On Thursday, July 12, a meeting was held at the Sydney Exhibition and Convention Center to see if there was an interest in forming an Australasian association for all who share an interest in the art, science, and technology of light. The following week a similar meeting was held at the Melbourne Museum.
Organizers Andy Ciddor and Catriona Strom (Forcer) were overwhelmed by the positive reaction from the lighting community and have decided to establish an Australasian Lighting Industry Association, temporarily entitled ALIA.
Discussions at the meetings were based around a widely circulated proposal prepared by Steve Furzey, Strom, and Ciddor. The text of this proposal is available on the preliminary ALIA website - www.lighting-association.com. It was agreed that a broadly based and inclusive lighting industry association is a worthwhile goal and that efforts should be made to implement the idea.
Members of Australia’s major existing lighting association, the Illuminating Engineering Society (IESANZ), who attended the Sydney meeting, took the proposal to a meeting of the IES Central Executive held in Sydney on July 19-20. The provisional ALIA proposal was reviewed and discussed at length.
The IES view the ALIA proposal as a positive move to unite the whole lighting industry and is looking forward to further discussions with ALIA to explore options that could be of mutual benefit to the existing IES membership and to the new membership of ALIA.
A business plan for the implementation of the proposal is currently in preparation. Regular updates will be posted on the website.
Suggestions, support, comments, and criticisms will be gratefully received at mail@lighting-association.com.
Those who either attended the meetings or expressed their support include:
2B Productions
Alan Stone, freelance LD
Alex Saad, freelance LD
Anthony Petruzio, freelance LD
Atco Controls
Ballarat University
Banff Centre for the Arts (Canada)
Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre
Brite Lite Productions
Bytecraft Automation
Bytecraft Entertainment
Cairns Reef Hotel Casino
Canberra Youth Theatre
Citipower
Clearlight
Coemar Desisti Australia
Comet Lighting
Concert & Corporate Productions
Concert Lighting Systems Australia
Custom Crewing
Damien Cooper, freelance LD
Digilin
Dynalite
Entertainment Installations
Entertainment Services
Enttec
Francesco Calvi, freelance LD
Grant Atkinson, freelance gaffer
GTV 9 Melbourne
Herkes Pro Lighting
Illuminating Engineering Society
Jands Electronics
Laservision Multimedia
Let There Be Light
Lighting By Design
Lightmatters
Lightmoves (Melbourne)
LSC
Mandy Jones, freelance technician and writer
Mediavision
Melbourne Museum
Monash Performing Arts Precinct
NIDA
Paul Richardson, freelance TV/stage lighting tech (Perth)
Perth Concert Hall
Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts
Peter Neufeld Lighting Design
Phil Lethlien, freelance LD
Philips Lighting
ProDesign Lighting
Resolution X
Rosco Australia
Seven Television Network
Show Technology
Showcorp
Stephen Hawker, freelance LD
Sylvania Lighting International
Trudy Dalgleish, freelance LD
ULA
University of Sydney
Vision Design Studios