On May 13, 2026, the 2026 Ningbo International Lighting Exhibition grandly opened at the Ningbo International Convention & Exhibition Center. This year's exhibition gathered nearly 2,000 enterprises across the lighting industry chain, focusing on core themes such as intelligence, health, sustainability, and international expansion, comprehensively showcasing the latest innovations in the sector.
As a key concurrent event of the exhibition, the forum titled “Intelligent Interconnection of Everything, Illuminating the Future: AI-Driven Innovation in Healthy Smart and Outdoor Lighting” was successfully held on May 13. At this critical juncture—when the global lighting industry is deeply integrating with AI and IoT, shifting from incremental competition to breakthroughs within existing markets, and evolving from functional lighting toward intelligent, health-focused solutions—the forum clarified strategic directions and injected momentum for high-quality industry development.
The forum was jointly organized by the Ningbo Lighting Electrical Appliance Industry Association and the Zhejiang Lighting Electrical Appliance Association, hosted by China Lighting Network (Media) and Shanghai Yisheng Exhibition Service Co., Ltd., co-organized by the Shanghai Lighting Electrical Appliance Industry Association, Changzhou Lighting Electrical Appliance Association, and Gaoyou Lighting Fixture Association, and received strong support from Shenzhen Feiyetai Electronics Co., Ltd. Leaders from industry associations, experts from research institutes, representatives from testing and certification bodies, and elite professionals from across the lighting supply chain gathered to engage in in-depth discussions on topics including AI empowerment, healthy lighting environments, outdoor lighting upgrades, alignment with international standards, product innovation, and business model transformation. The forum was moderated by Hong Bing, Editor-in-Chief of China Lighting Network (Media).
Ling Yingming, Honorary Chairman of the Zhejiang Lighting Electrical Appliance Association, warmly welcomed all attendees in his opening remarks. He noted that the lighting industry is transitioning from traditional functional lighting toward intelligent, health-oriented applications integrated with life sciences, and that AI and IoT technologies are redefining the value of light. As a hallmark of advanced manufacturing in China, Zhejiang’s lighting industry boasts a complete supply chain and significant export advantages, positioning it at the forefront of technological transformation. The association will continue promoting technical exchanges, joint standard development, market expansion, and industrial collaboration to help Zhejiang’s lighting sector lead globally.
Zhu Guozhen, President of the Ningbo Lighting Electrical Appliance Industry Association, stated in her speech that this forum helps drive the industry’s evolution from “illuminating spaces” to “serving people.” She emphasized that Ningbo’s lighting sector, leveraging the innovative vitality of its SMEs and strengths in outdoor lighting, is actively seizing opportunities presented by AI and green lighting. The association will proactively foster cross-sector collaboration, guiding the industry to embrace intelligence as its wings, health as its core, and sustainability as its foundation, collectively illuminating a brighter future.
Tang Guoqing, Vice Chairman of the China Illuminating Engineering Society and Executive General Manager of MLS Co., Ltd., kicked off the intellectual feast with his keynote speech titled “Ten New Stories of LED in 2026.” He asserted that full-spectrum and health-focused lighting will become central industry trends, marking a shift toward “customized-on-demand, health-first” solutions. He also highlighted the scientific advantages of “phosphor-free lighting” in visual comfort and color perception. Tang stressed that the industry must rely on independent technological innovation to overcome barriers in core materials and patents, and called for Chinese lighting enterprises to build cultural confidence and develop a new theoretical framework for “high-quality lighting,” driving the sector toward premiumization and sustainability through new productive forces.
Wu Changjiang, founder of NVC Lighting, shared deep insights in his presentation “New Possibilities for China’s Lighting Industry,” offering profound reflections for entrepreneurs grappling with industry “involution.” He candidly attributed current involution to factors including the market shift from growth to saturation, extended LED replacement cycles due to mature technology, and severe overcapacity. He emphasized that limited growth “is not due to lack of opportunity, but rather outdated business mindsets,” proposing a dual-path breakthrough strategy—through both products and business models. On the product front, he urged companies to explore “big health” concepts, venturing into blue-ocean markets like “beauty phototherapy,” “sleep-assist lighting,” and lighting for chronic disease management. On the model side, addressing the fragmentation and weak competitiveness of SMEs, he advocated abandoning solo efforts in favor of integrating high-quality players in niche segments to co-build an industrial ecosystem based on “ecosystem co-construction and specialized division of labor.” He concluded with the resonant call: “Rather than each lighting a lamp alone in the dark, let us illuminate the night together.”
Dr. Yao Hua, founder of Ziguang Technology, introduced the “Three No’s and Three Yeses” core philosophy for healthy lighting: “no harm, no irritation, no interference” to establish a baseline for photobiological safety covering risks like blue light, glare, and flicker; and “directional, rhythmic, warm” to create contextual, ecological lighting environments. By integrating AI sensing and auto-adjustment technologies, her approach tailors lighting to human flow states, advancing healthy lighting from concept to commercial reality. She also shared practical implementations of intelligent scene-based lighting, proposing that AI and humans should collaborate—AI ensuring precise, reliable execution of standardized tasks, while humans infuse lighting environments with irreplaceable emotion and meaning.
Lin Jiliang, founder of Guang Peifang Research Institute, delivered a speech titled “Between Visual and Non-Visual: How Lighting Truly Returns to ‘Human-Centric’ Principles,” systematically explaining how lighting extends beyond visual effects to influence non-visual physiological responses. He stressed the need for measurable, verifiable light dosage models and advocated using next-generation photometric metrics like melanopic equivalent daylight illuminance (EDI) to guide design. He urged the industry to move beyond single-parameter marketing, shifting focus from “fixture specifications” to delivering “spatial outcomes,” truly understanding the interplay among people, space, time, and activity to reclaim the essential value of lighting.
Ding Qinhua, former Deputy Director-General (Level 2 Inspector) of the Shanghai Greening and City Appearance Administration, drew on years of management experience to analyze challenges and opportunities for the lighting industry in the context of urban renewal. He identified bundled project implementation and changing payment cycles as immediate challenges, while highlighting niche opportunities in night-time economy development, complete community construction, and age-friendly renovations. He advocated elevating lighting from an engineering add-on to a core enabler of urban livelihood improvement, ecological restoration, and cultural heritage. He advised companies to strengthen risk and financial management, deepen specialization, leverage full-lifecycle service capabilities to capture trillion-yuan urban renewal opportunities, and transform from product vendors into integrated “EPC+O” service providers to navigate industry shifts.
Dr. Huang Feng, Chair of the DALI Consortium China Focus Group and Zhaga Alliance China Group, shared insights under the theme “Embrace International Standards, Connect to Global Markets,” introducing the DALI and Zhaga standard ecosystems. The DALI Consortium resolves interoperability challenges in smart lighting through unified international protocols, while Zhaga standards—fully aligned with IEC international norms—enable sustainable, circular lighting via modular, replaceable designs. He presented extensive data on global adoption and showcased Chinese projects like Bosch’s Suzhou R&D campus (a DALI Award winner), demonstrating that embracing open, unified international standards is essential for accessing premium markets and realizing interoperability value, providing a clear technical roadmap for global expansion.
Li Yiping, Deputy General Manager of Shenzhen Feiyetai Electronics Co., Ltd., demonstrated the company’s deep expertise in industrial lighting through his report “Product Application Research in Industrial Lighting Scenarios.” He introduced Feiyetai’s portfolio—including high-efficiency smart high-bay lights, extreme-temperature specialty lamps, and corrosion-resistant floodlights—covering mines, cold storage, stadiums, and transport hubs. Using comparative tables, he quantified up to 68.8% energy savings from their high-efficiency smart industrial lights in warehouse settings, and highlighted specialty fixtures operating reliably in -50°C freezers and 100°C workshops. Real-world cases like JD Logistics’ cold chain operations validated product stability and energy efficiency under extreme conditions, underscoring competitive advantages gained through niche innovation and full-chain integration.
Du Ligang, founder of Beansmile, delivered a forward-looking talk titled “Brand Visibility Infrastructure in the AI Era: Reshaping Corporate Digital Portals for the GEO Age,” offering cutting-edge insights for exporters. He noted a fundamental shift in overseas buyer behavior—decision-makers now use AI tools to find suppliers, meaning companies not referenced by AI are effectively “invisible in the AI era.” His solution is GEO (Generative Engine Optimization), enabling corporate websites to be AI-readable, citable, and recommendable, dramatically boosting international brand visibility and conversion precision. He showcased GEO-optimized websites built for clients, including a case study with Jianzhong Consulting, proving real-world impact. He concluded that search traffic is being redistributed, and companies completing GEO transformation within the next 6–12 months will establish significant first-mover advantages.
Dr. Wen Jianhua, COO of Manlux, spoke on “Intelligent Interconnection of Everything, Healthy Illumination: Low-Blue-Light Solutions Paving the Future of Outdoor Lighting.” Citing policies from the UK, Brazil, and others, he showed that low-blue-light compliance is now a global baseline for outdoor lighting. He spotlighted Manlux’s Eco-Amber solution, which uses proprietary spectral technology to achieve ultra-low CCTs (1800K–2700K) with blue-light ratios as low as 1%, while maintaining high efficacy. Certified by the International Dark-Sky Association (IDA), this solution balances regulatory compliance, ecological friendliness, and commercial viability, already deployed in ecologically sensitive zones and health-focused communities worldwide.
Song Yi, Vice President of the International WELL Building Institute (China), explained in her session “How WELL Healthy Building Standard Elevates the Lighting Industry” how WELL translates health aspirations into tangible environmental metrics. She detailed lighting-related provisions like circadian rhythm support and glare control, and introduced the “Works with WELL” product certification program, which offers authoritative health validation for lighting products. She also listed municipal subsidy policies in multiple Chinese cities for WELL-certified projects, providing lighting companies with clear commercial pathways to enhance product value, align with global green building systems, and participate in high-quality developments. Through landmark domestic and international case studies, she illustrated successful integrations of WELL standards and lighting products, offering replicable models for commercializing healthy lighting.
Joe Zhou, CIO of Guangdong Juhao Lighting Electrical Appliance Co., Ltd., shared digital transformation practices of a traditional brand under the title “Empowering with Digital Intelligence, Co-Building Ecosystems.” He argued that competition has shifted from product specs to lighting environment delivery capability. Juhao built a resilient “two-lines-one-entity” channel—combining online customer acquisition, a central e-commerce platform, and offline experiential services—and empowered dealers with AI-powered digital avatars for localized content creation. This transformed physical stores from cost centers into data-driven local service hubs, evolving the business model from “selling lamps” to “delivering healthy lighting environment solutions,” and fostering a symbiotic ecosystem among manufacturers, distributors, and local service providers.
In closing remarks, Hong Bing, Editor-in-Chief of China Lighting Network (Media), summarized that the forum featured a rich agenda and forward-looking perspectives. It not only explored frontier trends like AI and health but also showcased comprehensive innovations—from light source technologies, standard protocols, and product design to channel strategies and global branding—painting a multi-dimensional vision of the AI-driven lighting industry. The event provided valuable inspiration and a practical guide for navigating transformation, capturing certainty amid change, and creating new value through intelligent interconnection.
