Guangzhou International Lighting Exhibition

I believe GILE is one of the most significant events in the lighting industry. It carries the responsibility to promote sustainability because of its broad influence. Being part of this platform is crucial for us to communicate our commitment to sustainability to all our industry partners, customers and suppliers. This year’s show is enormous in terms of the number of visitors and unmatched in the quality of those visitors. We are here because we have a strong belief in the local Chinese market, which is evolving in ways that align with Vossloh-Schwabe’s interests. That’s why we continue to invest in this exhibition every year.

I’ve been with the company for just over a decade, and during that time we’ve been coming every year. In the early days we attended the show in order to have a stronger presence in the China market, but now this has become one of the biggest international shows for lighting. The turnout has been very good this year, with people from all over the world and from all different types of lighting applications are coming through and visiting our booth. We’re marketing to our direct customers, many of whom have booths here themselves, but also to specifiers and lighting designers, we want them to know who we are and what we have to offer.

General Lighting specialises in linear lighting, mainly LED strip and neon, and we’re looking for customers ranging from manufacturers to architects and lighting designers. We’ve been coming to GILE every year, and this year we’ve improved the design aspect of our booth, and seen more customers come as a result, so it’s been a very positive response overall. We’ll definitely come back here next year, as it is a meeting point for the industry. For us the benefit of participating is that it attracts serious buyers, who not only attend the show and visit our booth, but also visit our factories, which makes all the difference as they can truly understand our company.

GILE is one of the largest lighting fairs in the world, so I think if you are involved in the lighting business it’s obvious that you should come here. China is also the largest market for lighting, and lighting has been a huge development in the country because they have been building so much brand-new infrastructure. What is very interesting for my members, is that at this exhibition you don’t only have lighting fixtures manufacturers represented, you also have components manufacturers, and you can find many different technologies around luminaires on display at the fairground. So, from the perspective of French lighting manufacturers, it’s a very interesting fair.

This is our first time visiting GILE, and we are very impressed by the scale of the show. My association mainly focuses on the Internet of Things (IoT) and this time we are looking for suppliers in the fields of smart and commercial lighting, AI and other advanced smart technologies. The matchmaking programme has helped us to meet with a targeted selection of exhibitors, many of whom we will have further discussions with after the show. I will introduce the show to our association members in Thailand and I hope to organise another delegation next year.