The Institution of Lighting Professionals arranges a series of events supporting people in the early part of their lighting career.

Successful senior lighting designers agree to share their time and expertise with students, juniors and new entrants to the profession, to demonstrate things that aren’t always taught on traditional courses and inspired, supported and encouraged the next generation.

How To Be Brilliant 2023, sponsored by BEGA, is a set of free to attend, fun and friendly sessions.

They are open to all, with an emphasis on allowing less experienced students and staff to meet renowned industry experts face to face in a confidence-building atmosphere of encouragement and inclusion. All the sessions include Continuous Professional Development time.

Where & When

2023 Schedule

There are no upcoming in-person events at this time, please register your interest for future events by emailing via the contact details on this page.

Venue

VARIOUS

Fees

How to Be Brilliant is brought to you by the ILP in collaboration with BEGA.

Their generous support means we don’t charge to attend.

Previous Events

19 July 2022

How To Be Brilliant: The Global Edition

22 November 2022

How To Be Brilliant with the Hoare Lea Lighting Legends

26 April 2022

How To Be Brilliant at Co-Design with Dr Euan Winton

17 November 2021

Being brilliant at Teams with the Lighting Team from Hoare Lea

20 October 2021

Being different with Sharon Stammers & Martin Lupton

You can view the presentation here.

24 September 2021

Illuminated River

10 May 2021

Celebrating Colour By Liz West

1 March 2021

Telling Stories With Light by David Gilbey

Our Speakers

April – EDINBURGH and ONLINE – Dr Euan Winton, Studio Winton – Co-Design

May – LONDON – Iain Ruxton, Speirs Major – The Revolution Will Not Be Televised

June – LONDON – Frankie Boyle, Artist and Creative Director and Wing Commander Calvin Bailey MBE – How To Bring Out Your Brilliance

July – ONLINE– Leni Schwendinger and Katia Kolovea – The Global Edition

November – LONDON – Brad Joseph and Juan Ferrari –  How to Be Brilliant at Being On It

March – ONLINE – David Gilbey, d-lighting – Telling stories with light

May – ONLINE – Liz West, Liz West Studio – Celebrating colour

Sept – ONLINE – Jonathan Gittins and Elga Neimann, Atelier Ten – London’s Illuminated River Thames

Oct – LONDON and ONLINE – Sharon Stammers and Martin Lupton, Light Collective – Being different

Nov – LONDON and ONLINE – Lighting Team, Hoare Lea – Being brilliant at Teams

March – EDINBURGH – Laura Phillips, Arup – The role of Lighting Design in ‘Placemaking’

March – LONDON – Luke Edwards, Cue Design – Designing lighting for music shows/concerts

April – LONDON – Linda Salamoun, Steensen Varming – The story of light

May – LONDON – John Bullock, The Light Review – Life is what happens…

Sept – LONDON – Arfon Davies & Nicola Rigoni, Arup – Daylight & Experience

Oct – LONDON – Neil Knowles, Elektra Lighting Design – Circadian Lighting

Nov – LONDON – Colin Ball & Lora Kaleva, BDP – Saturated Colour – Why the Blues?

March – Christopher Knowlton, 18 Degrees – Crafting the intangible

April – Colin Ball, BDP – The Darkness of the Unconscious

May – Lisa Hammond, Gravity Design – External Lighting: Country House to Powerhouse

Sept – Rebecca Hutchison, John Cullen Lighting – Inspirational lighting design for the home

Oct – EDINBURGH – Malcolm Innes, Edinburgh Napier University – True colours: explorations in art, design and research

Oct – LONDON – Lauren Lever, Light iQ – The good, the bad and the ugly … of office lighting

Nov – EDINBURGH – Kevan Shaw, KSLD – A talk about Charles Rennie Mackintosh: Lighting Designer

Nov – LONDON – Magdalena Gomez, Elektra Lighting Design – Light, Colour and Space

April – Peter Pritchard, Pritchard Themis – How to be Brilliant at Lighting for Sculpture

May – Tony Rimmer, Studio 29 – How to be Brilliant at Exterior Lighting

July – Colin Ball, BDP – How to be Brilliant – Archetypes of night: our lost stellar environment

Sept – Jonathan Howard, DHA Designs – How to be Brilliant at Lighting Bowie

Oct – Simon Thorp, LAPD Lighting Design – How to be Brilliant at Lighting Design: A Reflection

Nov – Graham Rollins & Ingo Kalecinski, GNI Projects – How to be Brilliant with Smoke & Mirrors

April – Dominic Harris, Cinimod Studio – Designing into reality

May – Paul James, mondo arc – How to get your work featured in the press

July – Peter Veale, Firefly Lighting Design – Restaurant lighting design

Sept – Lee Barker-Field, Aecom Lighting – Lighting for large spaces

Oct – Filip Vermeiren, Inverse Lighting Design – Contrast in lighting

Nov – Jonathan Rush AND TEAM, Hoare Lea Lighting – Be brilliant at a day in the life of Hoare Lea Lighting

Feb – Florence Lam, Arup – Teamwork

March – Michael Grubb, Michael Grubb Studio – Creative Thinking

April – Neil Knowles, Elektra Lighting – Hospitality

May – Rebecca Weir, Light IQ – The Languages of Light: A creative approach to residential lighting

June – James Siddle, Ideaworks – Moving from Classroom to Client

July – Paul Traynor, Light Bureau – Lighting for mental health

Sept – Ray Molony, Revo Media – Getting into the lighting press

Oct – James Newton, James Newton Photographs – The Why, Where & When of Photographing Lighting

Nov – Tim Downey, StudioFRACTAL – Mind the Gap – Why we see with our hearts and minds more than our eyes

March – John B Read, consultant lighting designer – Lighting for dance

April – Colin Ball, BDP – Lighting design interviews

May – Lee Sweetman, Speirs + Major – Sketching & communication

July – Paul Nulty, Paul Nulty Lighting Design – Portfolios

Sept – David Atkinson, David Atkinson Lighting Design – Diversity in light

Oct – Joe Vose, Light Bureau – Photometrics, lightmeters and lux levels – the language of light

Nov – Iain Ruxton, Speirs + Major – How to be brilliant at everything

A really nice crowd and there were some really interesting questions in the chats afterwards.

Getting creatives together and talking, learning together

I very much enjoyed the presentation!

Superb talk and I was absolutely mesmerised.

I have met some great people, learnt heaps and managed to get a job through someone I met. Love the talks!

I know a huge amount of effort, time and energy (blood, sweat and tears) goes into these events and they are world class.

I can’t think of any other lighting event that is as warm and friendly.

Colin Ball

at BDP

Happy Times. Beautiful Brains. (Sharing Rules)’ also ‘Fantastic forum for learning! FUNTASTIC

Charlie Wadsworth

at Light Projects

It has the power to transform lives. Keep on doing the amazing job you’re doing!

We had a great evening and really like the new venue, it’s lovely and convenient