IN THIS ISSUE
2 Association News
4 Government Affairs
5 Technology/Energy Efficiency
6 Retail Management
7 2013 Annual Conference
11 Member News
14 Education/Training
The American Lighting Association
is a trade association representing
the lighting industry, serving
members and their customers, and
working to protect and advance
the industry while promoting the
sale and application of quality
lighting products.
September/October 2013 • Volume 43, No. 5 www.americanlightingassoc.com
Light Watch
Mark your calendars now for these
upcoming lighting events.
September 12
Live Webinar: How to Select, Lay Out and Sell
Recessed Lighting Including LED
September 22-24
ALA Annual Conference
Lost Pines, Texas
October 17
Live Webinar: How to Read
Construction Drawings: Improving
Your Lighting Sales and Efficiency
November 14
Live Webinar: From Classicism to
Modernism: Applications of Decorative
Lighting Styles
December 12
Live Webinar: How to Lay Out a Lighting
Plan for an Energy Efficient Home
Industry Leaders to Be Honored
at ALA Annual Conference
Five industry leaders will be honored during the closing banquet
of the ALA Annual
Conference Sept. 24
at the Hyatt Regency
Lost Pines Resort and
Spa near Austin, Texas.
John McKiernan will
be inducted into the
Lighting Hall of Fame,
while David S. Shiller,
David A. Gatto, David
R. Turner, and Wendy
A. Lofing-Rossotti
will be honored with
the 2013 Pillar of the
Industry awards.
The Lighting Hall of
Fame was established in
2000 and is presented
to individuals who have
provided a lifetime of
exceptional devotion to
the industry, as well as to
the ALA. The selection
criteria is based on their
magnitude of success in
the lighting industry, the
number of years of service, their impact of their contributions
to the industry and to the association,
and the level of peer respect.
The Pillar of the
Industry awards recognize ALA members
(manufacturers’ representative, showroom
and/or manufacturer)
for their unique and
meaningful service to
advance the lighting
industry and the ALA’s
programs and mission
during the previous 18
months. Award recipients, nominated by ALA
members and staff, are
selected by the ALA
Awards Committee.
John McKiernan
Hall of Fame inductee McKiernan joined
Lutron in 1973 as assistant to the president. He
was promoted to vice
president in 1974 and
to his current position
in 1990. He also serves
as a director of Lutron’s
overseas companies.
Before joining Lutron,
McKiernan was vice president of mar-
keting for Triangle Industries.
Three Actions Members can Take to
Move Internet Sales Tax Bill
Because of a decades-old loophole that pre-dates the Internet, online-only companies can achieve as much
as a 10-percent price advantage over
brick-and-mortar retailers by not collecting state sales tax. This special treatment has the effect of the government
picking winners and losers in the marketplace, and local businesses simply
cannot compete over the long term with
online giants that have a competitive
advantage based on government policy.
Unless the system is corrected, local
retailers – big and small – will increasingly be forced to close their doors,
taking with them the millions of retail
jobs they provide, as these businesses
are punished by the government for
following the law, while their online
competitors are exempt. This loophole
is costing jobs on Main Street while
shortchanging state budgets by an estimated $23 billion in uncollected sales
Showrooms
use BiNational
Program’s Free PR
Stories to Boost
Google Rankings
Have you ever “Googled” or looked up lighting phrases on a search
engine only to be disappointed that
your showroom is so far down the
list? Maybe your website is lacking
pertinent content that will set your
store apart from the others. But getting
content can be expensive to develop,
running as high as $1,500 a story.
Not anymore.
The ALA BiNational Advertising
and PR Program can resolve that issue quite easily. The program has an
inventory of feature stories on lighting,
ceiling fans and dimming controls for
showrooms to place on their websites,
which, in turn, will boost a showroom’s
search engine ranking. Called SEO
or search engine optimization, this is
the game that every company plays
by doing the multitude of things that
will move them towards the top of the
Google food chain.
“Showrooms that take our material
and drop it on their websites see a large
improvement in their search rankings.
And we do the hard part for them.,”
says Larry Lauck, vice president, com-munucations for ALA.
The next step is simply for the showroom’s webmaster to add them to the
website.
Jason Petersen, President/CEO of
Hansen Lighting in Provo, Utah has
seen it firsthand. “Tapping into the
content provided by the ALA is one of
the smartest things that members can
do, says Petersen. “ We’ve used some of
that content on our site as a part of our
web optimization strategy, and now we
rank number one for a lot of different
products and product types in most of
the major search engines. The value is
tremendous!”
Petersen, who also is chair of
the ALA Electronic Technology
Continued on Page 9
Continued on Page 15
Continued on Page 13
Turner
Lofing-Rossotti
Shiller
Gatto
McKiernan
ALL STAR CONFERENCE
PAGE 7