It’s hard to believe that in just two months we’ll be back in Las Vegas for the 32nd annual edition of LDI. The show promises to be bigger and better with an incredible array of technology on the show floor, and the industry’s most comprehensive professional training program in the meeting rooms as well as a few special pavilions. The week kicks off with the LDInstitute, which includes Hands-On Lighting Console Training, Hands-On Software Training, Hands-On Media Servers and Video Processing, Rigging and Electrical Bootcamp, Club Design and Club/Venue Tours, and Laser Training in association with ILDA. This is where some pretty serious training takes place, a lot of which in small, personalized sessions where the accent is on the attendee.
Also running pre-show for the most part are the LDInstitute courses, which are also serious training for serious minded professionals, including the new Live Xperience Symposium, which I mused about a few Mondays ago. Check out all the options here, but for my money, one of the top hits this year is the day in the fabulous Le Rêve aqua theatre with Tony Award-winning lighting designer Peggy Eisenhauer sharing insights into the fabulous lighting she created for the show with her design partner Jules Fisher. Peggy calls it the “lighting design of a lifetime” and I call it a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and can’t thank Peggy, as well as Rick Gray at The Wynn, enough for their generosity!
The LDInnovation Conference is also jam-packed with sessions on a wide range of essential topics for industry professionals, from The Art Of Programming with six sessions led by Vickie Claiborne and Brad Schiller to three Festivals sessions moderated by Aron Altmark, Technical Director Bootcamp with Tracy Nunnally, Project Management and Rigging Techniques, Lighting Technology/Design/Convergence, Projection & Digital Media, Cool Design Concepts, and an exciting new series of sessions on Extended Reality—truly mind-blowing!
And let’s not forget Backstage Las Vegas, a whirlwind tour of theatres, clubs, technical companies, plus tickets to see Aerosmith’s Deuces Are Wild residency at The Park Theatre and Cirque du Soleil’s new high-octane live-action show, R.U.N. This is an experience you’ll not soon forget.
The pavilions on the LDI show floor include the audio pavilion, LDI Amplify, expanded this year to include all kinds of free training, and the new Live For Broadcast pavilion, which features short presentations by an A-List of television lighting designers hosted by the legendary Emmy Award-winner Jeff Ravitz.
With close to 200 speakers, there are way too many names to list here, but please browse the professional training section of the LDI website, and you’ll meet a lot of really talented industry pros who take time out of their busy lives to meet us at LDI!