Get A Grip On Lighting Podcast

In this episode of the show, Michael sits down with Wes, a self-proclaimed LED Tinkerer. Wes wandered into Michael's store in Toronto, Canada, and asked to speak to the owner. Michael, seizing the opportunity to create content, threw Wes into the studio and asked him to explain his tinkering. Wes has taken the driver out of an LED fixture and connected it directly to DC current, and then tested th...

Today on the Get A Grip On Lighting Podcast, Michael and Greg walk down the memory lane of the lighting, design, and tech industry! Discover what changed and what stayed throughout the years. We focus on the evolving applications, technicalities, & demographics in modern lighting. Michael and Greg share their experiences in how lighting designers, distributors, and consumers have changed their...

Energy Efficiency is the answer to sustainability in the future. And if you’re about to make the shift, make sure you know what’s the best utility incentive programs for you. In this episode of Get A Grip On Lighting Podcast, Michael and Greg chat with Dan Mellinger, Senior Consultant at Energy Futures Group, about energy efficiency and everything about rebate programs. EFG has been providing ener...

It’s the 50th episode of the Get A Grip on Lighting Podcast and so far, it has been amazing! Let’s celebrate today by making it fun and laid back. Michael and Greg chat with some of their buddies from NAILD over a couple of beers talking about anything under the sun related to the lighting industry. It doesn’t really matter if you’re a lighting distributor, manufacturer, salesperson, or a customer...

Don’t just settle on flipping those lighting textbooks. Be more impactful in the lighting industry by learning and collaborating more with lighting professionals, mentors, influencers, and peers. This episode of the Get A Grip On Lighting Podcast might give you that push you need to start building your network straight from the Illuminating Engineering Society (IES) Executive Director himself, Tim...

It was just 5 years ago when LED tubes were introduced and since then many commercial spaces have switched to LED tubes due to it's energy efficiency and environmental impact. However, in this short amount of time a lot of changes in LED tubes occurred. In today’s episode of the Get a Grip on Lighting Podcast, Greg and Michael talk to Dr. Matthew Maa, the Vice President for Sales & Marketing a...

Today, we draw a fine line between the facts and myths of lighting’s effect on our behavior and health. It’s time to tell the consumers what’s true and what’s not. Joining Michael and Greg in this episode of the Get A Grip On Lighting Podcast is Dr. Jennifer Veitch, the Principal Research Officer at National Research Council of Canada. Dr. Veitch has long been doing research studies about lighting...

With the threat of tariffs on importing Chinese goods, it looks like the lighting industry will be really shaken up. But is this kind of disturbance good or bad? What does it bring to U.S. lighting companies? How does it affect the consumer? Today, we dive deep on this and more in this episode of the Get A Grip On Lighting Podcast with Michael, Greg, and our guest David Gordon, the President of Ch...

In this episode of the Get A Grip On Lighting Podcast, Michael and Greg talk to Brenda Puckett, the President of West-Lite Supply Co., Inc., to highlight women’s value in the lighting industry. As statistics show, executive and team roles are still filled mostly with men. How has it been for the women in lighting? Is there really a gender bias happening in the industry? Aside from shedding a light...

Amazon is affecting every business to some degree and is a threat to the lighting industry. Anytime you are dealing with a threat you need to come up with a plan to act on it. In this episode we talked with Mike Connors the CEO of bulbs.com regarding Amazon’s impact on the lighting industry and how you can navigate your way through the Amazon.

One of the most time-consuming tasks of any company doing lighting retrofits is the audit and analysis process of the existing lighting. Everyone has their own system for doing this and often times the reason they do it a certain way is because that’s how it’s always been. If you stop and look at any process you have there is almost always a way to make it more efficient. On this episode we talked...

In this episode we hopped on the Rebate Bus with Joe Pater and discussed the importance of utility rebates to the lighting industry. We took a wild ride discussing everything rebate related. Like the movie Speed, we must keep the rebate bus going at a certain speed or a bomb in the industry will explode.

Remember 2013? Thinking hmm, should I start selling my customers LED lighting? Remember all those charts and predictions that no one thought possible? 80% adoption by 2020 and so on? Well get out of your time machine and look at the predictions and projections surrounding electric vehicles and the gear required to make this donkey ride. All the arrows go straight up. Might be the lighting industri...

We hear a lot about healthy lighting and the potential effects it can have on people, but until we talked to Clifford J. Yahnke, Ph. D, Director, Clinical Affairs at Indigo-Clean we weren’t convinced. After this discussion we feel there is finally a true “healthy” lighting option. Visible Light Disinfection is legit and very effective at disinfecting clean room environments. While not for all appl...

No it’s not Bill Hurd, although he would be tough to beat in any competition. A 30+ year lighting industry veteran, Bill has done it all. He has worked for a manufacturer, owned a lighting distributorship and is now working with National Accounts for Border States. We had a very NAILD-esque conversation discussing all of the hot lighting topics that affect us today and will in the future.

The lighting industry is a candidate’s market so there are a lot of lighting companies battling for talent. We had a great discussion with Paul Pompeo who is the President of the Pompeo Group an executive recruiting firm focused on the lighting industry. We talked about best practices for interviewing and hiring as well as mergers and acquisitions. All topics that are of interest to anyone in busi...

The International WELL Building Institute (IWBI) is leading the global movement to transform our buildings and communities in ways that help people thrive. As Concept Lead for Light at International WELL Building Institute, Gayathri Unnikrishnan focuses on the importance of natural and electric lighting on the well-being of occupants in the built environment. People are the most important asset fo...

Rest up Paul. You will be missed.

Carol McGlogan is the President & CEO of Electro-Federation Canada and has had an impressive career in lighting. As we all know the lighting industry has changed dramatically and continues to, but not just on the technological side. Historically dominated by men, today many of the most powerful people in lighting are women. Carol commented on this and then, as usual, we got into the lighting g...

How many lighting companies have someone on staff with the title Chief Scientist? John Davenport is the Chief Scientist at Energy Focus and is a recognized global expert in light source physics and product technology. He has been at it for years starting with GE where he developed the “blue” Xenon headlamp currently used in cars and now Energy Focus with a range of LED lighting products including...

What does Sci Fi and Lighting have in common - Craig Dilouie. Actually, the way lighting is going it sometimes feels like it’s more science fiction then science. In addition to writing novels, Craig Dilouie is a renowned educator, journalist, and marketing consultant to the lighting industry. He is the editor of the LightNOWblog and Lightsearch newsletter as well as the education director for the...

There are 1.2 billion people in the world without lighting. Dr Venkat Venkataramanan and his team from the Impact Centre at the University of Toronto are working towards solving this problem and utilizing science to better the quality of life for society as a whole. We are not just talking about selling light bulbs anymore.

Lighting industry veteran Chris Brown coined the term Illumigeddon several years ago and met up with Get A Grip to discuss where we are headed. Ilumigeddon has turned into Illumitunity as long as you can work your way through The Matrix. Enough with the analogies, just give this a listen.

30 podcasts on Light Bulbs?! Much like the picture above, the last 30 episodes are a blur. This last year went by so quickly that we figured it was time to briefly recap what we learned from episodes 1-30 of the Get A Grip on Lighting Podcast with the Host Michael Colligan and Co-Host Greg Ehrich.

Pier LaFarge is the Co-Founder & CEO of Sparkfund. Their goal is to “netflixize” the energy technology industry. If this happens, the lighting industry will be in for a bigger change then the LED transformation. Get A Grip!