Guangzhou International Lighting Exhibition (GILE) concluded its 26th edition.
The fair took place concurrently with Guangzhou Electrical Building Technology (GEBT), and together featured 2,036 exhibitors and 97,688 visitors. Running with the theme ‘The Future is Now’, GILE 2021 promoted optimism for the lighting industry, seeking to share the latest developments and technological breakthroughs.
On the theme of this year’s show, Ms Lucia Wong, Deputy General Manager of Messe Frankfurt (HK) commented: “The goal of this year’s fair was to focus on the future, and to encourage the industry to be optimistic about the positive developments and technological advancements that are and will continue to emerge. That’s why we chose the theme ‘The Future is Now’, focusing on the four main areas of technological innovation, strengthening market segments, promoting cross-industry collaboration and adding value to the lighting industry. In addition we aimed to work with the sector to promote a transition towards personalisation, digitalisation, energy-saving and quality improvement.”
Ms Wong continued: “The industry landscape is going through a number of changes at present due to technological innovation and evolution in the concept of lighting, with new business models emerging and lighting companies adjusting the direction of their product development in order to adapt. This has been evident from the new products and technologies on display at this year’s fair, as well as the changing sourcing demands from visitors. And while the situation with the pandemic in the lead up to the fair naturally restricted the number of visitors in attendance this year, we are optimistic that the industry is in a good position to recover and thrive, driven by these new advances in lighting technology.”
Innovation for a new era
In addition to smart lighting markets such as smart home, smart city lighting and smart light poles continuing to grow, new sectors are also emerging. Some key examples include smart health lighting, educational lighting and agricultural lighting, all of which were on display at this year’s GILE is the perfect platform to showcase these kinds of products and an ideal place for businesses to source them.
At this year’s fair, the organisers in collaboration with the Shanghai Pudong Intelligent Lighting Association (SILA), developed the first ever Smart-health crossover demonstration pavilion to better highlight the latest IoT and smart technologies, and various smart lighting applications
It aimed to support lighting manufacturers in developing partnerships with other industry players related to various applications, including smart modules, cloud computing, gateways, industrial design, IoT solutions, apps, sensors, big data and AI.
Highlights of the programme
More than 250 seminars and forums revolving around the theme ‘The New Decade of Lighting’ were held as part of the concurrent fringe programme. The Cultural and Night Tourism Pavilion was another highlight of the fair, which included both a lighting art display and an event programme.
The next editions of Guangzhou International Lighting Exhibition and Guangzhou Electrical Building Technology are scheduled to take place from 9 – 12 June 2022.