Why We Still Love Industry Events: Takeaways from Light + Building 2026

It was my first trade show outside of the UK, and what really stood out was the sheer scale of it. Even some of the UK’s biggest historic shows, like Interbuild in its prime, felt small by comparison.

One of the highlights was seeing some of the Zumtobel Group brands represented, including Zumtobel, Tridonic and Thorn. Having worked with Thorn for more than five years, it was great to see the offer brought to life on such a large stage — particularly knowing we’ve played a part in supporting and evolving the brand over that time and especially as some of that work featured on the stand!

It was also nice to spend time with the Thorn team and have a proper look around the stands, and great to see how interactive they were, including City of Thorn where you can deep dive into sector specific lighting online, the Zumtobel concept luminaire for task based real time lighting, and playing with the Tridonic Lego mini-city!

Events like these are always a good reminder that the industry is about more than products. They’re a chance to step outside the day-to-day, have conversations and get a wider perspective on where the sector is heading.

That’s why, this year, we will be having our own space at InstallerShow – more to come on that later …..