GLPF President Chen Lei's Dialogue with the Executive President of the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America (IES) in New York

At the beginning of the exchange, both sides conducted in-depth sharing around their respective organizations' core positioning and operational practices, in order to identify the "resonance points" for future cooperation.

The Illuminating Engineering Society of North America (ISE), established in 1906, is a top international society specializing in lighting technology. The core value of IES lies in promoting industry standardization through technological research and development and standard setting. President ColleenHarper explained in detail that the association has more than 80 technical committees covering full scene lighting research in airports, farms, factories, residential areas, public transportation, theaters, etc. It not only provides technical guidance for global lighting companies, but also disseminates scientific lighting concepts to consumers and all sectors of society. Currently, it has become a key force in the development of lighting standards in North America and even globally.

President Chen Lei focuses on the "global service attributes" of GLPF: an international organization aimed at promoting cooperation and development in the global lighting industry supply chain. GLPF always takes "integrating resources and empowering the industry" as its core - on the one hand, it builds a comprehensive service system of "market expansion+procurement docking+standard formulation+brand going global" to help Chinese lighting enterprises connect with the global market; On the other hand, we are also committed to breaking through the bottlenecks in the international industrial chain, allowing global consumers and manufacturers to share high-quality lighting resources.

When talking about the current situation of the industry, President Chen Lei said bluntly: "After the COVID-19, the impact of anti globalization and geopolitics intensified, which not only hindered the technical exchanges between Chinese and American lighting enterprises, but also made SMEs face the dilemma of narrow procurement channels and poor connection of standards, which not only restricted the development of enterprises, but also delayed the pace of technology iteration in the global lighting industry." This view was recognized by President ColleenHarper. Both sides agreed that strengthening cross regional cooperation at this time is not only a breakthrough, but also an inevitable choice for the development of the industry.

As an important communication platform for the global lighting industry, the value and issues of the exhibition have become the focus of this dialogue. Both sides specifically mentioned the American Lighting Exhibition to be held in Las Vegas in May 2025- ColleenHarper's President candidly stated that the market feedback for this exhibition did not meet expectations. "Several years ago, restrictions on Chinese lighting companies objectively weakened the global representativeness and industry chain synergy value of the exhibition, which was an unwise decision

In response to this situation, President Chen Lei proposed a suggestion based on the global status of China's lighting industry: "Currently, China produces over 50% of the world's lighting products, making it a true world lighting factory. Among them, the production share of LED light sources and various types of lamps is as high as 60% -70%. Even if facing some industrial transfer challenges, the manufacturing dominant position formed by relying on the advantages of the entire industry chain will remain stable in the foreseeable future. ”He believes that if the next Las Vegas Lighting Show wants to regain its influence, it needs to adopt a more flexible and open exhibition approach. GLPF is willing to leverage its advantages in supply chain integration and enterprise docking to assist IES in optimizing the exhibition structure, making the exhibition a true 'bridge of cooperation' for global lighting companies, rather than a 'barrier'. ”

This proposal has received a positive response from President ColleenHarper, who stated that she will carefully study GLPF's suggestions and promote the next exhibition to better meet the needs of the global industry chain. "The participation of Chinese lighting companies is crucial to the richness and global influence of the exhibition

At the end of the exchange meeting, both parties reached a key consensus - President ColleenHarper gladly accepted GLPF's invitation and plans to attend the Autumn Lighting Fair in Hong Kong at the end of October 2025, and also visit mainland China at the same time. This is her first visit to China as the CEO of IES, marking the high-level interaction between the Chinese and American lighting industries entering the stage of "practical implementation".

President ColleenHarper stated that this visit to China not only aims to conduct on-site inspections of the manufacturing strength and technological innovation achievements of China's lighting industry, but also looks forward to deepening connections with Chinese enterprises and industry organizations, and reaching specific cooperation intentions in areas such as lighting standard collaboration, technology research and development cooperation, and empowerment of small and medium-sized enterprises. China is the core force of the global lighting industry. Only by understanding China and working together with China can we truly promote the progress of the global lighting industry

President Chen Lei emphasized that this visit to China will be a "milestone" in deepening cooperation between GLPF and IES: "We hope that through this high-level interaction, both sides can move from 'dialogue' to 'collaboration', such as jointly promoting mutual recognition of lighting standards between China and the United States, building a technology exchange platform for small and medium-sized enterprises, and jointly conducting market trend research. Ultimately, this will allow Chinese and American lighting companies to share opportunities and benefit global consumers from higher quality and more efficient lighting products and services

This New York dialogue not only built a communication bridge for the lighting industry between China and the United States to break through barriers and reverse globalization, but also clarified the cooperation direction of "technology sharing, standard collaboration, and industry win-win". From mutual learning of the current situation to discussing exhibition optimization, and finally finalizing the first visit to China plan, every consensus points to a core point - only open collaboration can solve industry difficulties; Only by relying on the full industry chain advantages of China's lighting industry can we inject new vitality into the global industry.

With the approaching visit of IES President to China in 2025, there will be more possibilities for cooperation in the lighting industry between China and the United States. GLPF will continue to position itself as a "global supply chain collaboration platform" to promote the integration of Chinese lighting brands with the international community, transforming the strength of the "world lighting factory" into a driving force for global industry progress.