San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee rolled out the red carpet over the weekend for the 83rd Annual Meeting of the United States Conference of Mayors (USCM).

More than 275 mayors focused on public safety, transportation, education, and innovations in technology. Philips Lighting is a proud sponsor of USCM and we are delighted to have been invited to the event.

“From policy discussions and debates to task force meetings and engaging guest speakers, the Annual Conference continues the tradition of providing a forum for mayors from across the country to share ideas, tackle common issues, and promote innovative national policy. Among the items discussed were the economic health of the nation’s cities and their metro areas, as well as the factors that contribute to their growth. Specific areas of interest included water conservation, transportation, community policing, municipal bonds and marketplace fairness, education, workforce development and apprenticeship programs for youth, technology and innovation, energy efficiency, and much more.”

Here are a few highlights featuring keynote guest speakers, the lighting ceremony celebrating San Francisco City Hall’s 100^th anniversary, as well as Philips Lighting’s presence at USCM 2015.

U.S. President Barack Obama. (All photos courtesy of Philips)

US President, Barack Obama addressed the attendees at the 83rd Annual Meeting on June 19. His speech took place during a special plenary session on Friday afternoon. In light of recent events in Charleston, President Obama delivered a compelling speech on U.S. Gun Contol. “Racism remains a blithe that we have to combat together.” … “Gun control is not “politicizing” Charleston, we need to do the right thing.”

On Friday night San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee invited the attending mayors to the City Hall Centennial Celebration. At 9:30 p.m., San Francisco-based lighting company Obscura Digital created an energizing light projection and 3D mapping display onto the façade of City Hall, transforming it into a luminous portal that transported the audience on a visual and creative journey through the history behind this famous city landmark.

Lighting Projection Video by Obscura Digital

For its 100^th anniversary, San Francisco City Hall switched from conventional light sources to an advanced technology with a new Philips Color Kinetics lighting system that uses a combination of ColorReach Powercore gen2, ColorBlast Powercore, and iW Blast Powercore fixtures to produce color-changing and dynamic white light. READ MORE.

Washington Capitol Hill.

On Saturday June 20, at the Opening Plenary Session, another notable guest, Hillary Rodham Clinton, Former Secretary of State, a champion for mayors and cities across the United States, shared her thoughts on how cities in the US must move forward.

Hillary Rodham Clinton, Former Secretary of State.

Light for public space

Also on Saturday, Susanne Seitinger, Global sub segment manager of parks and plazas at Philips Lighting and Professional Systems, spoke at the Tourism, Arts, Parks, and Entertainment committee meeting.

Preceding her remarks, she showed a brief video of some of Philips’ highly visible installations.

During this speech, she gave the group of mayors four tips on how to use light to enhance public space. These tips were summarized from a recently published report, Light for Public Space, which Seitinger co-authored. In presenting the tips, she used several case studies of Philips lighting installations as proof points of how light has transformed cities in many ways.

The tips included thinking about lighting early in the planning process, integrating light into city life, communicating city brand with light, and leveraging partnerships around lighting projects. Seitinger stressed how each installation achieved these things and in turn helped the city. She hoped the mayors would come away with the message that light can complement the surprising nature of urban life.

“The four tips really resonated with people,” said Seitinger. “Cities are recognizing the use of light as a tool for public engagement that makes spaces more joyful, in addition to being focused on safety.”

Seitinger’s talk was a launching point for a conversation on how to creatively get these projects implemented. “Leveraging partnerships is successful with crowd funding, community support, participation, expertise, and connecting with local universities,” she said. The mayors were excited about the possibilities of using light to make an immediate impact on an area and the advice Philips and Seitinger had to offer.

Photo: Left, Amy Huntington, President of Philips Lighting Americas. Right, Susanne Seitinger Global sub segment manager, Philips Lighting.

City Livability Awards Program

Livable cities is a theme very important to Philips Lighting and to all US mayors as well. On Saturday, Boston and Hattiesburg Massachusetts were named “most livable” cities in America. “Our City Livability Awards Program gives us the chance to express our pride in cities’ mayoral leadership in making urban areas cleaner, safer, and more livable,” said Tom Cochran, CEO and Executive Director of the Conference of Mayors. This year’s winning cities were selected by former mayors from a pool of over 200 applicants.

During Monday’s Inaugural Luncheon, Amy Huntington, President of Philips Lighting Americas spoke eloquently on how proud Philips Lighting is about the small role we are playing in helping Mayor Ed Lee show off his beautiful city- from the iconic lighting of City Hall to the re-beautification of the San Francisco airport to the truly magnificient Bay Lights installation of the past year. Amy Huntington also pointed out the many success stories of our Partnership with the US Conference of Mayors.

Amy Huntington, President of Philips Lighting Americas.

In April, the City of Los Angeles announced that it will become the first city in the world to control its street lighting through mobile and cloud-based technologies. Philips is privileged to be the partner to the city and witness to Mayor Garcetti’s commitment to unleashing the power of data.

“Urban lighting often accounts for half of a city’s electricity bill: you’re lighting roads/streets, parks/plazas, bridges and monuments. Simply by converting conventional lighting to LED, an energy savings of 40% is typical. By adding controls the savings can increase to 70%. Pretty simple… the right level of light, when needed and where needed. Lean lighting… eliminate wasteful use of light. The switch to LED is compelling and impactful yielding impressive energy savings and reduction of carbon emissions.”

As a reminder of our continued commitment to deliver the promise and potential of digital light, Philips also shared with all attendees the latest and greatest: the new Philips Warm Glow dimmable LED light bulb.

Festivities in Chinatown closed out USCM 2015. The next USCM meeting will take place January 20-22, 2016 in Washington, DC.