Illuminate at NeoCon introduces Spotlight Sessions—dynamic 20- to 40-minute conversations dedicated to one powerful idea: great design starts with great lighting. Join industry leaders at the Illuminate “Spotlight” stage as they explore how light shapes space, mood, performance, and experience. No additional registration is required to attend Spotlight Sessions.
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David B. Seide, ASMP Chicago/Midwest President Emeritus
Owner/Principal: Lighting Designer, Consultant, & Architectural Photographer, Defined Space Inc.
Through lighting we perceive space. It reveals form, directs attention, and shapes experience. Without thoughtful lighting, even the most carefully designed space loses impact.
Lighting decisions are often considered early in a project, yet spaces change. Furniture moves. Layouts shift. Programs evolve. Lighting is rarely revisited with the same design thinking that shaped the original concept. Over time, interiors lose focus and intention, making it difficult to understand what matters.
This Talk combines lighting techniques through the lens of architectural photography and lighting design. That perspective allows lighting to be understood in both two and three dimensions. It highlights the difference between lighting designed for a single moment photograph and lighting designed to support spaces as they are lived and worked in.
This presentation outlines a practical, design-centered process. By listening closely to design intentions. It examines sight-lines and visual priorities. It translates concepts into a cohesive lighting strategy. It then refines light and shadow through hands-on adjustment until the space reads with clarity and purpose.
Attendees will learn why today’s tunable, software-driven lighting systems are often specified with unnecessary complexity. This Talk shows how focusing on perception—how a space feels and functions—leads to clearer decisions and more effective outcomes. Emphasis is placed on collaboration between architect/interior designer and lighting designer.
Lighting is presented as an active tool that evolves with a space. By the end, attendees will better understand how lighting gives meaning to what we see and creates environments that invite engagement and encourage people to stay.
About the Speaker:
David B. Seide is a renowned lighting designer and consultant, as well as an architectural photographer, with a degree in architecture. His work focuses on helping design concepts become real, three-dimensional experiences. He understands how light and shadow guide what people notice, where they look, and how a space feels as they move through it. As Owner and Principal of Defined Space, David works closely with architects, interior designers, and manufacturers on commercial, retail, and showroom environments. Clients include Steelcase, Coalesse, Scandinavian Spaces, HHH, Framery, Darran Furniture, and Nevins. His lighting design has helped multiple showrooms at THE MART receive top honors at NeoCon, including Best of Show, Best Large Showroom, and Best in Competition awards from the International Interior Design Association. The Darran Furniture showroom he collaborated on received Best of Competition in the Small Showroom category at the 2024 IIDA Showroom and Booth Design Competition. He was one of ten photographers selected nationwide for Rizhao, China: Through the Eyes of Foreign Photographers, a group project and exhibition. His photography has earned numerous awards and been published internationally. Through Defined Space, David shows how bringing architectural awareness, lighting expertise, and a photographer’s eye together shapes environments where design intent is clear, memorable, and feels just right.
Justin Castellano
Owner, Just In Time
The lighting sales channel can feel like a maze: manufacturer reps, distributors, contractors, lighting designers, and manufacturers all influence what gets specified, priced, substituted, installed, and ultimately experienced. This session demystifies the channel in plain language and gives designers a practical decision guide for who to involve, when, and why, based on project complexity, controls, budget, schedule risk, and accountability. Attendees will learn the real roles each player serves, where handoffs commonly break down, and how to protect design intent when value engineering, lead times, or substitutions threaten the outcome. Using real-world scenarios, we’ll map the most common paths from spec to site and provide a simple framework designers can apply immediately to choose the right partners, ask better questions early, and reduce costly surprises.
About the Speaker:
Justin Castellano is the founder of Just In Time, where he helps lighting and construction professionals communicate the value of light through outcomes: vibe, human experience, and business impact, not just specifications. With a background spanning acting, theatrical lighting, manufacturing and agency presentation experience, combined with 15 years in financial services sales, Justin brings a rare blend of performance, persuasion, and practical frameworks that help experts get buy-in from non-experts.
Adrian Howitt
General Manager + VP, Fluxwerx
Light plays a critical role in the spaces we construct and for the people who inhabit them. As the built environment transforms from the assembly of inanimate materials crafted by a series of independent trade artisans to a world of intelligent, interconnected solid state electronic devices, new methodology is the imperative.
The advancement of LED technology has disrupted the electric lighting industry. As the rate of innovation continues, opportunities rise to leverage LED sources in ways that were never possible with legacy sources. Unconventional thinking about light as a naturally occurring phenomenon allows for greater design freedom and reduced environmental impacts. This course explains basic and advanced optical theories of how natural and electric light can be used together to their maximum potential, redefining many of the elements of design to enhance the human experience and improve infrastructure and connectivity.
About the Speaker:
Adrian Howitt brings over 28 years of sales leadership and management experience in the architectural lighting industry and has been instrumental in the growth of Fluxwerx Illumination since joining the company in 2013. In 2025, he was appointed General Manager and Vice President, assuming responsibility for overall business leadership while continuing to guide the company’s strategic direction. His career includes senior leadership roles at Ledalite and Louis Poulsen, as well as earlier experience in agency specification sales. He brings deep insight into wholesale and retail lighting environments and maintains long-standing relationships across the North American design and agency communities.
Caitlin Mulligan, LC
Director of Business Development, SCI Lighting Solutions
Prianka Chorney, LEED Green Associate
Associate, HLB Lighting Design
Who designs the lighting—and when does a project benefit from a dedicated lighting designer? This session explores the complementary roles of lighting designers and manufacturer representatives in the design and delivery of architectural lighting. Through visual comparisons and project examples, we’ll illustrate how lighting designers shape atmosphere and visual hierarchy, while lighting representatives help translate design intent into buildable solutions by aligning products with project goals, budgets, and lead times.
About the Speakers:
Caitlin Mulligan is a lighting professional with over a decade of experience supporting commercial interior projects across workplace, education, healthcare, and mixed-use environments. With a background in Architecture from the University of Michigan, she brings a design-forward perspective that connects architectural intent with real-world execution. At SCI Lighting Solutions, Caitlin leads complex projects and works at the intersection of design and sales—partnering with architects, designers, engineers, and contractors to deliver thoughtful, high-performing lighting solutions. She also collaborates closely with the manufacturers SCI represents, strengthening alignment with the design community and helping position their products for successful specification and implementation.
Prianka Chorney is a lighting designer with nearly a decade of professional experience, currently practicing at HLB Lighting Design in Chicago. With an MFA in Interior Architecture and a background spanning commercial interiors and architectural lighting design, she brings a holistic, design-driven perspective to the built environment. Prianka is well positioned to speak to the value a lighting designer adds to commercial projects, informed by her work at HLB—an internationally recognized, women-owned firm.
Clara D. Powell, LC, MIES
Regional Sales Manager, Cooledge Lighting Inc.
In the modern pursuit of minimalist, open-concept design, the ceiling has become a battlefield of competing trades. Exposed concrete and glass volumes create acoustic chaos, while a "Swiss cheese" of sprinklers, sensors, and vents disrupts the architectural intent. As lighting professionals, we hold the key to the most critical real estate in the building.
This session explores a paradigm shift: moving from standalone fixtures to integrated lighting platforms. We examine how the lighting system can serve as the primary structural "hub" to absorb sound, conceal safety technology, and host IoT sensors without compromising aesthetics.
By leading with a lighting-first integration strategy, architects and designers can reclaim the "Quiet Ceiling" - a high-performance space that is visually composed, acoustically tuned, and technically superior.
About the Speaker:
With over 30 years of experience in architectural lighting and LED innovation, Clara Powell is a key driver of integrated lighting solutions at Cooledge Lighting, where she is redefining the relationship between light and the built environment. Championing the evolution of lighting from traditional points and lines into expansive, luminous planes that seamlessly incorporate acoustic absorption, Clara drives growth through collaborative partnerships with the design community, pushing the boundaries of spatial design.
Prior to her role at Cooledge, Clara held leadership roles in strategic marketing and national sales for both established lighting manufacturers and innovative start-ups, successfully introducing cutting-edge technologies to the national market.
She began her career as a lighting designer for renowned New York City firms, a background that informs her unique ability to bridge technical innovation with architectural intent.
Clara’s credentials include a Fulbright scholarship, a Master’s in Interior Design from Pratt Institute and a Richard Kelly Grant. An enthusiastic industry advocate, Clara has held leadership roles within the IES New York Section, where she served two terms as President.
Sam Koerbel
Founder, Lytei
Why Lighting Feels Hard — But It Doesn’t Have to helps architects and interior designers better understand lighting without technical overload, jargon, or ego.
The audience will learn why lighting often feels complicated—not because they’re missing knowledge, but because lighting sits at the intersection of design intent, technology, human experience, and commercial reality. Through real stories and simple framing, the talk breaks lighting down into what actually matters most: early decisions, collaboration, and clarity of intent.
This topic is relevant because lighting profoundly shapes how spaces are experienced, yet it’s often treated as a late-stage or isolated decision. Reframing lighting as a design amplifier—not a complication—leads to better collaboration and stronger outcomes.
What makes this talk unique is the presenter’s role as a translator, drawing insight from years of listening to lighting designers and industry leaders, and sharing what helps lighting finally “click” for non-specialists.
About the Speaker:
Sam Koerbel is a creative strategist, podcast host, and industry connector best known as the founder and host of LytePOD, a long-running podcast dedicated to elevating the voices of lighting designers and the broader design ecosystem. Over the past several years, Sam has hosted and moderated more than 100 in-depth conversations with lighting designers, architects, interior designers, developers, integrators, and industry leaders—earning a reputation for asking the questions others don’t, and for listening closely to the answers. While Sam is not a lighting designer himself, his career has been spent living adjacent to the work—observing how lighting design is created, discussed, misunderstood, and ultimately valued once it leaves the studio. This unique vantage point allows him to recognize patterns across disciplines and translate complex ideas into language that resonates with clients, collaborators, and decision-makers. Sam’s work sits at the intersection of creativity, collaboration, and commercial reality. Through storytelling, facilitation, and honest dialogue, he helps demystify lighting design without oversimplifying it—making it more approachable, more understood, and more appreciated. At his core, Sam is a cheerleader for lighting and the people who practice it. His goal is simple: to help others better understand why lighting matters, so the designers who shape our environments can do their best work—and be supported in doing so.
Chip Israel, FIALD, FIES, CLD, LEED-AP, LC
Principal, Lighting Design Alliance, a Salas Obrien Company
The presenter will share basic and advanced lighting concepts, by showing high-resolution Project images, matched to a quote by some of the biggest names in the lighting industry, past and present. The techniques will be very simple and practical and will make any lighting solution more appropriate and many times more cost effective. The recommendations are appropriate for commercial office, retail, hospitality to even facades, but the focus will be on interior applications. Learn ways to add drama to spaces without sacrificing visual acuity.
About the Speaker:
Founder of the Lighting Design Alliance, the IALD Education Trust, Project Candle and the BOL - Business of Light, Chip Israel has been the key designer in award winning design projects around the world and was recently awarded the IES' highest award, the Louis B. Marks Medal, and is a Fellow of the IALD and the IES. His project clients range from the world's largest casinos, to the tallest buildings on the West Coast skyline and even the world's most expensive residence.
Robert Soler
Founder and Chief Scientist, bios
Every lighting specification is a biological decision — whether you know it or not. Light is the most powerful regulator of human physiology, governing circadian rhythms, sleep quality, alertness, mood, and cognitive performance. It affects how safely people move through a space, how productively they work, and how well they recover. Yet in most projects, its biological impact is an afterthought at best.
This session translates the latest research on light and human health into language and guidance that designers, architects, and end users can act on immediately. You'll leave with a clearer understanding of what makes a lighting environment work for the people inside it — not just aesthetically, but biologically — and the questions you should be asking on every project going forward.
The most consequential material in your next specification might be the one you're least thinking about.
About the Speaker:
Robert Soler is a leading expert in circadian lighting and its effects on human health and performance. He has served as a subject matter expert for NASA and has advised organizations such as the Los Angeles Dodgers and the U.S. Olympic Ski and Snowboard Team, providing strategies to combat jet lag. Additionally, he collaborates with the International WELL Building Institute™ to enhance global health standards related to lighting.
Through a National Science Foundation (NSF) fellowship, Robert conducts research on circadian rhythms and works with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) on various studies in this field. He has also partnered with Cincinnati Children’s Hospital to develop specialized lighting for neonatal intensive care units (NICUs), improving outcomes for premature and newborn babies.
Recently, he received a grant from the U.S. Department of Energy for his work on circadian lighting strategies in retrofit lighting applications.
Sage Russell
Vice President - Specification Sales, Lumenwerx
Lighting decisions often arrive late in the design process, reduced to fixture selection and reflected ceiling plans developed after spatial design is complete. Yet the most compelling architectural environments begin much earlier—with intentional thinking about where light belongs and why.
Find Your Lighting Voice: Designing with Light, Not Just Picking Fixtures invites architects and interior designers to step confidently into the lighting conversation. This session introduces practical methods for thinking about light spatially and communicating lighting ideas visually throughout the design process.
Participants will explore how section, elevation, and spatial diagrams can guide lighting strategy before fixtures are selected. By focusing on placement, layering, and reflected light, designers can shape how architecture is perceived and experienced.
The result is stronger collaboration with lighting specialists, clearer design intent, and more purposeful, integrated illumination.
About the Speaker:
Sage Russell is a former lighting designer, educator, and author of The Architecture of Light. He previously taught lighting design at the Design Institute of San Diego and speaks nationally on lighting design theory, spatial application, and the evolving role of technology in architectural lighting.
Today, Sage serves as Vice President of Specification Sales at Lumenwerx, where he collaborates with architects, interior designers, and lighting professionals across North America. Drawing from both design and real-world project experience, he focuses on helping designers think more intentionally about where light belongs within a space.
Sage’s presentations offer practical strategies for moving beyond fixture selection and toward spatial lighting thinking—empowering designers to participate more confidently in the lighting conversation and shape the visual experience of architecture.
Sohana Arni
Founder and Creative Director, line + form + light
Lighting is often treated as a specification, but the best designers understand it as culture.
In conjunction with the immersive Illuminate at NeoCon vignettes, this session introduces the core principles that shape architectural lighting: intensity, color temperature, grazing vs. wall washing, the influence of material finishes, and strategies for illuminating millwork and displays. We’ll also explore downlight techniques, cove vs. slot lighting, circadian lighting concepts, and sustainable lighting approaches.
Designed as a Lighting 101 conversation for the A+D community, this session translates technical concepts into practical design insights, helping designers understand not just how lighting works, but some of the nuances that get missed, or unclear misconceptions that happen in lighting conversations.
About the Speaker:
Sohana Arni is a lighting-innovator and product-strategist recognized for launching award-winning lighting platforms and advancing technologies in the built environment. She is the Founder and Creative Director of line + form + light, a consultancy helping manufacturers develop innovative products, strategic market positioning, and design-driven brand narratives.
Her career spans engineering, lighting design, sales, product management, and marketing leadership. Prior to founding her consultancy, she held senior roles at Cooper Lighting Solutions and an executive role at Pinnacle Architectural Lighting. At Cooper, she created and launched award-winning platforms including Shaper Sense, an integrated-acoustic lighting-system, and PrentaLux, a pioneering 3D-printed lighting brand recognized with multiple international design awards.
An inventor on 11 patents, Sohana holds dual engineering degrees from the University of Colorado Boulder. She serves on the NeoCon Advisory Council and Programming Committee and was engaged by THE MART as a lighting strategy consultant for the Illuminate at NeoCon initiative.
Avraham ‘Avi’ Mor, IALD, CLD, LEED AP
Founding Principal, Morlights
How to Protect Design Intent, Asset Value, and Occupant Experience.
Lighting has an outsized influence on how spaces feel, perform, and are ultimately valued — yet many of the decisions that determine its final quality happen quietly during budgeting, procurement, and construction. Fixture substitutions, value engineering, control simplifications, and schedule pressures can gradually shift lighting outcomes away from the original vision.
The result is familiar: projects that meet technical requirements and stay on budget, yet fail to deliver the atmosphere, comfort, and visual quality they were designed to achieve.
This session examines the critical decision points that most influence lighting outcomes. Through real-world project insights, attendees will explore how lighting evolves between concept and installation — and how small decisions along the way can dramatically reshape the final experience.
Participants will gain:
For design-focused owners and project leaders, this session reframes lighting as a strategic decision — not just a technical one.
Lighting rarely fails because of bad design — it fails because of the decisions made after the design is finished.
About the Speaker:
Avraham “Avi” Mor is the Founding Principal of Morlights, a nationally recognized lighting design firm. With over 20 years of experience, he leads projects across commercial, hospitality, educational, and residential sectors, including luxury hotels, museums, corporate interiors, and private residences. A visionary designer known for blending innovation, precision, and artistry, Avi is the world’s third Certified Lighting Designer (CLD). He is a professional member of IALD, a past President of the Chicago IES, a DOE Next Generation Lighting Industry Alliance Steering Committee member, and an AIA Chicago affiliate. Avi is also a co-host of the Lighting Matters podcast.
Robert Pope
Founder & Principal, Digital Ambiance
Eben Berg
Studio Partner | Industrial Designer, Digital Ambiance
Designers have long shaped placemaking based on observation, intuition, and assumed patterns of use. Yet today’s spaces are more dynamic, social, and unpredictable than ever before, often outgrowing the static lighting scenes and digital systems designed to support them. A new shift is underway: environments can now perceive real human movement, density, and behavior in real time, allowing spaces themselves to “experience” the people who inhabit them.
In this Talk, attendees will explore how spatial sensing is transforming digital placemaking and enabling lighting and digital effects to become responsive, adaptive layers of design. Through real-world case studies and live demonstrations, the audience will see how dynamic lighting can form gathering zones, guide circulation, enhance perceived safety, and support social vitality by responding to how spaces are actually used, not how they were predicted to be used.
Participants will gain insight into how this emerging design approach moves placemaking from static programming to living environments that continuously respond to human presence. The Talk will introduce new ways to think about lighting not as a fixed utility, but as an active contributor to place identity, comfort, and performance.
What makes this Talk unique is its focus on real deployed systems and field-collected behavioral data, demonstrating not just what is possible, but what is already happening in real places today. Attendees will leave with a new perspective on how digital placemaking can evolve to create environments that truly feel alive, responsive, and human-centered.
About the Speakers:
Robert Pope founded Digital Ambiance after 5 years of concert touring as a lighting designer and video engineer. Recognizing the growing market for innovative lighting, projection, and interactive installations, he assembled a team of artists and engineers to design and build the architectural lighting installations for which Digital Ambiance is now known. Using a combination of immersive technologies, parametric design, and cutting-edge design principles, Digital Ambiance is pushing the boundaries of what it means to create architectural lighting and new media installations
Eben Berg is an award-winning industrial designer and Studio Partner at Digital Ambiance, where he bridges the gap between high-end design and immersive architectural storytelling. With a career rooted in the technical rigor of custom fabrication and experiential placemaking, Eben specializes in transforming complex, conceptual visions into buildable realities. By navigating the intersection of design and integrated technology, he has led highly technical, one-of-a-kind projects for world-renowned studios, architectural firms, and clients. Whether delivering precision-engineered specialty features or overseeing large-scale Immersive Installations, Eben is driven by a commitment to redefining how people interact with their environment by merging analog design with emerging technology.
Katherine Stekr, CLD, IALD, IES, EDAC, LEED AP BD=C
Founder | Principal, STEK Design Co
Rachel Fitzgerald, CLD, IALD, IES, LEED AP BD+C
Senior Principal, Discipline Lead Lighting, Stantec
Lighting is often the unsung hero of interior design—when done well, it disappears, leaving behind an atmosphere that feels effortless, intentional, and alive. Whether you're designing a workplace, hospitality space, or residential interior, this session will illuminate how lighting can be a strategic design partner—not just a finishing touch. This session, led by expert architectural lighting designers, explores the transformative power of integrated lighting design and how it adds measurable and experiential value to interior environments.
About the Speakers:
With nearly 20 years of lighting design expertise, Katherine Stekr blends technical mastery with artistic vision, making her a resource for thoughtful design. She understands the complexities of project, navigates challenges with ease, and partners closely with clients to ensure spaces feel just right. Her collaborative spirit and intuitive problem-solving turn vision into reality, one design at a time. A passionate advocate for holistic design approaches, Katherine is committed to creating environments that are beautiful but also responsible and enduring. She approaches each project with care, creativity, and a deep respect for the people who will live and work within it.
Rachel Fitzgerald is Senior Principal and Stantec’s Discipline Lead for Lighting Design, with 20+ years of award‑winning work. She creates sustainable, human‑centric environments across workplace, higher education, civic, and mixed‑use projects. A University of Colorado alum, Rachel chairs the IALD membership committee, advises the WELL Building Standard (Light), and serves on the ArchLight Summit advisory board. Recognized internationally, she is a sought‑after speaker and writer on lighting best practices and emerging standards. Rachel champions innovation and education, pushing boundaries to deliver beautiful, functional spaces that support occupant health.
Gwen B. Grossman, IALD, CLD, LC, IES
CEO & Founding Principal, GGLD
Alex Quella, IALD
Sr. Lighting Designer, GGLD
Lighting is often introduced after architectural concepts are established—yet light has the power to shape form, hierarchy, materiality, and experience as profoundly as structure itself. This presentation explores how integrating lighting design from the earliest phases of a project transforms outcomes for architects, clients, and users alike.
Through built case studies across multiple market sectors, this talk demonstrates how early lighting collaboration informs massing, façade articulation, interior volumes, and daylight strategies—while improving budget alignment, sustainability performance, and design clarity.
Attendees will gain practical strategies for incorporating lighting design during schematic design, understanding where early decisions have the greatest impact, and fostering stronger interdisciplinary collaboration. This session reframes lighting not as a layer applied at the end, but as a fundamental architectural material.
About the Speakers:
Boasting 30+ years of experience in the lighting field, Gwen Grossman brings creativity and collaboration to the forefront of her work. Combining artistry with deep technical knowledge, she uses light as her paintbrush to highlight and enhance the architecture of every space. A passionate and motivated businesswoman with a finger on the pulse of modern design, she always puts her clients’ needs first. Gwen has won numerous awards and has been featured in publications like LD&A, Architect Magazine, and Great Lakes by Design. She is the proud Founding Principal of GGLD, a certified Women-Owned Business Enterprise (WBE).
During her career as a lighting designer, Alexandria Quella has acquired a broad range of project experience, including higher education facilities, building façades, and healthcare and hospitality spaces. Alexandria’s education strengthened her innate understanding of how interior spaces psychologically impact human behavior. Now, she uses her passion for lighting to carefully enhance interior and exterior environments with an innovative and sustainable approach. Alexandria is passionate about bringing the lighting design community together and previously served as the Midwest Chapter Coordinator of the International Association of Lighting Designers (IALD). She has also received multiple IES Illumination Awards of Merit.