 Thank you Tanya, Amber, Mariel, Alana, Rachael, Luz, and Brittany for your amazing PechaKucha presentations at LightFair2021! You inspire us to do better and be better – and you knocked it out of the park! Keep scrolling to hear from our speakers, learn how to connect with NACLIQ and BOSLady, and check out the recording! |
 Voices of WILD: Rising for Social Change Tanya Hernandez – Let’s Talk Leadership Rachael Stoner – Life in Middle Management Mariel Acevedo – Codeswitching Alana Shepherd – LGBTQ+ By the Numbers Amber Watnik – Books as a Catalyst for Community Luz Garcia – Traditional and Reverse Mentoring of Women by Women, Brittany Lynch – Not So Secret Shame of Working Moms   LightFair 2021 brought together seven amazing presentations in the PechaKucha format. PechaKucha means chit-chat in Japanese, and each presentation consisted of 20 slides for 20 seconds each. This means each of our presenters only had 400 seconds to tell you their story. This was fun, engaging, and much harder than it sounds! Tanya, Amber, Mariel, Alana, Rachael, Luz, and Brittany provided seven personal and passionate stories, seven guidelines for excellence, and seven inspirations for changing the way you interact with your colleagues and yourself. We are so grateful to them for sharing their message and for making our LightFair experience so memorable! Many thanks to Pyramid Lighting Group of NYC for sponsoring our Social Hour on Thursday afternoon (even though it didn’t quite turn out the way we had hoped!) and special thanks to Rowena Burcham at LightFair for the game-day help. It’s just one of those trade-show things! |
 | As we discover what our new normal will hopefully be, I wanted to share something that affects all women, but particularly women of color to make it part of the return to work conversation. The format was really challenging, it’s harder to speak for 6 minutes than an hour, but it was worth the work because of the connections it made. That was what this LFI was about – re-connecting, seeing new faces for the first time off the screen and hugging old friends. – Mariel Acevedo Codeswitching |
| This was the weirdest LightFair ever, but I’m glad for it. I had the unique opportunity to join some of the strongest and most passionate women I’ve met to present to a cask strength distillation of industry professionals from all facets of the lighting world. Truly a once in a lifetime experience. – Alana Shepherd LGBTQ+ By the Numbers |  |
 | CHECK THIS OUT! In 2020, Alana founded the North American Coalition of Lighting Industry Queers, an explicitly transgender and non-binary inclusive organization providing advocacy and support for LGBTQIA+ lighting professionals. WILD is proud to consider NACLIQ and Alana a partner in our own journey and mission. Learn more here! |
 | What drew me to want to speak with WILD was the PechaKucha format. I’ve done a few others and know this is a great way to get information out quickly and succinctly. I chose middle management because that is what my daily life is! I’ve gotten some comments from other lighting designers that are in middle management, and they were encouraged by my discussion. LightFair was great to see everyone in person and talk about what we are currently up to and are planning to do next. – Rachael Stoner Life in Middle Management |
| I’ve never experienced such an ENGAGING set of presentations. The PechaKucha format caters to the wandering mind we all have. Because the slides change every 20 seconds, it keeps the focus as the presenter flows from one topic to the next. There isn’t room for dawdling, both from the presenter and the audience! What a fantastic platform to share ideas that captivates the audience. It was so delightful to come together with others in our industry. After being sheltered in our own environments for the past year and a half, it was so refreshing to share thoughts and reignite that passion for lighting, that we all seem to share. WHAT A TREAT! – Brittany Lynch Not So Secret Shame of Working Mothers |  |
 | CHECK THIS OUT! In 2018, Amber co-founded the BOSLady Book Club and curates their semi-weekly newsletter on design, personal development and inspiration, and women and minorities in business. Their next meeting is NEXT TUESDAY! Nov 9th @ 6pm EST / 3pm PST Learn more and sign up to join the club here! |
Missed seeing the event in-person?
Check out the recording from Instagram Live!