By Anthony Savona Education was the hallmark of the fifth annual Lightapalooza event, which took place February 16 through 19 near Austin, Texas. In his kick-off keynote presentation, Light Can Help You founding designer David Warfel did the math on what was available at the three-day conference and expo: “There is eight hours of education each day times three days, which means that, if you wanted to learn everything that is being presented at Lightapalooza this year, you would have to repeat it five years in a row,” he said. “That adds up to around 11,000 hours of content consumed in a single week. Plus, there are 71 vendors that are waiting for you on the show floor.”

Produced by Residential Systems in cooperation with Lightapalooza, the digital edition of the latest Residential Lighting Best Practices Guide is now available. Hear from experts such as David Warfel of Light Can Help You; Sarah Dresher of Luxury Integrated Technologies; DMF Lighting’s Mike Libman; Patrick Laidlaw from AiSPiRE and WAC Lighting; Gregory Kay from PureEdge Lighting, Coastal Source’s Pete Sepesi, and lighting designers Bruce E. Clark and Lynne Stambouly from Illuminated Lighting Design.

By Anthony Savona At ISE 2026, I really enjoyed getting to explore the creativity of our adjacent industries — and they did not disappoint.

Three-day, certification-focused program expands access to flexible, in-person training across the U.S.

New model includes unlimited training, structured onboarding, and a Talent Alliance to attract, train, and place the next generation of integrators.

The Aliro 1.0 specification offers a standardized digital credential experience leveraging the smartphones and wearables people use every day.

Facility features a second global HYRISS showroom and Creative Studio for spatial audio innovation.

Wind-rated, zipperless outdoor screens are engineered to reduce callbacks, protect margin, and help integrators specify outdoor living solutions.

New financial tools bring cleaner QuickBooks sync, better WIP visibility, and faster payments for AV integrators.