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As always, on Monday of LIGHTFAIR, the GE Edison Awards was the event. All the big names were there Jim Benya, Domingo Gonzales, Naomi Miller, Bob Daniels, Jody Good, Susan Brady to name a few.
The big award, the GE Edison Award went to Jim Benya, Michael Neils, Juan Jose Villatoro and James Christianson. Your humble editor caught up with Mr. Benya, and asked, “Jim, what’s it like to win the GE Edison Award?” A very long pause, then Jim began laughing heartily and admitted he was stumped. Friends, you heard it here first, Jim Benya was speechless. (The moment of silence was caught on camera; hopefully my daughter will teach me how to post it to youtube, when I return.)I spoke with Jim Campbell, President, CEO, GE Consumer & Industrial and Michael Petras, President & CEO, Lighting & Industrial. I asked Jim a few specific questions about the state of the lighting industry:
· First Quarter was very tough. No way around it…a tough quarter.
· Second Quarter looks better, but no real improvement in the lighting industry until fourth quarter.
Jim explained that GE continues to invest heavily in new products and sees strong products with LED. He encouraged me to take a hard look at their outdoor LED business. I asked Jim about hosting such a party and reminded him that GE was one of the few companies sponsoring parties this year. He quickly corrected me that this was not a party, that it was recognition of the hard work many talented people had contributed. He went on to say that budgeting is tight, but they will always find money to recognize such deserving talent.
Mary Beth Gotti and Cheryl Maenza were the Chairpersons and did a tremendous job as always. Calm, cool, and collected as always.
In t his economy, it is very refreshing to see companies that still invest in their customers.
more info: www.geedisonaward.com