Earth City, MO
Lighting One®, industry-leading cooperative, lived up to its convention theme, “Be Even More,” as the organization hosted its celebration gala on June 18 at the Hilton Anatole in Dallas. In celebration of Lighting One’s 20th year, cooperative members, aligned suppliers, and industry leaders gathered to honor the accomplishments of the industry since Lighting One began in 1999. Over 275 people across the entire industry attended this exciting event!
Honorees included Tom Woodward of Madison Lighting as Member of the Year and Hinkley Lighting as Supplier of the Year. Robert Marash of Innovations Lighting won an award for their rapid expansion of distribution to the membership.
Lighting One also celebrated its original 21 members and 8 aligned suppliers who were involved when the group came together in 1999. Other award honorees include:
Future Leader: Drew Mihelish, Western Montana Lighting
Supplier Representative of the Year: David Tremblay, ELK Group International
Humanitarian Award: Scott Agers, The Lighting Corner
Member Lifetime Achievement: Chuck & Karen Arnold, Phillips Lighting & Home
Supplier Lifetime Achievement: Rick Wiedemer, Hinkley Lighting
The day-and-a-half convention began on Monday, June 17 and featured two national renowned keynote speakers focusing on the future of retail and leadership. The schedule provided members with the opportunity to share best practices, participate in roundtables, and network with peers.
During convention, Lighting One launched their second round of American-made exclusive products created in partnership with American Lighting Brands. These collections are only accessible to Lighting One members and are supported by increased profitability, higher-than-industry IMAP control, and an exclusive catalog. This line of 14 SKU’s does not require heavy inventory levels due to American production capabilities.
In support of the members that made the commitment to attend convention and June Lightovation, Angie Prost, Lighting One Product & Supplier Manager, presented the membership with exclusive market incentives. Aligned supplier provided additional incentives to cooperative members in appreciation for the group holding its convention at June Lightovation.
During Tuesday’s general session, the Lighting One marketing team revealed its new e-commerce catalog. The new online product catalog greatly improves the user experience with a more compelling look and feel that is integrated with the showroom website and provides easier navigation, improved search functionality, faster load time, more accurate product information, and of course the ability to finalize a purchase from a desktop computer, mobile device or tablet. The two participating showrooms have generated thousands of dollars of sales with the catalog already and more are going live this summer. This catalog is an enhancement to the digital marketing program that Lighting One introduced five years ago.
Lighting One President Gregg Garofalo announced at last night’s Celebration Gala that Lighting One will extend its support of June Lightovation by committing to hold their conventions in June through 2024. “The June market provides members with networking time with not only each other, but with the Lighting One aligned suppliers,” says Garofalo. “Furthermore, Dallas is the home of the lighting industry and is a cost-effective destination convenient for our members and our vendors—the vast majority of which have their trading headquarters located at Dallas Market Center. We are pleased to extend our commitment to Dallas and to maintain the same format under a continuing partnership.”
In recognition of this partnership and in celebration Lighting One’s 20th year, the Dallas Market Center put on a colorful fireworks display outside the venue to end the evening.
During the Gala, Lighting One showed their support of the H Foundation with a 50/50 raffle which garnered $3,690 and was won by VJ Teenarsipur of Kichler, who donated his winnings back to the Foundation to further benefit cancer research efforts. Garofalo encouraged all members to attend Goombay Bash on July 27 to raise funds for basic cancer research projects to help them compete for additional government or private funding. To sign up to attend Goombay Bash, please visit goombaybash.com.
Showrooms or suppliers interested in joining Lighting One should contact Angie Prost at [email protected].
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