NALMCO Marks 70th Annual Convention in 2023 with Training Opportunities and Industry Insights
January 31, 2024
We gathered this past October 8-11 at the Hyatt Regency in Indian Wells, CA, for the 70th NALMCO Annual Convention & Trade Show. While this was a milestone event—70 years of NALMCO—what also made it memorable for this guy from the Upper Midwest was the 109-degree weather. Fortunately, the scorching concrete and blistering car handles had a chance to cool in the evenings when the temperatures dipped to the 70s.
We covered a lot at this meeting, including at the Saturday Board Meeting, where we largely set the stage for the NALMCO Spring 2024 event, which will be hosted by Saylite in Dallas, March 5-7, 2024.
CLMC and GUV Training
Also taking place that Saturday was the in-person Certified Lighting Management Consultant® (CLMC®) course. Two people participated in the content review and passed the exam, adding two new CLMCs to our mix! Find more information about the CLMC here.
The meeting also marked the third time the Germicidal Ultraviolet (GUV) Training was held. EMC’s Alex Stange took and passed the exam, joining the ranks of our own Mark Thompson, who passed the exam earlier in the year. Please help me congratulate Alex on joining the industries top professionals by earning the world’s only recognized GUV credential: NALMCO’s Certified GUV Management Professional
The GUV training provides participants with a comprehensive understanding of germicidal GUV-C technology and its effective implementation in their respective fields. Attendees walk away with the knowledge and skills necessary to design, install, maintain, validate proper dosing, and utilize UV-C equipment safely and effectively.
Designed to be hands-on, the training provides practical application that prepares participants for working with GUV technologies in the field. This includes learning how to disassemble, safely clean and set fixture angles—all while on a ladder.
Even though the pen and paper portion of the class can be completed online (coming soon), we strongly encourage people to do this in-person education as it will be required for the consultant level of the certification. Learn more about GUV training here.
While Certified Lighting Auditor Certification was slated to debut at the convention, we experienced some delays and instead launched at the end of 2023. This certification will be obtainable completely online.
Informative Keynote Speakers
The general session included two keynote speakers. The first, Mark Lien of Illuminating Engineering Society (IES) provided informative industry insights in his presentation, “Emerging and Converging Trends & New Technologies in our Lighting Community.”
Mark addressed the uncertainty the industry is experiencing and stressed that we need to ensure our customers know we understand where the future of lighting is headed. If we don’t, he warned, we risk them being reluctant to let us lead them there. Mark cited customers’ increasing confusion with past technological changes and stressed that our continuing education is critical to help guide them. This is especially important as lighting converges with other trades, including germicidal UV, EV charging, horticultural indoor farming, data centers and AI.
He mentioned how the electrical grid is at increased risk as new loads are being added and cited that effective dates for banning fluorescent lamps now exist in California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Oregon, Rhode Island and Vermont.
In his keynote, “Better Thinking vs. More Effort” acclaimed leadership author Eric Papp challenged the audience to work smarter not harder. At one point in his presentation Papp paused and offered time for people to think and list out the top 10 things they need to address in the next three months, what’s preventing that from happening and ideas for removing obstacles.
It led to eye opening table conversations where we quickly realized that everyone tries to address the easiest problem first and never gets to the bigger issues because new ones arise quickly. His main takeaway: We need to carve out time to get those important things done and should designate four hours of our day to do that.
Panel Discussion
I facilitated a panel discussion on lighting installation, product improvement and manufacturer support (warranties and tech support). Panel experts included Gene Lindemann of Keystone, George McIntyre of Acuity and Erich Bockley of LEDVANCE.
The panel discussed troubleshooting issues manufacturers hear from the field and their solutions. A common takeaway: Installers should do their due diligence and eliminate power and voltage issues before calling the manufacturers. The reason: the solution to problems often resides in these areas and while product failure issues exist, they are increasingly rare these days.
The panelists also shared tools their companies offer to support products, including online tech support. One problem they acknowledged is that their support lines are staffed during the day and not at night, when most installers are at work and most in need of live help.
Strong Attendance
It was great to see partners new and old at this event, where total attendance topped 260. NALMCO also saw 40 new members join this year. If you want to learn more about membership, please reach out to me at bbaker@emcllc.com.
Brian Baker, CLMC, CLCP, CLEP is principal project manager at EMC and serves as vice president on the 2023 NALMCO Board of Directors.
