ILE restructure is ‘more than rebranding’ says president

15 July 2010 | By Ray Molony

The restructuring and renaming of the Institution of Lighting Engineers in September is more than a rebranding exercise, its incoming president, Alastair Scott has declared.

The ILE is set to become the Institution of Lighting Professionals, or ILP, at the organisation’s annual conference in Warwickshire. The move is designed to broaden its appeal and attract members who are not in the ILE’s traditional sector of street lighting.

Alastair Scott

Scott: Move will broaden appeal

“This is something we’ve been looking at for at least two years,” said Scott. “We want to make it more in tune with what our members are looking for, and broaden the outlook of the profession.

“The primary objective is to better serve the existing members but alongside that we want to expand the membership. We want to broaden the scope of our activities and encourage people from disciplines other than street lighting to come into the fold.”

The ILE is targeting architectural lighting specialists, urban lighting designers and interior lighting designers. “Clearly this is a long-term objective; it’s not something that will be achieved overnight,” emphasises Scott.

He points to technical advice and reports and a strong regional network with regular well-attended meetings as attractions for interior lighting designers. He believes the ILE has already moved away from its traditional street lighting base in the last few years.

“This isn’t a instant fix,” says Scott. “It’s a five-year vision to create the home for lighting professionals.”

The council and executive board will be reconfigured and the committees will be abolished to make way for five ‘business units’, covering technical, regions, marketing and events, education and membership. Each will be headed by vice-president who will have to report on progress.

He admits that attracting lighting professionals who specialise in interiors will be long term project. “We run events like [the legislative conference] Zero to Hero that are applicable to the whole profession. At the moment there is no real organisation which is producing the depth of seminars that we do. There are also fantastic networking opportunities: we get hundreds of people attending our annual conference and our regional meetings are really well attended.”

“We’re finding that people in lighting are increasingly multifaceted; they don’t concentrate on one area. The concept of a street lighting engineer is fading as local authorities outsource their street lighting. You’re now getting consultancies coming in and the lighting professionals in those consultancies will have street lighting as one of their tasks, and the next day they’ll be doing an urban lighting project, and the next day they’ll be doing the lighting for an office refit. Our current title doesn’t do what it says on the tin.”