The June Lightovation Vibe

There certainly were crowds headed to Dallas the week of Lightovation — albeit to watch two World Cup matches featuring Lionel Messi – but that doesn’t mean Lightovation wasn’t a success.

While it was common knowledge that the 2026 FIFA World Cup would dominate the surrounding area of every match city – from Boston, New York, Atlanta and Miami to Dallas, Los Angeles, Seattle and San Francisco – making transportation and hotel arrangements more expensive, the inevitable drop in show attendance still surprised people.

If you had bet the opposite would happen via Polymarket or Kalshi, you would be very rich right now. For the non-betting lighting community, however, the overall vibe was a bit subdued but it was still a worthy endeavor.

There wasn’t a lot of grousing, in large part because manufacturers continually reset their expectations as the market dates approached. Similarly, retailers who came to Lightovation did so with the three-fold mission of spending serious one-on-one time with their existing vendors; exploring new resources; and visiting companies they didn’t get around to in January.

This is not to say that there weren’t new products to see. There were certainly enough rollouts to make lighting showrooms seeking new designs happy. Many manufacturers debuted collections that were fresh and interesting and others added line extensions. Several manufacturers that I spoke with ahead of market said they decided to hold back on some of their proposed summer intros, opting instead to release them in January 2027. Like the sound of one hand clapping, new products need an audience in order to be deemed successful.  

As for the variety of events and educational sessions available, Dallas Market Center presented a full roster created specifically for the lighting and design communities. In addition, the popular Showroom of the Year Awards drew an enthusiastic audience who cheered on the finalists and congratulated the winners. See which showrooms won an award here.

Lighting One and the American Lighting Association (ALA) presented plenty of networking opportunities through their organizations’ events. As usual, Lighting One scheduled its annual convention – complete with keynote speakers and educational sessions, speed-dating meetings with vendors, and awards presentations – to coincide with Lightovation. ALA hosted educational sessions and announced its Women in Lighting Leadership Award recipient at a festive party. (Spoiler alert: The WILLA honoree is Susan Irie of Kilohana Lighting in Hawaii.)

So, in retrospect, was Lightovation attendance down in number? Yes, but understandably so. Was it a successful show? Yes — maybe not in order writing, but certainly in regard to in-person interactions and the ability to explore opportunities and brainstorm solutions to today’s business challenges.  

What attendees said about business

In speaking with reps, manufacturers, and retailers at Lightovation, one thing was clear: business is not the same as it was even six months ago. Back then, the business outlook was more optimistic — granted, this was one month prior to the start of the war in Iran. In January, Lightovation exhibitors and retailers were busy wrapping up projects from Q3 and Q4 and were anticipating slow, but steady, business ahead.

In my conversations with industry folks during June Lightovation, the most common word I heard to describe the business environment was “flat.” This was followed by many who said they were already down two and – more often –three percent from last year. One manufacturer I spoke with quipped, “We’re down three percent, which has pretty much become the new normal now.”  

Part of that decline is the widely documented reduction in discretionary spending as consumers combat the rising costs of food and fuel. However, another cause for that decline might be the condition of the multifamily sector which, as previously reported, has continued to slow down in even the most robust markets. Rising materials costs affecting manufacturers, fluctuating gas prices that affect transportation costs for everyone and labor shortages in the trades continue to create uncertainty and pricing issues for manufacturers as well as retailers.

A few Lightovation attendees brought up the possibility of whether there would be a trickle-down effect or a potential roll back on prices and/or refunds based on the February 20, 2026 Supreme Court decision that ruled “IEEPA does not authorize the President to impose tariffs.”  Background note: Following the Supreme Court’s decision, the U.S. Court of International Trade (CIT) issued a “Refund Order” that only benefits importers of record  and that order is currently on appeal.

In an unusual move, Kalco announced a price reduction effective June 22, which was the week of Lightovation. In a note to customers, Bob Ross, director of sales for Kalco and Allegri Crystal by Kalco wrote, “Due to the recent reduction in United States tariff rates, we have made the decision to reduce our pricing catalog-wide. In addition, we will be setting our MAP policy to a 2.0 multiplier of our DN pricing. As economic factors continue to affect customers’ spending habits, we believe both of these reductions will make us more competitive in the current market landscape and allow us to reach new customers.”

Where do we go from here?

Price reductions are certainly welcome, but with single-family home construction slowing nationwide due to interest rates, are there other options for lighting showrooms to find revenue? The answer for the last few years has been to court the luxury customer — and that strategy has worked well for many lighting retailers. However, starting last year and continuing in 2026, lighting showrooms have been reporting that even the reliable high-end market is now facing headwinds.

Where are homeowners spending?  For long-time homeowners with low interest rates and sizable equity, moving to a new home does not make good financial sense. Instead, they are renovating their current homes to better meet their evolving needs.

Demographics are changing. Seniors are spending on aging-in-place renovation projects that allow them to live at home for as long as they can. Similarly, adult children with aging parents are looking to remodel in ways that take their aging parents’ comfort and physical needs into account. These projects can be as simple as transforming an existing bedroom and bath for an elderly relative or as luxe as creating separate in-law suites attached to the main home.    

For now, it appears that an emerging path to profitability for lighting showrooms is the remodeling sector. Finding opportunity there could mean creating marketing campaigns that tout affordable aging-in-place solutions or that address the needs of multi-generational households in other ways.

At Lightovation, Dallas Market Center provided an educational session that focused entirely on the remodeling market for lighting showrooms. During that discussion, the experts on the panel predicted that remodeling opportunities will continue to grow through 2027 and beyond.

In short, lighting can play a significant role in those profitable projects. Showrooms should take steps to be proactive in forming strategic alliances with trade professionals serving that category and be aware of products that are ideal for universal design applications and other emerging trends.

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