DVN organised the first workshop in 2009 at Stuttgart. The intent was to gather the main European experts to share their thoughts on automotive lighting.
I was surprised by the success of the event. Not by the attendance; we were only 20 attendees, but by the high level of discussions on regulations, technologies, styling, R&D resources, relations between OEMs and their suppliers, etc..
I remain thankful to Wolfgang Huhn, Michael Hamm, Ingolf Schneider, Thorsten Warwel, Kamislav Fadel, Hans-Theo Dorissen, Rainer Neumann, Jürgen Antonitsch, and the others who helped me to succeed with this first workshop. It was a revelation about what the lighting community would be able to do in the future.
The two next workshops in Paris in 2010 and 2011 were the confirmation of the formula of the DVN workshops: Nice venues for a productive discussion among attendees, interesting lectures, panel sessions and round tables and the two next workshop in Detroit and in Tokyo, last year, were a great success thanks the experience we got by the former workshops. It is why many US lighting players asked me to repeat the workshop in January 2013 with the success you know: 175 attendees and a high level of information and discussion.
The big difference between workshops and congresses/symposium is that there is more intimacy, with possibility and time to discuss in details one or more strategic points in the panel sessions, to share information in the round tables. Even in the lectures, we have enough time to ask questions in order to totally understand the subject. These meetings are done by and for experts but also for managers who have to take decisions and the DVN workshops can help them.
Now, what about the next workshop in Shanghai? There are risks because I am not familiar enough with the Chinese players. But the two things I am convinced of are their interest to know the latest lighting technologies mainly developed in Europe, the US, and Japan; and their will to belong to the lighting community. For these two reasons I am optimistic about the success of the DVN Shanghai workshop and I accept the risks. Stay tuned!
Sincerely yours
DVN Editor in Chief