Ayrton
Headline Sponsor
Media Partner
Student Sponsorship Application Deadline
Sonja Walker • December 16, 2024
Deadline for Showlight Sponsored Student Scheme Applications - 31 January 2025
Calling All Students! The Showlight Student Sponsorship deadline is near! Don’t delay! Get your application in today! Applications close on Friday 31 January 2025.
Tutors – please make sure your students are aware of this fantastic opportunity!
Showlight’s sponsorship scheme is open to students and recent graduates of lighting for the performing arts, events, broadcast, film and architecture.
Successful applicants enjoy free-of-charge entry to Showlight 2025, with access to the full Programme of Papers, admission to the exhibition of major lighting equipment manufacturers, networking opportunities during the daily breaks and lunch, as well as a place at one of the Company Dinners on the Tuesday evening and the Conference Dinner on Wednesday evening.
Around 30 places are available but spaces are filling up fast.
Here’s what former Showlight student participant and presenter of Sweeney Todd – A Site Specific Experience, Amy Mae Smith, had to say about Showlight 2017: “Showlight is an inspiring few days where you can meet and learn from lighting designers, programmers and video designers that you would never normally be able to meet, from all over the world. People from Theatre, TV, live events and more. It is a great chance to meet a mix of people with different views, approaches and styles to design. A brilliant event with the right mix of talks, exhibitors and tours.” Amy Mae Smith
You can see a snippet of her presentation here – just after Durham Marenghi’s paper about lighting the Olympics!
Amy Mae Smith at Showlight 2017
Students - don’t miss your chance to be part of this unique lighting quadrennial networking event.
Each successful applicant is sponsored by one of the Showlight exhibitors and will receive a £500.00 stipend to put towards their travel and accommodation. In return, each student will be expected to help their sponsor with the exhibition stand fit up on Monday 19 May and the de-rig on Thursday 22 May and will benefit from being part of the team during the exhibition opening times. Stands are small so this is an easy set up and a chance to build a relationship with your sponsor, get to know key people from their team and what it is to take part in a bespoke exhibition.
Showlight is an invaluable environment for those just starting their careers in lighting to network with and learn from established professionals and potential future employees within the industry. It also enables you to make new friends from other educational establishments who will be going into the same industry as you.
If you are attending – or have recently graduated from – a lighting course and want to be involved, submit your application via the link on the Showlight website at www.showlight.org/students
no later than 31 January 2025. Please answer all questions and provide a link to your portfolio and/or LinkedIN profile, or other professional social media site, as part of the selection process.
Showlight only comes round every four years, so don’t delay in getting your application in today!
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Fresh for 2025, Showlight is introducing a new attraction - an enticing programme of informative, interactive Workshops guaranteed to get the creative juices flowing! These will take place on the afternoon of Wednesday 21 May 2025 and will be open to all delegates on a first come, first served basis, with a strong emphasis on student attendance. The Workshops will be conducted by leading experts in their field and offer unprecedented insights into subjects from the latest technology to personal development. Numbers are limited so delegates will be encouraged to sign up for their choice of workshop via the Whova App when it goes live closer to the date. Here’s the low-down on Showlight’s inaugural Workshop presentations: WORKSHOP 1: Colour and Light Led by lighting designer, author, and co-founder of Studio School of Design, Clifton Taylor, Colour and Light in the age of LED luminaires will be a practical demonstration exploring design storytelling afforded by today’s high-powered, multi-emitter LED luminaires. Topics will include agreeing on a language of colour, and the limitations and possibilities of working in LED based rigs. WORKSHOP 2: Lighting Loopholes Award-winning lighting designer, Sherry Coenen, has extensive experience working on puppetry and new writing. She will bring this knowledge to her examination of how to use non-theatrical lights in theatrical settings, theatrical lights in ways they weren’t designed for, and other lighting loopholes designed to show how giant dreams can be realised on tiny budgets and other restrictions. WORKSHOP 3: Redefining Success! Founder of an award-winning, women-owned lighting firm, Traci Klainer has over 30 years of experience and more than 100 lighting designs to her name. This workshop will explore what success in lighting and beyond really looks like – and what happens when you start your career wanting to be a Tony award winning lighting designer and end up as an Executive Producer! WORKSHOP 4: Developing your own ‘Health & Wellbeing’ workplace strategy This interactive wellness workshop will be led by the collective skills of Mig Walsh, Brant Thomas Murray, Dr Keili Camille Murray and Grace Halton. Participants will be encouraged to think about their own personal health and wellbeing workplace strategy; learn about emotional intelligence, burnout and the law and policies that can be adopted in the workplace linked to health and wellbeing, and come away with their own action plan to take back into working practice. WORKSHOP 5: Understand and Quantify the Visual Appearance and Aesthetic Rendering of Scenic "Objects" under LED Lighting This workshop will introduce the SceALED project, a university project (granted by the French National Research Agency) aimed at understanding and quantifying the visual appearance of scenic objects under LED lighting, with the intention of creating standards and practical tools for performing arts professionals. It explores how light spectra affects aesthetic perception, develops measurement tools, and applies an interdisciplinary methodology combining artists, engineers, and researchers, and offers the audience the opportunity to participate in a psycho-visual experiment. This workshop will be led by Véronique Perruchon, Noël Richard and Ludwig Lepage. More information on each of the workshop leaders can be found on the Showlight website at www.showlight.org/workshops The new Showlight 2025 Workshops are sponsored by Platinum Sponsor, Claypaky, to whom we extend many thanks for their generosity in supporting this new initiative for Showlight. Showlight 2025 tickets can be purchased now from the Showlight website at www.showlight.org Hotels can be booked at special rates at www.showlight.org/hotels-travel
The deadline for Showlight’s new Emerging Professionals Bursary/Scholarship Scheme has been extended to Monday 31 March 2025 . Aimed at early career freelance professionals to help make attendance more affordable, this is a fantastic opportunity to win a ‘scholarship’ that gives you access to some of the most creative minds in the entertainment lighting industry. Successful applicants will have free access to Showlight 2025’s full schedule of activities (ticket price normally €580.00) including the Papers Sessions, Workshops, Exhibition, Welcome Reception (in Dijon’s ornate, historic Salle des États), Company Dinners and the grand Conference Dinner in a glamorous, as yet undisclosed, location! A hotel room will also be included with the bursary and we hope to offer some assistance with travel costs too. “Showlight wants to encourage as many people as possible to be able to attend this unique conference and appreciates that, for those early in their freelance professional career, the cost of attending can be daunting,” says Showlight committee member, lighting designer and President of the ALPD, Rick Fisher. The Emerging Professional Bursaries is a completely new initiative, made possible by the generous support of Showlight 2025 Diamond Sponsor, Ayrton. It complements Showlight’s already well-established Student Sponsorship scheme to enable an even greater range of delegates to participate and enjoy this unique quadrennial networking event. Don’t miss this opportunity to learn from the best! Showlight only comes round once in every 4 years. Submit your application now via the Showlight website at www.showlight.org/bursaries . Just send us your resume/CV and 200-word statement describing your career and interests, and why you would like to attend Showlight 2025 in Dijon this May. The Headline Sponsor for Showlight 2025 is Robert Juliat, and we would like to acknowledge the amazing support Showlight receives from all its sponsors, a list of whom can be found on the website at ( www.showlight.org/our-sponsors ). Their generosity allows Showlight to maintain the standards education, entertainment and networking expected of this unique lighting quadrennial, and we look forward to delivering another sparkling event in May.
The preparations for the Showlight Quadrennial in Dijon in May are gathering speed with the programme of speakers almost complete and logistics rapidly falling into place. Key to the spirit of Showlight is the support received from our generous Sponsors and Exhibitors without whose valuable contributions Showlight, as an entirely voluntary organisation, could not take place. We are excited to welcome no less than 22 Sponsors and 30 Exhibitors to Showlight 2025, with more still to come, bringing their products and their presence to enrich the event over the three exciting days. The Exhibitor Hall is the centre of the networking space, where all delegates and speakers mix in between Papers Sessions to exchange ideas, meet colleagues and make new contacts. The emphasis is on networking, and talk revolves around shared ideas and innovations: LDs can give direct feedback to manufacturers, students can chat with designers, manufacturers can learn from lighting practitioners - established and upcoming - all in an informal, convivial atmosphere. New for this year, as an addition to the traditional stands, are sponsored tables amongst which delegates are invited to sit and chat over lunch and tea breaks. Our current lineup of exhibitors looks like this: AC-ET, ACT, Astera, Avolites, Ayrton, Cameo, Canto USA, CAST Group, Chauvet, Christie Lites, Claypaky, Coemar, Elation, ETC, FACE, Groupe Novelty, Highlite, LSC, Lumen Radio, MA Lighting, Martin Professional, PRG, Prolights, Robe, Robert Juliat, Roxxlight, Schnick Schnack, Starway, Vari*lite and Vectorworks. A special thanks go to these exhibitors, all of whom also sponsor a student or young professional to attend free of charge, giving them unprecedented access to those at the very heart of our industry, and the profession they have chosen to join. Exhibitor spaces are now nearly sold out, but there are still a few booths and some table top options available. Contact Matt Hallard on exhibit@showlight.org if you want to be part of this unique lighting forum. We also want to thank our unprecedented number of Sponsors for Showlight 2025 who currently look like this Headline Sponsor: Robert Juliat Diamond Sponsor: Ayrton Platinum Sponsors: Chauvet, Claypaky, Elation, ETC, MA Lighting, Robe and Starway Palladium Sponsors: Cameo and FACE Gold Sponsors: Avolites and PRG Silver Sponsors: Ambersphere Solutions, 3LR, Christie Lites, Martin Professional, Schnick Schnack, Vari*lite and zactrack. Bronze Sponsors: AC-ET and LSC We particularly want to thank our Media Partner, LSi, which does an immense amount of administration, marketing, design and backroom work for us, and to our treasured Media Supporter, Lighting and Sound America, without both of whom, Showlight would be whistling in the dark! Don’t miss your chance to be part of Showlight yourself! Tickets for Showlight are on sale now and can be purchased from the Showlight website at www.showlight.org/tickets . A list of discounted hotels is also available ( www.showlight.org/hotels-travel ) on a first come, first served basis, so be quick to make your booking! Finally, don’t forget you can sign up to the Showlight Mailing List to hear the latest news as it breaks.
Showlight Sponsors & Supporters:
