arrived at the trade show and registered.  Yes, if you pre-registered, you may have received it in the mail early or planned your sessions and printed out a trade show floor map from the web, but you had to remember to pack it and bring it to the show.

Now with a trade show app, all of that information is right there in our portable devices that we carry around with us all the time.  So the information is just a couple of finger points away. The other huge advantage here, less printing and less paper being used to print trade show guides!  And of course, we don’t have to carry that huge book or wade of papers around with us while on the floor.

LDI is right there with all the other trade shows.  LDI recently announced that they will be launching their own trade show app for the LDI Show coming up in October.

Good news, the app just hit the iTunes App Store for the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch! Perfect timing too.  This gives everyone plenty of time to organize the app with the sessions in the My Schedule section, Star the exhibitors you want to make sure to visit and keep up with the latest news about the show.

Fire up iTunes and download the FREE LDI App and start organizing your schedule while in Las Vegas next month.

#PLASA2010 Started Yesterday, Follow the Coverage

The PLASA show in London England started yesterday! Since I will not be attending the show, I wanted to put up some links and places to find out what is happening at the show.

First, let’s start with the easy one, the PLASA Show website – www.plasashow.com

UK Sound & Lighting Community or UKSLC, Jim said he’ll be there – www.ukslc.org – @ukslc

On Stage Lighting, Rob Sayer will also be there. – www.onstagelighting.co.uk – @onstagelighting

Techie Talk, I don’t know if they will be there, but it won’t hurt to watch – www.techietalk.co.uk – @techietalk

The of course there are the twitter feeds to watch.  Make sure to watch the shows twitter feed, @PlasaShow. Then there are the twitter has tags too, #PLSAS and #PLSAS2010. I hope that these links help.  I’ll try and have more information up as I hear about things. Don’t forget to look over all the announcements that were made before the show!