TECH-X 2026

technical excellence Conference

2 July 2026, Birmingham B15 2RS, Edgbaston Park Hotel and Conference Centre

The Lighting Industry Association (The LIA) is thrilled to unveil The LIA’s TECH-X, a brand-new, first of its kind lighting conference that sets a bold new standard in the sector. Born from extensive member feedback from past LIA events, with the an overwhelming majority favouring a larger, multi-disciplinary forum with mutiple diciplines being covered.

This highly anticipated event will feature multiple stages and diverse tracks, designed to address the broad lighting industry. From connected lighting solutions and lighting design to the latest updates on standards and regulations, TECH-X will bring the entire sector together - under one roof.

TECH-X will feature multiple stages, each hosting a variety of tracks tailored to the diverse needs of the lighting sector. Attendees can look forward to sessions on connected lighting solutions, innovations in lighting design, and updates on essential standards and regulations. With opportunities to network and engage with professionals from across the industry, the conference promises to be an unmissable event for manufacturers, designers, and engineers alike.

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Draft Programme

STANDARDS STAGE

TIME	TITLE	SPEAKER
10:15AM	Welcome Address	Ayca Donaghy
Lighting Fit for the Future: Making Buildings Better for People, Health and the Environment
10:30AM	MOVE TO STAGE
10:45AM	The Building Safety Act: Responsibilities, Risk and Evidence for Lighting
An overview of how the Building Safety Act affects the lighting industry, clarifying duties, accountability, evidence requirements and the role of lighting products and systems in managing building safety risk.
11:15AM	Stage Change
11:30AM	Fire Safety, Accountability and Part B Compliance	Richard Caple
Explains how Building Regulations Part B applies to lighting, clarifying TPa and TPb testing, evidence requirements and responsibilities for managing fire risk.
12:00PM	NETWORKING LUNCH
13:00PM	European Regulation: Implications for UK Lighting Companies - LightingEurope	Antoine Hattemer, Alfredo Menghini
Summarises key European regulatory developments affecting lighting, Product Packaging & Waste Regulation
13:30PM	Stage Change
13:45PM	Flicker and Temporal Light Artefacts: Raising Knowledge, Dispelling Myths	Ronald Tol
Clarifies flicker and temporal light artefacts, explaining relevant metrics, test methods and limitations, and addressing common misconceptions to support accurate, responsible performance claims.
14:15PM	NETWORKING BREAK
14:45PM	IEC 60598-2-22: Understanding the Next Changes in Emergency Lighting	Stuart Burns
Provides an update on the first draft of IEC 60598-2-22, outlining key proposed changes, implications for emergency lighting design and testing, and what happens next.
15:15PM	Stage Change
15:30PM	What good looks like: Compliance, Evidence and Getting it Right First Time	Paul & Andy
What manufacturers actually need to do to demonstrate compliance, moving beyond documentation as a tick-box exercise. Using real examples of test reports, Declarations of Conformity, photometric data and product claims, it highlights common issues and clearly defines what good looks like.
16:00PM	Stage Closing Address	Stuart Burns
Draws together safety, evidence and regulation to reinforce the importance of clear responsibility, robust standards and trustworthy performance data in protecting people, buildings and market confidence.

Lighting Design Stage

TIME	TITLE	SPEAKER
10:45AM	Lighting for Human Health: Supporting Sleep, Cognition, Comfort and Mental Wellbeing	Dr Shelley James
Explores how lighting design can support health and wellbeing through visual comfort, contrast, neurodiversity and evidence-led circadian considerations.
11:15AM	Stage Change
11:30AM	Designing Light for Later Life: Safety, Confidence and Extending Independent Living	John Bullock
This session examines how age-related changes in vision must directly inform lighting design in homes and care environments. It explores how glare control, balanced contrast and clear wayfinding can reduce falls risk while supporting dignity and confidence.
12:00PM	NETWORKING LUNCH
13:00PM	Lighting for Healthy Homes: Designing Light That Supports Everyday Living	Gail Race
Looks at how lighting design in homes supports wellbeing, balancing daylight and artificial light and arguing for the same level of rigour applied to non-domestic buildings.
13:30PM	Stage Change
13:45PM	Designing Healthy Interior Spaces: Integrating Light, Daylight, Acoustics and Air Quality	Myrto Skreta-Krikou, Dan Bailey
How light, daylight, acoustics and air quality work together to create healthy interior spaces that support comfort, wellbeing and human performance.
14:15PM	NETWORKING BREAK
14:45PM	Healthier Nights, Better Light: Lighting for People, Places and the Environment	Peter Thorns
Explores how responsible exterior lighting can balance safety, amenity and environmental protection, addressing ALAN impacts on people, biodiversity and night-time environments.
15:15PM	Stage Change
15:30PM	The Art of Restraint: Designing for Safety, People, and the Planet	Graham Festenstein
Discover why "less is more" in the future of urban illumination. This talk highlights how designers are reimagining the night, using purposeful light to enhance public safety while actively restoring the dark skies essential for human health and local wildlife.
16:00PM	Stage Closing Address	Dan Griffiths
Reflects on how thoughtful lighting design, alongside daylight and other environmental factors, can create healthier, more supportive spaces that genuinely improve human experience.

Connected Lighting Stage

TIME	TITLE	SPEAKER
10:45AM	Understanding the Client First: Matching Control Systems to Use, Tenure and Occupancy	Russell Joseph
Explores how building use, tenure and fit-out strategy influence the choice of connected lighting systems, moving beyond wired versus wireless to focus on user benefit.
11:15AM	Stage Change
11:30AM	Connected Lighting for Education Campuses: Designing User-Centric Controls for Complex Learning environments	Alan Jackson
This talk explores how connected lighting systems can move beyond “smart lighting” to deliver user-centric, adaptable control strategies that support students, educators and facilities management teams across complex educational estates.
12:00PM	NETWORKING LUNCH
13:00PM	Integrating Lighting with Building Systems to Support Wellbeing	Adrianna Barr
How lighting controls can be integrated with wider building systems to create responsive, adaptive environments, with particular emphasis on alignment with frameworks such as the WELL Building Standard and, where appropriate, BREEAM.
13:30PM	Stage Change
13:45PM	Lighting Controls for Healthcare: Designing Adaptive Environments for Care, Comfort and Clinical Use	Anthony Barrow
This talk explores how zoning, dual switching, scene setting and manual override strategies can be used to create adaptable healthcare spaces that balance automation with intuitive control. The focus is on designing lighting control systems that genuinely improve usability, operational performance and the experience of hospitals, care homes and assisted living environments.
14:15PM	NETWORKING BREAK
14:45PM	Connected Lighting for Hospitality: Designing controls for Atmosphere, Experience and Operational Excellence	Miguel Aguado
This talk explores how scene setting, zoning, intuitive interfaces and integration with wider building systems can create adaptable spaces that support both guest comfort and operational efficiency. The focus is on designing control strategies that enhance experience while remaining simple, reliable and easy to use.
15:15PM	Stage Change
15:30PM	Designing Emergency Into Controlled Lighting Systems	Stewart Langdown
How emergency lighting is incorporated into different control architectures, alongside emerging approaches such as adaptable and dynamic emergency signage within the UK.
16:00PM	Stage Closing Address
Summarises how early decisions, system architecture and ongoing management shape whether connected lighting delivers lasting value, usability and performance over a building’s life.

Sustainability Stage

TIME	TITLE	SPEAKER
10:45AM	Sustainable Lighting in 2026: What It Really Means	Ali Kay
What does sustainable lighting look like in 2026? Many companies will describe that they are on a sustainability ‘journey’. If we are all on journeys; then where are the maps? where do we need to stop?, where are we going?, and are we all heading for the same destination on the same path?
11:15AM	Stage Change
11:30AM	The UK Net Zero Carbon Buildings Standard: What is lighting expected to deliver?	Mitchell Waite and Graeme Shaw
Explores what the Net Zero Carbon Building Standard expects from lighting, including its contribution to operational and embodied carbon and how this affects design, specification and verification.
12:00PM	NETWORKING LUNCH
13:00PM	LCA and EPDs, do we need to start yet?	Leela Shanker (WAP sustainability)
The latest on LCA and EPD use, are the reasons building for manufacturers and are lighting designers and specifiers using the data? As manufacturers and lighting designers what do the next steps look like?
13:30PM	Stage Change
13:45PM	BREEAM 2026: Are you maintaining that excellence?	Cosmin & Anna Buchanan (BRE)
Outlines what is required to maintain BREEAM performance and compliance throughout the building life cycle. In this session we will hear from Anna Buchan and Cosmin Ticleanu from BRE on how lighting can play a part in maintaining BREEAM ratings through the life of a building. We will also hear about BREEAM In Use, with estimates that by 2050 over 80% of the buildings that will be in use already exist today its important that we address how existing assets perform day to day. With existing buildings many continue to consume excessive energy, generate high levels of carbon emissions and fall short on occupant wellbeing, Anna and Cosmin will look at how BREEAM in use can help, and what part lighting has to play.
14:15PM	NETWORKING BREAK
14:45PM	Lighting Europe Sustainability updates. From Digital Product Passports to the Energy performance of Buildings directive, how to prepare?	Alfredo Menghini & Antoine Hattemer (Lighting Europe)
Lighting Europe experts cut through the consultation documents, omnibus packages, directives and get right to the point. What will you have to do to prepare, and for when? We will hear about sustainability focussed developments including the latest on DPP, the circular economy act and the energy performance of buildings directive.
15:15PM	Stage Change
15:30PM	Sustainability in lighting cannot be all about efficacy and product focussed regulation, what else can we do?	Neil Mclean
Lighting increasingly delivers its benefits at systems level but is regulated at product level. In this talk we hear how the Lighting industry must advocate for system level approaches that move past simple product level sustainability requirements, such as efficacy and standby power, to good lighting design and controls system design, integration and use. Is this also the answer to protecting the health and quality of our lit environments?
16:00PM	Stage Closing Address	Ali Kay
Encourages a shift from headline sustainability metrics to whole-life responsibility, where lighting decisions are judged by long-term performance, transparency and their impact on people and buildings.

Feedback from 2025

THANK YOU AND THE LIA FOR ORGANISING THE EVENT AND FOR THE WARM WELCOME ... LOOKING FORWARD TO THE NEXT EVENT!

Luca Cancian

LumenRadio

WELL DONE TEAM LIA AND THANK YOU FOR LETTING ME TAKE PART IN YOUR CONFERENCE.

Brendan Keely FSLL

Society of Light and Lighting

VERY WELL ORGANISED, THE MIX OF MANUFACTURER, DESIGNER, AND ORGANISATIONAL INSIGHTS MADE THE DAY VERY FRUITFUL AND ENJOYABLE.

Claudio Mauri

Hilson Moran

About the Venue

Edgbaston Park Hotel and Conference Centre

The venue is a stylish and award-winning hotel in Birmingham located in the beautiful suburbs of Edgbaston. They are B Corp-certified, which means they're a part of a global community using business as a force for good. Expect contemporary comfort, sleek interiors, and a range of gorgeous venues you’ll want to host events and special occasions in, time and time again. It’s all set two miles from Birmingham city centre, in a tranquil and peaceful spot on the University’s campus.
53 Edgbaston Park Rd, Birmingham B15 2RS

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