UK - Showlight has always been highly regarded as a key networking event in the international lighting calendar, with plenty of time given over to the social side of the event. Showlight 2009 (16-19 May 16 2009, at BBC Scotland Glasgow) continues in that tradition, with an afternoon of visits arranged for Glasgow and the surrounding area which offer a mix of strictly business and the not-so-serious.

One of the most popular will be the visit to the Philips factory in Hamilton, which offers the opportunity to see one of the last remaining lamp manufacturing processes in Western Europe. Philips makes the SOX range of lamps here, with much of the work still being carried out by hand, and also assemble other types of luminaires, many of them specifically for sports venues, such as all the fittings for the first night time Grand Prix at Singapore.

Other 'business' visits include a back stage tour of Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, which opened in 1990, when the city donned the mantle of European City of Culture. It is the main venue for Celtic Connections, the world's largest winter music festival, and is home to the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. The tour will take in all aspects of this modern Concert Hall.

(Jim Evans)


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