Inside the ILP: Meet Your LDCs

INSIDE THE ILP: MEET YOUR LDCs

Birmingham:

‘THERE ARE LOTS OF NEW PEOPLE TO MEET AND GET TO KNOW NOW WITHIN THE INDUSTRY’

Networking, engagement and face-to-face interaction will all be priorities for the team at LDC Birmingham this year, so get involved

By Kieron Jarvis

We’re a close-knit team at Birmingham LDC. But we do need more people, both more members to come to events and more people who are willing to volunteer their time and expertise for the committee.

Having said that, we do pride ourselves on offering great CPD and networking opportunities, and many of our events are well-attended. For example, we ran a technical event just before Christmas where the tickets were totally maxxed out, which was great.

The social and networking side of being part of your local LDC is, for me, huge – simply meeting people face to face again; that is something I’d really like to push in 2023. People really do appreciate just having a cup of tea or coffee and a chat, having that opportunity just to talk to people, that interaction and engagement.

You don’t get that over Teams or Zoom. You can make amazing contacts, pick up conversations about what’s happening locally and so on.

We’ve also got some great venues in the Midlands; we have good links with manufacturers and so there is often the opportunity to come on a factory tour.

For me, our message is simple: come along, come and meet new people and interact. A lot of people have moved jobs because of Covid; a lot of people are now in different roles. There are lots of new people to meet and get to know now within the industry.

So, come along, come and visit some of great venues and interact with colleagues, potential customers and contacts. For me, that’s so important.

Kieron Jarvis is chair of ILP Birmingham (Birmingham LDC) as well as being commercial sales manager at DW Windsor

WHAT’S COMING UP

As well as hosting the ILP’s national energy crisis event this month, on Thursday 2 February at the Mercure Daventry Court Hotel in Daventry, Birmingham LDC is working on a range of other events and activities.

This will include a social/networking event, probably a dinner dance, around the time of the next annual general meeting.

Keep an eye out on the LDC website for more details on upcoming events as and when they are finalised.

Recordings of a number of previous virtual ILP Birmingham events can be found on the website. Go to: https://theilp. org.uk/branch/ilp-birmingham/

WHO’S WHO

Kieron Jarvis, chair

Kevin Clark, vice chair

Michala Medcalf, immediate past chair

Aftab Khan, technical

Megan McJannet education

Jonathan Ayers, secretary

HOW TO GET INVOLVED

You can get in touch, and keep in touch with, the Birmingham team by simply emailing birmingham@theilp.org.uk

Durham:

‘LDCS ARE THE LIFEBLOOD OF THE INSTITUTION’

With regular, short evening CPD events, LDC Durham is focusing hard on engaging all lighting professionals, but especially those working within local authorities

By Anthony Smith

We’re one of the smaller LDCs. We’re also a bit different in that, whereas some LDCs will two or three halfday or full-day sessions every year, we do five every year, but typically of shorter duration. So, it might just be a couple of hours of an evening.

As you would expect our sessions are very focused on exterior lighting and associated topics however we also try to have the occasional paper focusing on something that’s not solely about lighting, although still engineering based.

For example, we’ve done trips to the Tees Transporter Bridge whilst it was being refurbished. At our upcoming event in Carlisle later this month, too, one of the speakers will be talking about the conservation of Hadrian’s Wall.

That’s not, of course, a lighting-related presentation but it’s about conservation, which does cross over into lighting. So, we do try to put a fairly diverse suite of sessions together that hopefully are interesting to members. Our focus is very much about simply trying to take interesting technical content out into the local region.

One of my goals as chair for 2023 is to try to engage with local authorities more. We’ve historically always run free events; we have not typically charged for them. Because the technical content is often an hour or so long, it’s hard to charge people a fee for that anyway, even if we wanted to.

All the events we put on in 2022 had a local authority slant to them or were on topics we believed would be of interest to local authorities. For example, we ran an event in Durham on EV charging and cast-iron welding, which was really well attended. In November, too, we had an event looking at how technology was likely to evolve going forward.

Looking into 2023, I’d love to see more engagement, especially from younger members. We always want to get people on to the committee, we want people to get involved, we want people to be influencing from the inside and make a difference. If people are looking at the ILP and thinking ‘what do they do for me?’, well get involved and we’ll do stuff for you. You’ve only got a voice if you’re in the mix.

What we’re trying to do is just provide technical content that has got interest to lighters from all backgrounds, even though we don’t have a big architectural base in the north east. So come along, get back involved and engage with us again. We’re your community.

We’re never going to get back to exactly how things were pre pandemic. The world has changed, and not just because of Covid –the landscape of lighting has changed completely. But we need to make sure that whatever we do is as relevant as it can be. I firmly believe the LDCs are the lifeblood of the Institution.

Anthony Smith IEng FILP is chair of ILP Durham (Durham LDC) and director of Stainton Lighting Design Services

WHAT’S COMING UP

On 23 February, ILP Durham is holding a technical event to coincide with Carlisle’s ‘City of Lights’ event. The evening will include CPD papers on Hadrian’s Wall and the Carlisle event, followed by a walking tour of the lights.

Looking forward, the LDC will hold its regular ‘YLP takeover’ event on 16 March. This allows YLP members to come and do a presentation in a completely safe environment – 15-20 minutes with no questions or any topic they like, simply to give young lighters an experience of public speaking in front of their peers.

There will also be an event on 20 April at Thorn looking at Cumbria’s experience around dark skies and the impact of circular economy of manufacturing for the lighting industry.

Keep an eye out for more details, and check out previous online events, at https://theilp.org.uk/branch/ ilp-durham/

HOW TO GET INVOLVED

You can get in touch, and keep in touch, with the Durham team by simply emailing durham@theilp.org.uk