Lighting is central to the building materials ecosystem. Like other industries, it is facing challenges, but has many opportunities knocking at its door. Messe Frankfurt is a trade show organiser responsible for important trade lighting shows in the building materials industry. At its recently held Light+LED Expo India event, Buildingandinteriors had an interesting conversation with Raj Manek, Executive Director and Board Member, Messe Frankfurt Asia Holdings Ltd.
B&I: How do you see this edition of Light+LED Expo India through the lens of a trade show organiser?
Raj Manek: The exhibitors have been busy attending to the constant stream of business visitors. This is quite a satisfying experience for us at Messe Frankfurt India. There are many new exhibitors which is an absolute mirror of what’s happening in India. This year the presence of new lighting automation companies has grown by 126 with a total of 229 companies participating at the show. The number of new companies coming in reflects how India is striving to be self-reliant. All the different schemes in India are giving enough incentives for people to enter the lighting market because everybody knows that it has a huge potential. India is not the only potential market; it’s what’s coming into India, the sourcing that is going to happen from India, the presence of smart entrepreneurs and the trend of people moving away from relying on traditional sourcing countries like China.
B&I: What are some of the challenges you see in the Indian lighting market?
Raj Manek: Like all industries, the Indian lighting industry suffered a lot during the pandemic. Also, as the lighting industry has moved to LED-based solutions, one big challenge is the sheer drop in the number of times we – as consumers, buy lighting. We are not changing our lighting a lot. Currently, we are changing our lights every 3 years while earlier we were changing every 3 months. That was a huge revenue stream for these companies because they were producing CFLs and now that’s gone.
They did get a boost from LED sales, but these sales don’t happen anymore (at the pace of pre-LED days). Earlier when governments used to buy street lighting, they would still need to change certain parts of it periodically. That is no longer the case. Also, year after year, LED uptake increased at every level, from the consumer level, commercial level and developer level to the government level. It’s great for the environment, great for sustainability and energy efficiency, but the companies suddenly lost a revenue stream that was always there. Having said that, the industry has realigned itself, which is normal for any sector when it goes through a transformative change, but in India, the speed at which it did this was incredibly fast. I think the segment has a huge potential for innovation with the emergence of new technologies and there is so much that can be done.
B&I: What is your vision for Light+LED Expo India?
Raj Manek: So Light+LED Expo India will now step into the smart buildings and smart homes segment because these are the next segments. Messe Frankfurt Trade Fairs India now has a Smart Home Expo in Mumbai which is doing phenomenally well. Delhi also has a big potential for Smart Home Expo, since both Mumbai and Delhi are similar markets. If you look at Light+LED Expo India, a lot of exhibitors in the decorative lighting and design lighting segments exhibited because that’s the need of the hour.
Going forward, a lot of automation solutions are naturally adding to the exhibitor profile. We want to consciously give a push to this momentum on the building automation side, so it becomes more Light + Build type of show with a slightly different approach. So, LED Expo Mumbai and LED Expo New Delhi editions will stay as they are. We are keen to expand the Light+LED Expo India (held every alternate year in New Delhi) into a Light+Build type of show.
B&I: Will we see the new nomenclature in the next edition of Light+LED Expo India?
Raj Manek: Yes, that’s what we are working on. What we are waiting for is for the international situation to get better. India, for sure is flying. So are places like the UAE, Turkey, Vietnam and Indonesia. But Europe, the USA, and China are not in a very comfortable situation. We need players from across all these markets to do a high-quality light and building automation show. These days, major companies do one show a year. This was different during pre-pandemic where they would do three shows a year.
Now India is a new potential market. Everybody’s talking about India, but we have to make sure that when we go out with the proposition of a building automation and lighting show, they’ve got budgets that they will be able to use.
B&I: What is your take on your new platform where your exhibitors can have an annual presence?
Raj Manek: With the portal, you’re basically online all the time, and on top of that, what we are doing is sending out content to our exhibitors all the time. Therefore, we’re engaging with them on a content basis as well. We are acting as an information provider for 365 days a year.
B&I: Being a trade show organiser, do you think this online portal could be a trend that is taken up by the other exhibition companies?
Raj Manek: I think it can be because so much has changed since COVID and now people want to be kept informed, and we can’t be seen as a trade show organiser only. We have to be seen as consultants to support the industry. The shows we create and put together are a business enabler for the industry. That means we have to be in touch with what’s happening in the industry.
We have a big advantage because we have the global picture. We have Indian as well as international content. Since our content is customised, we are preparing our customers for the future.
In this age of social media, if people follow you, you have to constantly engage them on different things. That translates into content and, as you know, content is king. So we are putting all our efforts into our shows and we are constantly engaging with our customers and providing them with content for their business expansion.
Now imagine what we have to do internally to keep up with this content demand. Suddenly, you’re not marketing, you’ve transitioned into a journalist and a researcher. It’s a different skill set. So a lot of internal changes on how we market, who we need to market, and how we engage, have to happen. It’s not easy. It’s not at our fingertips and you have to have a different skill set to do this which takes time. Furthermore, you have to have the right type of people who will be able to work because there’s so much content. Also, you have to make sure that it’s relevant, and something different.
Light + LED Expo India 2024 concludes successfully, welcoming over 11,000 visitors
India’s major lighting and LED show, Light + LED Expo India organised at Yashobhoomi, Delhi stressed the advanced range of
