Lightapalooza 2025 has officially concluded. But, with most of Day 4 being a mad dash to meet and say goodbyes before flying off back home, we figured it better to replace our prior recap/thought format with an informal show postmortem.
Ever since I got a chance to talk to Tom Doherty about what was in store for the show this year, expectations were incredibly high. A lot of that had to do with the education being set up for the show. In a past life, I had gotten a chance to interview Mariana Figueiro on some of the topics she was going over at the show, so hearing that she and some of her contemporaries in academia and lighting design were going to be presenting, I already partially knew what I would be in for if I attended.
Similarly, the introduction of the showcase suites and a keynote focusing on lighting theory and practice highlighted that well-curated approach to programming, which has been the show’s main draw and a potential path for growth in future shows beyond the usual “just make it bigger” mentality.
The way I would describe how education was handled this year was “progressive refinement.” Doherty described handling the varying skill levels for education as being one of the biggest challenges of the show, and I can certainly see the challenge in catering to an ever-heightening skill ceiling as these shows progress. Bringing on academia and design industry experts is a natural evolution upward, and a decision that seemed incredibly well-received by attendees. For the keynote and the classes being taught by these experts, the rooms were always jam packed.
For people at that top level who want to be able to wed technical know-how into incredible designs, the ability to mash theory and practice on a level that translates technical expertise into artful creativity is honestly one of the reasons why I fell in love with custom integration as an industry. I can see why lighting has taken off as a category as a result (monetary opportunities aside).
Lightapalooza took place in late February, and the growth of the event has mirrored the rapid ascension lighting fixtures and controls.
There’s genuine passion behind it, and opening the courses to feature this top level education is something that can only be supported by that passion.
I do want to make clear that it’s not just the education at the top level that was great this year. The Lightapalooza team did a fantastic job balancing out the subject matter and skill levels when it came to the classes for 2025, such that, I could attend a course on how to handle change management on a lighting project, shift into an overview of lighting controls, and then fly right into a meaty dissertation on how humans react to different lighting stimuli. There is education here for all different learning types and appetites.
It’s always a challenge attending these events. My brain is wired like a magpie, so my first instinct is to go to all the new shiny things I’ve never seen before (fresh faces and the like) but I also want to stop by and see how all my favorite familiars are holding up. Even if I were to focus on JUST the brands I already know, I wouldn’t be able to reach them all in 2 days.
A lot of that has to do with the intimacy of the show, however. An upside to the more curated selection I found with this year’s show in particular is that you don’t have this rushed feeling to interactions. You’re able to sit around, talk, and not only get to know the products on display, but get to know the people you might wind up working with, especially considering the additional services many of these manufacturers may offer to assist integrators.
I mentioned on my Day 3 coverage that the quality of the conversations are way better than what I get at the larger shows, and I genuinely mean that. Lightapalooza has done a fantastic job at developing its educational and show floor experience and I’m hesitant to say it should stop here in terms of growth, but I will say it feels like they hit the sweet spot in 2025. It was big enough that, as an individual, you had plenty of options to pick from without things feeling too overwhelming, so I imagine, if a group were to attend the show and divide time accordingly, it would be more than manageable to see most of the floor.
Honestly my biggest complaint is that I, as an individual, can only be in so many places at once.
Another great addition to the show lineup this year was giving some exhibitors an opportunity to create a specially tailored experience with their rooms. I already mentioned it on my Day 2 recap, but I think Proluxe knocked it out of the park with their presentation. The use of their fixtures mixed with partner products in a more realistic setup of a gathering space led to a lot of really engaging conversations both on lighting in general and the products being used.
My only wish? That they were closer to the show floor so it didn’t feel like a trip I had to plan for when visiting. But, given the nature of being a controlled environment divorced from the show floor, I understand why they needed to be there this year. I would also love to see something similar be done for outdoor lighting manufacturers somehow leveraging the grounds of the hotel, but I can’t imagine the logistics for that (also it doesn’t help that Texas can still get brutally cold this time of year).
One thing I didn’t get a chance to highlight was the genuine sense of camaraderie felt while I was at the show, which I think largely comes from that shared interest and passion in lighting and power. It’s a bunch of nerds getting together and nerding out over their favorite subject, and I say that in the most loving way possible. The people you meet at the show are there because they are just as, if not more, passionate about the industry as you are, and for that reason it always felt as though people were having a good time, even outside of the cocktail events.
It’s a little funny. I’ve been to quite a few buying group events across the industry at this point and the standout aspect of those has always been the community and camaraderie present. This event, to me, has some noteworthy parallels to those events with how close-knit everyone felt while at the show. Considering the event’s ties to the HTSA buying group back when it was first starting out, it’s not hard to imagine Doherty took some of his know-how in community building and applied it here as well.
With all that said, Lightapalooza 2025, while delivering on more of just about everything, also delivered on a potential blueprint of how the show can continue to deliver new and valuable experiences, without having to scale the size of the show beyond what it is. I mean it when I say I think the show has hit a sweet-spot at this point for being able to deliver variety without compromising on quality.
I think a lot of that also has to do with the staggered release of a lot of the big sight-seeing elements. The fact that Day 1 was exclusively education allowed the show to slowly ramp up its offering over the course of the next few days and really helped limit options paralysis when it came to figuring out what to do on a day-by-day basis.
If Lightapalooza 2026 were to keep the same size, but keep doing what it did in 2025 with refining its educational opportunities, offering unique ways for attendees to meet and engage with exhibitors and products, I could hardly say I would be disappointed. As far as new additions to the show if there had to be any? I’d be genuinely interested to see more networking opportunities explored as either these after-show meet-up opportunities or mid-show gatherings. The showcase suites to me offered a really interesting blend of show floor exhibition meets networking venue and I’d be interested in seeing that concept explored in other ways.
Regardless, with how the showrunners have been able to evolve the show over the years without it losing that more bespoke touch, that, to me, is more than enough of a reason to look forward to Lightapalooza 2026.
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