That’s Brilliant!

Inside ALA – Public Policy

From the “light bulb ban” to changes in overtime pay thresholds, learn how ALA tracks and influences the regulatory process. Liz and Raelle sit down with Michael Weems to get an inside look at ALA’s public policy efforts.
 
Show notes
Michael Weems serves as Vice President, Public Policy for the American Lighting Association. He came to ALA with a decade of experience in constituent services and a vast knowledge of various government policy topics. He has dedicated his career to public service and advancing quality lighting. 
Michael joined ALA in 2014 after spending 10 years working for the U.S. House of Representatives in Washington, D.C. While working on Capitol Hill, he learned the ins and outs of the legislative process and its impact on the implementation of regulations. Before his time in the nation’s capital, Michael earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas. 
During his time with ALA, Michael has worked to establish ALA’s presence in vital policy discussions, successfully representing the positions of the residential lighting industry. He is known as a strategic thinker with deep policy knowledge and possesses the skill to forge relationships and alliances. His ability to build consensus with industry experts and key decision-makers helps ensure policy victories for ALA. 
Away from ALA, Michael enjoys spending time with his wife, their daughter and the family Welsh-Terrier. He volunteers at his daughter’s school and serves on his neighborhood advisory council as well as the area school board ambassador program. Michael enjoys being outdoors running, hiking or playing golf. As a travel enthusiast, he is always searching for the next great bottle of wine or a nice glass of bourbon. 
 
Find out more about ALA Committees. 
General Service Lamp Definitions - Including exceptions to the 45 lumen per watt sales ban: 
https://alamembers.com/News/ArtMID/1059/ArticleID/888/General-Service-Lamp-Definitions 
  
Department of Energy General Service Lamp Webpage: 
https://www1.eere.energy.gov/buildings/appliance_standards/standards.aspx?productid=4 
  
ALA comments to Department of Energy – Ceiling Fan Regulations 
https://alamembers.com/News/ArtMID/1059/ArticleID/885/Energy-Conservation-Standards-for-Ceiling-Fans-Notice-of-Proposed-Rulemaking 
  
Department of Labor Overtime Regulation 
https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2023/09/08/2023-19032/defining-and-delimiting-the-exemptions-for-executive-administrative-professional-outside-sales-and 
  
Sy Gerber was instrumental in the development of critical safety standards for recessed lighting, working with the federal government.  
 
Listen to earlier podcasts for deep dives on: 
LEDs and Quality Lighting 
The Complexities of Color Rendering 
Dark Sky Lighting 
Circadian Rhythm Lighting 
 
Lighting Agora has great lighting speakers, instructors, and consultants. 
  
Register by November 30, 2023 for the 2024 ALA Conference to be entered in the drawing for a suite upgrade and a spa treatment at The Breakers.  
  
Raelle Bell – HostLiz Ware – HostAssociation Briefings - Producer 

What’s Now & Next in Lighting

The more we learn about lighting, the more we realize we still need to learn. Shirley Coyle takes Raelle & Liz through current research and technology to help us understand what’s next, and what is available now.
 
Show notes
 
Shirley Coyle is a recognized lighting industry leader with deep experience and connections in the North American lighting community, and Principal of Relevant Light.
Relevant Light helps businesses grow through developing creative approaches to build strong, engaged teams and to drive profitable growth in new and existing markets.  With expertise in the commercial, industrial and utility lighting markets, Relevant Light provides a range of consulting services including management consulting on organizational change, market trends and channel strategy development, technical consulting on lighting standards and technology, and training on lighting applications and technology.
 
An advocate for quality lighting, Shirley has over 3 decades of experience in specification sales and executive leadership roles in the commercial lighting industry.  Lighting Certified since 2000, Shirley is a Past President of the Illuminating Engineering Society (IES), with 7 years on the IES Board of Directors.  Shirley is active on several IES technical and service committees, including the Roadway Lighting Committee, the Outdoor Nighttime Environments Committee, and the Street & Area Lighting Committee.  Shirley is also a Board member of the CIE’s Canadian National Committee.
 
CCT - Correlated Color Temperature tells us what color the light appears, measured in kelvin (k).  A 2700k light looks “warm” and a 4000k light looks “cool.”
Listen to earlier podcasts for deep dives on:
The coplexities of color rendering
Dark Sky lighting
Circadian Rhythm lighting
 
Lighting Agora has great lighting speakers, instructors, and consultants.
 
See you in Lake Tahoe for the ALA Conference! 
 
Raelle Bell – HostLiz Ware – HostAssociation Briefings - Producer

Lighting That Tells a Story

Merchandising your lighting showroom? Hang something no one has ever seen. Your showroom will be memorable, and a place to discover the new and unusual. Even if your customers end up buying a bread-and-butter piece from the catalog. That’s just a taste of the advice we get from Mary Soeder of PDI Nashville – where lighting sales increased by 120% over the past five years.
 
Show notes
Mary Soeder, a Business Development Manager at PDI Nashville, has been with the company for over 12 years and in the industry for 16+ years. Soeder, a Nashville native, became accustomed to working with designers and their preferences while at PDI in Atlanta and later came home to open the Nashville showroom.
She was recently featured in Nashville Interiors recognizing her outstanding work in the lighting, kitchen, and bath industry. Mary is commended not only for her contributions to PDI, but in her charitable work with the Ronald McDonald House in Nashville and Our Little Roses, an all-girls home in Honduras that gives girls of all ages a safe, loving home and education. When she is not working, she enjoys traveling, live music, and trying new restaurants in her hometown.
 
Education, Education, Education!  ALAEducation.com
See you in Lake Tahoe for the ALA Conference! 
 
Raelle Bell – HostLiz Ware – HostAssociation Briefings - Producer

You’re Not Old – Your Eyes Are

You may be tempted to avoid “Light & The Aging Eye” topics. But designing a well-lit room for folks with low vision can help those of us with healthy eyes in our 40s and beyond. Tom Butters sits down with Raelle and Liz to tell us all about it.
Show notes
Further reading:
Lighting Your Way to Better Vision is a non-technical document from the Illuminating Engineering Society (IES,) addressing vision issues from extreme low vision to aging in place and how lighting can help improve quality of life. 
RP-28 is a technical document, produced by the IES.  Get a copy of Lighting and the Visual Environment for Older Adults and the Visually Impaired
Glossary:
Foveal Vision: The seeing of objects in the central (foveal) part of the visual field, approximately two degrees in diameter. It permits seeing much finer detail than does peripheral vision.
Specular: of, relating to, or having the qualities of a mirror
 
Bio:
Tom Butters LC, – Founder and Executive Director of The Lighting Agora
Tom Butters, LC, is the creative mind and developer behind some of the most well received educational tools and events of the global lighting industry. Since 1986, Tom has worked in or served the entire array of the lighting industry. He uses this diverse background and empathy to understand the needs of the individual or organization to deliver high quality lighting education to suit the precise needs of the user. Tom is a proud board member of the Nuckolls’ Fund for Lighting Education and an Emeritus Member of the IES.
Tom is a multiple award-winning lighting educator who counts the following as some of his proudest accomplishments.
Director of the team that won the 2020 Lightfair Innovation Judge’s Citation Award for the on-line “IES eLearning Portal”
IES Section Service Award – 2018
IES Toronto Section’s prestigious G.G. Cousins Award – 2015
IES Toronto Section Mentorship Award – 2011
Canlyte’s initial class of Certificate of Achievement in Lighting Excellence – 2007
While awards represent his professional success, Tom considers his true success to be the hundreds of former education attendees whom he has helped find passion through lighting. The Lighting Agora intends to continue this trend on a global stage.
 
See you in Lake Tahoe for the ALA Conference! 
 
Raelle Bell – HostLiz Ware – HostAssociation Briefings - Producer

Color Rendering: A More Complete Picture

The color rendering needs in a space vary, so how could one number accurately depict which light source renders colors “best?”
While Color Rendering Index (CRI) provides one metric, TM-30 provides a robust suite of metrics that convey much more information than any previous attempt at characterizing color rendering. Jason Livingston, co-chair of the IES Color Committee, explains what TM-30 is (and isn’t) to Liz and Raelle, and explores how we can use TM-30 when evaluating lighting needs.
Show notes
Jason is the principal of Studio T+L. His lighting work has garnered awards from the Illuminating Engineering Society and project profiles in Lighting Design + Application, Lighting & Sound America, Design Bureau, and Architectural SSL. He is a co-author of the IES’s Lighting Science 5 – Color and Design Guide 1 – Color and Illumination. He is also the author of a leading lighting design textbook, Design with Light: The Art Science, and Practice of Architectural Lighting Design.
 
Download ANSI/IES TM-30 IES Method for Evaluating Light Source Color Rendition for Free!
 
Check out this DOE webinar on understanding and applying TM-30.
 
Lighting Agora has great lighting speakers, instructors, and consultants.
 
Seen you in Lake Tahoe for the ALA Conference! 
 
Raelle Bell – HostLiz Ware – HostAssociation Briefings - Producer

LEDs: The Good, the Bad, & the Ugly

We expect LED lamps to act like incandescent lamps, but they don’t. Why is that, and what do we need to consider to make LED light beautiful? From flicker, to burn out, to the color just seeming “off,” there are reasons why consumers run into issues and report dissatisfaction with their LED light bulbs. Don Peifer joins Raelle and Liz, taking us through the key points to consider as we switch from a hot glowing wire (tungsten) to the glowing computer that is an LED.
Show notes
Don began his career in lighting as a designer for film and fashion. He designed the lighting for Annie Leibovitz, Steven Klein and a variety of award-winning cinematographers. He received his Masters of Architectural Sciences in Lighting from the Lighting Research Center at RPI. He designed the lighting for the Nike Media Store in NYC.  In 2007, he founded Lunera Lighting, a venture-backed start-up, which provided lighting for the fleet of Apple Stores and scores of Fortune 500 companies.
He has worked with many of the industry leading manufacturers including Acuity Brands Lighting, where he was the VP of Innovation and Legrand, where he held the position of Creative Director for the Lighting Sector. 
He is currently the founder of Smash the Bulb, a luminaire manufacturer that uses alternative manufacturing techniques, circular design and sustainable materials to address issues with the current paradigm of lighting. In February, 2022, Smash the bulb was awarded one of 4 L-Prizes by the Department of Energy. 
 
Don has lots of great information.  We put together a glossary to help out.  Send us an email at Podcast@ALALighting.com if we missed a term you’d like defined.
25°C = 77°F
85°C = 185°F
A Type Lamp
Electrolytic Capacitor
MOS-FET
Peltier cooling
Phosphor
YAGs - Yttrium Aluminum Garnet LED Phosphor
TAGs- Terbium Aluminum Garnet LED Phosphor
Tungsten
Underdrive
 
Lighting Agora has great lighting speakers, instructors and consultants. They put us in touch with Don, and can put you in touch with a lighting expert, too.
 
Loved listening to Don?  He talks more about his work on the Get A Grip on Lighting podcast.
We’ll be at Lightovation in Dallas June 21 – 24. Come to our free seminars in TM4826.
 
Raelle Bell – Host
Liz Ware – Host
Association Briefings - Producer

What’s on Trend

Hear from the executive editor of Lighting magazine on what’s trending as we prepare to release the 2023 issue. Plus, she’ll share some expert insight with Raelle and Liz on the important role lighting and lighting showrooms play in home design.
Show notes
Samantha Hart is Executive Editor of the Home Design group for Better Homes and Gardens. In that role, she oversees the group’s high-end decorating titles, including Lighting, Country Home, Modern Farmhouse Style, Beautiful Kitchens & Baths, Dream Kitchens & Baths, Country French, Cottage Style, and more. She also manages the group’s storage & organizing, do-it-yourself, and holiday-focused titles. Originally from Cape Town, South Africa, Samantha joined Meredith Corporation (now Dotdash Meredith) in 2006. She lives with her husband and two daughters in the Des Moines area. 
 
Lighting magazine is made possible by the ALA Advertising & PR Program, which is supported by member funding. To learn more about this program and how you can get free copies of Lighting for your showroom, email Amy@ALALighting.com.
 
Go to the ALA Conference! 
Visit ALAMembers.com for more information about the American Lighting Association and membership.
ALALighting.com has lighting tips and inspiration, and a listing of ALA-member showrooms. 
Raelle Bell – Host
Liz Ware – Host
Association Briefings - Producer

What’s next for ALA?

Raelle and Liz sit down with ALA’s new President and CEO to find out his plans for ALA.
Show notes
Larry Lauck was just named American Lighting Association’s new president and chief executive officer. He talks to Raelle and Liz about what will change, and what will stay the same as he develops the ALA’s next five-year plan. Plus, learn how you can get more involved with ALA.
To see the full press release, visit ALAMembers.com.
With more than 27 years of experience working for ALA as a member of the association’s senior management, Larry most recently served as executive vice president.
During his tenure with ALA, Larry has consistently placed a focus on improving the association and taking strategic steps to enhance its programs and membership. He was responsible for spearheading the research and execution of the association’s training and education programs.
Prior to working for ALA, Larry managed affiliate public relations at HBO. He studied journalism and public relations at The University of Texas at Austin and holds his MBA with a focus on business strategy from Southern Methodist University.
Lauck will officially take over as President and CEO March 1, 2023. 
Go to the ALA Conference! 
Visit ALAMembers.com for more information about the American Lighting Association and membership.
ALALighting.com has lighting tips and inspiration, and a listing of ALA-member showrooms. 
Raelle Bell – Host
Liz Ware – Host
Association Briefings - Producer