11:30 – 12:15  | The Next Generation of Design      

Moderator: Samta Nadeem, Curatorial Director, STIR World

Speakers: Sacha Abizadeh, Growth Director, WSP; Tiziana Regalado, Lighting Designer, Akarui; Isabelle Lane, Lighting Designer, Akarui

What defines the next in the discipline, practice and pedagogy? We will discuss the baggage of legacy, the promise of making space for the new, and fostering a future vision for lighting design that impacts industry, environment and society.

12:20 – 12:35 | Introducing: Business of Light

Speaker: Anna Sbokou, Founder, ASlight

Business of Light exists to engage, educate, and elevate the next generation of lighting leaders. With a board comprised of luminaries from all aspects of our lighting industry, the Business of Light works to empower individuals through education and mentorship to grow and sustain lighting businesses. Come and learn about the kinds of programming BOL offers, and how you can leverage the knowledge to accelerate your business!

12:40 – 12:55 | Time to Step Up – The role of a lighting designer

Speaker: Marcus Steffen, Founder, Akarui

Marcus Steffen discusses the place a lighting designer currently has in the industry, and how this will need to evolve to ensure that we survive a fast-changing industry.

13:15 – 13:30 | Taking the Leap

Speaker: Luke Artingstall, Founder, Artinlight

Here, Luke Artingstall, lighting designer and founder of Artin Light shares what it takes to create your own brand and path in the industry. Believing that every step in his career has – in its own way – provided him with the tools to get where he is today, Luke will also share how the fundamental aspects of “being a designer” have helped to build stronger relationships and his business.

13.35 – 13:50 | The Value of Light – AI Takeaway

Speaker: Juan Ferrari, Project Director, Hoare Lea

Juan will explore how light is more than just illumination — it is a language that shapes emotions, influences well-being, and transforms environments. Its value transcends mere functionality, enriching both tangible and intangible experiences. Light carries time within it. It’s about envisaging the future because every light you see is already in the past, connecting us to both what has been and what is yet to come.

14:10-14:55 | Using Lighting Design to Enhance Accessibility in Interiors

Speakers: May Fawzy, BIID President; Carmelina Dalton, Creative Director KEMSI; Lindi Reynolds, Lindi Reynolds Interiors; Manuela Hamilford, Hamilford Design

A well designed space is instrumental in ensuring interiors are not only accessible but in allowing those with accessibility concerns to flourish in their spaces. The British Institute of Interior Design brings together an expert panel to discuss how lighting design achieves this.

15:00-15:15 | The Relationship between Interior Design and Architectural Lighting

Speaker: Jo Calver, Creative Director, Isla James Interiors

Lighting is the secret to a successful interior. Interior Designer Jo Calver will take a closer look at lighting’s relationship with fabrics and colours in the home, feature lighting, colour temperature, the power of light and shade, and how layering your lighting can add to the complexity of your design.

15:20-15:35 | Workspace Project Focus

Speaker: Sarah Dodsworth, Founding Director, Ekho Studio

Sarah Dodsworth discusses her studio’s work on a high craft, bespoke workspace in London’s Pancras Square, where sophisticated Art Deco-inspired allure fuses with the radically-calming use of curves.

Ekho Studio was entrusted to deliver a stunning hotel-esque concierge, business lounge & high-tech conferencing facilities. The new workplace successfully nurtures a calm and relaxed atmosphere, which in turn fosters serendipitous collaborations, as work and social behaviours are no longer siloed.

The originality of the scheme centres around the intricate fusing of high-tech elements with high-end quality finishes that embed an environmentally conscious and thought provoking design.

15:40-15:55 | The importance of decorative lighting in a F&B environment

Speaker: Wing Shum, Senior Interior Designer, AB Concept

Decorative lighting is the soul of a space, without it the environment can feel lifeless and uninspired. Wing Shum discusses the importance of decorative lighting in a F&B environment, highlighting the considerations to the architecture and referencing recent project case studies.

16:00-16:15 | Project Focus – Hilton Park Lane

Speaker: Neil Knowles, Elektra Lighting

Over a period of three years the Hilton at Park Lane, London Flagship of the Hilton estate, has been comprehensively refurbished, starting with the ballroom and meeting spaces, then moving on to the entire ground floor, and finishing with the façade.

Elektra Lighting created an entirely new cocktail bar out of the forgotten area under the stairs and used lighting to make it a cosy, welcoming bar. The team re-lit the lounge and reception, with artwork making a stunning entrance centrepiece and put moving colour changing lighting on the façade. Neil Knowles talks us through the design process and challenges along the way.

16:20 – 16:40 | In Conversation with Frankie Boyle

This year’s featured artist, Frankie Boyle will delve deeper into the inspiration and products powering Intra-spectrum, as she sits down for an exclusive Q&A with [d]arc media managing editor Helen Ankers. Following the session there will be an opportunity to meet Frankie and the formalighting team, while enjoying a complementary glass of fizz, all while taking in the beautiful light art installation.

11:15 – 12:00 | In the Driving Seat – Lighting Controls for People and Planet

Presenter: Dr Shelley James, Age of Light Innovations

Speakers: Paul Nulty, Founder, Nulty+; Ravi Lakhani, Head of Smart Solutions, Cordless Consultants; Miguel Aguado, Product Management, Lutron

This session will begin with a brief overview of the latest research into optimising strategies that balance human health with environmental impact. It will then move on to highlight the current performance gap due to the lack of integrated solutions.

A panel of lighting designers, property technology consultants and manufacturers will discuss barriers and solutions for integrated lighting control strategies.

12:05 – 12:20 | The 90% Challenge: Redifining the Indoors

Speaker: Alexander Cadisch, Phos

We spend about 90% of our time indoors, which translates to less than an hour outdoors each day. For humans, the built environment has become our new habitat. Yet, we often invest less thought into the biological needs of our living spaces than we do when designing enclosures for animals in zoos.

So, what does it mean to live naturally? And how can integrating elements of nature into our environment to enhance our quality of life? The answers might surprise you in some profound ways…

12:25 – 12:40 | Maximising Wellbeing in Residential Environments

Speaker: Hugo Lindsay-Fynn, Palladian

Home interiors are something of a wellbeing battleground. Electromagnetic frequencies generated by home tech – particularly wireless and Bluetooth – are not conducive to good health. Sustainable advances, including triple-glazed, energy-saving windows, are in danger of having a negative impact too, cutting out the sun’s most energy-giving lightwaves – and then, there’s the flickering problem that comes with many low-energy LED and fluorescent bulbs.

Ensuring homes have enough light of the right temperature and lux/intensity levels, whilst prioritising health, sustainability and people’s technological needs, is a complex ambition. What is the right pathway through?

13:00 – 13:15 | Is Beauty a Building Block?

Speaker: Martina Frattura, Founder, The Beauty Movement

Lighting Designer Martina Frattura explores the relationship between beauty and light, while addressing the contemporary relevance of aesthetics in the built environment.

13:20 – 13:35 | Neurodiversity & Lighting

Speaker: Seraphine Gogate, GDM Building Consultants

In this session, we will explore the latest research on how various light and lighting parameters affect neurodiverse populations. We will highlight the emotional side of lighting design, discussing how inappropriate lighting can increase anxiety, stress, and discomfort, whereas well-designed lighting can promote calmness, safety, and emotional stability.

13:55 – 14:40 | Why are we still talking about sustainability? When what we need is radical action…

Moderator: Chloe, Petersen-Snell, MIX Interiors

Panelists: Adam Strudwick, Principal, Perkins & Will; Ruud Belmans, Creative Director, We Want More; Rachel Hoolahan, Sustainability Lead, Orms; Thomas Lommee, Open Structures

In this panel discussion we ask, when it comes to sustainability, is the pace of change too slow and the scale of ambition too small? If so, what are the revolutionary design ideas, bold new approaches and seismic creative shifts required to affect meaningful, timely change.

14:45 – 15:00 | An overview of the environmental assessment landscape in the lighting industry

Speaker: Irene Mazzei, Stoane Lighting

We will discuss the progress and current barriers that still prevent the application of these approaches in a consistent way across the industry, accompanied by the illustration of some practical examples of lighting Life Cycle Assessment.

15:05 – 15:20 | Creative Alternatives to Cat A

Speaker: Jonathan Rush, Hoare Lea in collaboration with Recolight

All too frequently, relatively new luminaires from Cat A fit outs can end up in the waste stream. However, recently the design community and developers are beginning to work together on creative alternatives. Here Jonathan Rush of the End Cat A Lighting pressure group looks at some success stories.

15:25 – 15:40 | Starlight Certification & Outdoor Lighting

Speaker: Jordi Rocasalbas, LEDS C4

The Starlight certification aims to preserve the night sky and protect the environment while ensuring people’s safety and wellbeing. It focuses on reducing light pollution and using technologies that minimise the environmental impact of outdoor lighting.

We will explain how to light a project meeting Starlight and showcase good practises, going straight to the practical points.

15:45 – 16:05  | Turn the Tide! A Pilot Project for Sea Turtle Conservation

Speaker: Chiara Carucci

What do a lighting designer and a marine biologist have in common? Discover how the ongoing pilot project within the EU LIFE21 TURTLENEST initiative is protecting loggerhead turtles. This talk dives into the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration for wildlife conservation and the role of informed design to achieve overall sustainability.

16:10 – 16:30  | Dark Frontier

Speaker: Kerem Asfuroglu, Dark Source

At no point in our history, have we produced and consumed light more than now. This has led light pollution to increase at an alarming rate impacting on the wellbeing of all earthlings while changing our perception of the night. The presentation will consist of dark sky friendly lighting design precedents and explore the trends in tackling light pollution.