Guangzhou International Lighting Exhibition (GILE) 2019 commences with a grand opening at the China Import and Export Fair, and will be held from June 9 to 12. The event’s host, Messe Frankfurt, points out that GILE took up 19 exhibition centers in scale with 2500 companies from 22 different countries participating in this grand occasion.

It has already been 24 years since GILE’s inception, and the competition is all fired up in the lighting industry thanks to maturely developed technologies. Under the economic impact from the trade war triggered last year, the whole market could be considered relatively gloomy. Yet it is precisely at this difficult moment that GILE brought together vendors in the industry under this exhibition’s theme, THINKLIGHT: Envisage the Next Move, in order to bring forth new technology and opportunities for application under the banner of innovation.

With the predicament faced by the lighting industry, the event organizer places a special emphasis on cross-industrial innovation in the lighting industry. The merging of lighting with other technologies such as AIoT and 5G, along with the resulting smart applications, digital transformation and new business models, form the focus for this event. Signify and Osram were invited to share the applications and trends of lighting design in smart cities and smart buildings. Even Microsoft came to discuss the role that AI plays in smart lighting. Through these forums, GILE leads participating companies and guests into an exploration of the innovative future of the lighting industry.

LEDinside noted that although many global giants such as Signify and Osram did not set up exhibition booths, they maintained active presences in many forums, providing new technological approaches as well as innovative thinking. The way they present themselves marked their position as high-tech lighting company instead of luminaire manufacturers.

Architectural lightings and landscape lightings also formed the “spotlights” of this event. Using IoT smart applications to connect lighting design together with construction management of buildings and landscapes can not only make energy usage more efficient, but also incorporate aesthetic and sensory experiences into the formation of light sources. In effect, a next generation solution is born.

And despite many giants removing themselves from the lighting business, we still see many global suppliers showing up at GILE, including Cree, Bridgelux, and Luminus. China companies such as MLS, FSL, Refond, HC Semitek, NationStar, and WELLMAX definitely didn’t miss the party. The main focus of exhibitors continued to consist of niche applications, including horticulture lighting, smart lighting, healthcare lighting and more.