A new event for the sector, the ICEL Emergency Lighting Conference, has been hailed a success by attendees, speakers and the organisers. The conference offered attendees the opportunity to learn from industry experts about the latest developments in legislation, standards, products and practices.

Held at the Cavendish Conference Centre in London, the event was organised by the Industry Committee for Emergency Lighting (ICEL) in partnership with the LIA. The day brought together key stakeholders from across the emergency lighting supply chain, from manufacturer to end-user and all those in-between.

A wide breadth of organisations attended including Laing O’Rourke, Mitie, CBRE, NHS and Transport for London. The event’s headline sponsor, P4 Limited, was also in attendance along with other emergency lighting manufacturers.

In total 220 attendees participated in the sold-out event; engaging with the educational opportunities offered through keynote speeches and panel discussions. Topics included ‘Future Emergency Lighting Standard & Legislation’ and ‘Batteries for Emergency Lighting’.

A particular highlight was the ‘Challenges Facing Large Estates’ panel discussion which featured David Mooney from WS Atkins, Colin Ball from BDP, Andy Butler from the NHS, Peter Fordham from Sainsburys and Hywel Davies from CIBSE.

The conference also acted as the perfect platform for the launch of the ICEL Competency Scheme for the industry, ICEL Product Certification Scheme, and a revised ICEL Luminaire Conversion Scheme.

The ICEL Competency Scheme for the industry has been created as an enhancement to the Emergency Lighting Individual Competence Standard. This was first developed in response to the industry commitment to enhancing safety standards and preventing future tragedies in the wake of the Grenfell Tower disaster. The scheme is open for any organisation that wishes to register their competence on the specification and system design domains of the standard. The remaining domains on product design, installation, sales & distribution and testing & maintenance are currently in their pilot stages and will be available in due course.

The scheme is another demonstration of how the LIA and ICEL are working to instil unwavering confidence in all emergency lighting activities.

Ayça Donaghy, CEO of the LIA, said: “It was an honour to be part of this significant event, and we are confident this new conference will become the highlight of the year for the emergency lighting sector.

“The conference certainly fulfilled its aim of uniting vital players from every facet of the emergency lighting supply chain from manufacturers to end-users.”

The feedback from the attendees was very positive: “I got to fully appreciate and understand the “power” of being an ICEL member,” said Eli Ward, of BLE Lighting and Power Limited.

Other feedback included: “The conference was excellent and very relevant,” said Barrie Morris, Chalmor Limited; “I really enjoyed the day, learnt a lot, and it was certainly one of the better conferences I’ve been on recently. I will be back next year if you decide to do another,” said Paul Brickell, Crown House Technologies.