The Sleep event takes place on Tuesday and Wednesday (19-20 November) at Olympia. Should you go? The organizers, Informa, think you should. Click here to see their reasoning, and to access Register Now. It's free.
But Informa are biased. Of course they want you to go—it's their show! But should you? To cut to the chase, the answer is Yes. But don't waste office time: go on the Tuesday evening for the party (18:00 to 20:30). You can still see the stands.
It's an odd event. They've changed the Sleep Event into the Sleep & Eat Event by adding more categories of exhibitor, so it now feels a bit like two separate shows in the same space. It's not their fault, though; they are affected by the same problem that all London shows have: most prestige/interesting brands can't see why they should bother to exhibit in London. Which is why we have no rival to Maison et Objet, to Milan—no essential show.
Nevertheless, when it comes to lighting, you should take any opportunity to see lights for yourself; with virtually no lighting retailers in UK, a show is virtually your only chance.
You will see one or two UK suppliers of hotel lighting (Astro D90, Chelsom B52, Northern Lights D72) and one UK source of feature lights (Cameron Design House [no relation] C42). Just one (good) example of all the non-UK sources of hotel lighting (Baulmann Leuchten C44).
And two of our key brands!
Estro (A42) will be showing their fine collection of cordless lights. This is a new introduction, Alena:
Click here to see the brochure containing their other cordless lights.
Estro will also be showing wall lights, and examples from their Luminara collection.
We are particularly looking forward to seeing another new design, Velia. The table light, and single and double wall lights, will be on show (the chandelier and the floor light will be developed for the new year). With brushed brass and black metal finishes, and with its cones, Velia is bang on trend. Here are the first sneaky peeks:
Remember that Estro's main specialization is custom lighting for luxury hotels. So if you have a project for whch this service is needed, make sure you talk to them.
Quasar 's will be the most spectacular, exciting stand at the fair (B20). Do take the opportunity to see their lights for yourself. Image/photos can look so amazing, people assume they have been photoshopped!
Sleep & Eat are using in their publicity an image containing one of the chandeliers from Quasar's metal and glass Julia family:
There will be a good showing of Jan Pauwels' amazing designs for Quasar. This is a custom Pollux:
And here is the one in the Bucherer concession in Selfridge's Wonder Room:
But don't worry! The standard versions come in more usable sizes. There are Ø80cm, Ø100cm and Ø140cm versions of Spy, for example:
I hope this postl has been helpful. Of course, there may be really super stands from brands that don't do lights. But I am not qualified to comment on those.... Do send me your reactions to what you see—good or bad!
