As a former frequent attendee of Vans Warped Tour and captain of my high school’s cheerleading team, I have been kicked in the head... a lot. In a three-year span I received five major concussions, and 13 years later, I am still feeling the effects of these injuries.
Over the last decade, lighting has become my frenemy. Overhead fluorescents have been known to send me into the fetal position, cradling my head seeking any type of reprieve from the migraine I was suffering from. I try to avoid turning on the big light, settling for spots near a window where I know natural light won’t hurt my head as bad. When the track light above my cubicle desk starts to flicker, I find myself packing my things and going to a windowless room and working in the dark. I rejoiced the day I moved into a house that had no overhead lighting, but was nearly brought to tears when my husband bought the wrong color light bulb because I knew it would cause a headache if I turned it on. For nearly half of my life, I just thought I would have to live a life of dodging lights, but NeoCon taught me that it doesn’t have to be this way.
Since 1969, NeoCon has brought together leading experts of the commercial design industry, offering ideas that continue to shape the built environment. For the first time ever, the annual trade show launched Illuminate, a show-within-a-show that demonstrated the future of lighting design and its impact on facilities. Dozens of lighting products were illuminated on the show floor and industry professionals spoke at Spotlight Sessions about the importance of lighting design within facilities.
“As a designer you can feel that there’s a sense or that there’s an opportunity,” Sam Koerbel, founder of Lytei said during his Spotlight Session. “Light is special because it touches everything you already care about.”
Lighting isn’t just a technical layer that designers and facility professionals have to navigate. It helps people feel, focus, gather and connect in spaces that they go to every single day. During a panel discussion, it was explained that lighting isn’t complex because it is secondary. Rather, it is complex because it sits at the forefront of everything that we do in a building.
In addition, exhibitors and session-leaders also stressed the importance of designing for circadian health. During his Spotlight Session, Robert Soler, founder and chief scientist of Bios explained that modern lighting is a leading driver to psychiatric disorders – a 60 percent increase because people aren’t exposed to the right light at the right time of day. Getting more light during the day is a non-pharmaceutical benefit to treating mental health disorders.
Meanwhile, several education sessions stressed the importance of designing for neurodiversity. In recent years, neurodivergence has been brought to the forefront thanks to social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok. Industry experts took to the stages of NeoCon to explain why this has become a game changer as more Gen Z employees enter the workforce. During his session at the NeoCon Talks stage, Arnold C. Levin, principal of CWI explained that the user experience is about more than just space, and that while we have embraced people that are neurodivergent, there’s still a lot that we need to learn from them in order to designer spaces that are truly accessible.
My biggest takeaway from NeoCon, though, was that I never had a headache. For three days I didn’t dodge unflattering lights, instead I was able to stand in front of fixtures and feel at ease. Lighting and interior design as come a long way in the years post-COVID. As more people return to the office, designers are trying to make environments as comfortable and productive as possible – and a lot of that involves lighting. After being pain free for so many days, I’m looking forward to what the future has in store.
NeoCon 2027 will take place at The Mart in Chicago June 14-16. To learn more information, please visit neocon.com.
Mackenna Moralez is the managing editor of the facilities market and the host of the Facilities in Focus podcast.
