As of this writing, nearly 3,000 athletes from 90 countries are set to compete in more than 100 events at the Winter Olympics this month. As a stats geek, those numbers got me thinking about how the IES and LD+A are faring on the international stage. Here’s a snapshot “medal count,” if you will:
- More than 1,000 member and subscriber copies of LD+A are mailed outside the U.S. in a typical month. For example, in November, readers in approximately 60 countries received an issue, “spanning the globe”—as they used to say on ABC’s Wide World of Sports—from Canada (720 copies) to Romania (one copy) and all destinations in between.
- Projects from North American IES Sections such as New York City and Los Angeles would appear to dominate the IES Illumination Award programs. In reality, more projects classified as “International” earned Merit Awards than both those U.S. Sections combined. Three of the seven projects earning top honors were from outside the U.S. (Canada, China and Ukraine).
- Mexico is fertile ground for lighting activity. Late last year, IES Past President Antonio Garza attended the ribbon cutting for Centro de Tecnología en Iluminación, a new R&D center in Guadalajara launched in collaboration with the California Lighting Technology Center (LD+A, August 2021). He noted that there’s “a strong push and good local commitment from the folks at CTI and the general lighting community in Guadalajara to begin IES-related activities that could lead to the establishment of a local IES Section.”
- An international thread runs through all elements of the IES Strategic Plan. Here at LD+A, keep an eye out later this year for LD+A International, a celebration of some best-in-class lighting design from around the globe.
Enjoy the games.