Blog
Sponsored by LumaNEXT Lighting industry veteran Chris Brown coined the term Illumigeddon several years ago and met up with Get A Grip to discuss where we are headed. Ilumigeddon has turned into Illumitunity as long as you can work your…
Life is Good NOW by Bill Attardi
Maybe you heard…………..Chris Brown received the Life Time Achievement Award from EdisonReport at Lightfair this year: Chris and I agree that the best of times is right NOW! It really is the best of times for us. Good friends like…
Chris Brown: Life Time Achievement Award
Thanks you Randy Reid of EdisonReport for honoring Chris Brown for the Life Time Achievement Award at Lightfair. It was a marvelous night and we had some laughs…..a really fun night.
Tagged with: Bill Attardi, Chris Brown, EdisonReport, Life Time Achievement Award, Randy Reid
Posted in Product Showcases
Posted in Product Showcases
What Is Amazon’s Obsession with Electrical Supply? by Bridget McCrea
A look at why the e-tailing giant is actively claiming market share in the electrical distribution space with its Amazon Business division. “If distribution can’t provide significant and measurable value, it doesn’t belong in the sales equation,” wrote Chris Brown,…
CHRIS BROWN IS FREAKIN SEVENTY
70! Not just a number anymore. Not when it’s me and I’M FREAKIN SEVENTY! (To read the unexpurgated original version, find Chris Brown on Facebook). First thought……YIPPEE, I MADE IT! On second thought, How the hell did this happen?!? Thinking…
Speaking Out: 12 Tips for Reinventing Your Lighting Business by Bill Attardi
Some distributors are already out of business, they just don’t know it yet. When my good friend Chris Brown wrote his epic posts on “Illumigeddon” http://energywatchnews.com/illumigeddon-im-baaaaackby-chris-brown-illumigeddon/ he sparked quite a bit of discussion. I would like to go one step…
Verizon acquires Sensity……..Disintermediation personified? by Chris Brown
Repeating the question I asked two years ago at Strategies in Light……when technology gorillas and lighting manufacturers align, who will be driving? Here is what I wrote back in 2014, speaking about DISINTERMEDIATION: “I’m not convinced that most lighting distribution…
Rethinking Lighting by Chris Brown & Bill Attardi
The End of Lighting as we Know it or Welcome to Lighting’s Innovation Era. Digital IoT control, continuing advances in the solid-state technology and new business models for installing and selling lighting are rewriting the rules of the lighting game.…
The Great Lighting Debate of 2016
How to successfully position your Company in Today (and Tomorrow’s) Lighting Industry – IMARK Showcase 4/5/16 Presenters: Bill Attardi aka ‘Captain Sunshine’ vs. Chris Brown aka ‘Chicken Little’ A debate on the Future of the Lighting Industry (and how you…
ILLUMIGEDDON IS SO LAST MONTH BY CHRIS BROWN
Last year I introduced a new word….. Illumigeddon, referring to the end of the traditional lighting industry as we have known it. Now it’s time to introduce this year’s new word, to better reflect the state of the industry today.…
POE: POWER OVER ETHERNET OR PHILIPS OVER EVERYONE ELSE? By Chris Brown
-Or should it be BoE… “Beginning of End” for some lighting distributors. Illumigeddon got real last month with the announcement of an alliance between Philips and Cisco to promote PoE and networked lighting. I asked the question in 2014: When…
Disintermediation Strategy: A Fact of Our New Lighting Life by Chris Brown
The recent discussions regarding disintermediation should be stirring conversation on how distribution deals with a fact of our new lighting life: Some manufacturers will choose to (or feel forced to) deal directly with our end users. Disintermediation is here, and…
SOME DISTRIBUTORS ARE ALREADY OUT OF BUSINESS, THEY JUST DON’T KNOW IT YET BY CHRIS BROWN, CEO, WIEDENBACH BROWN (@illumigeddon)
For all those who saw Captain Sunshine and my pictures in NAILD magazine, alongside our recent ‘debate’, no, I wasn’t in a boot because I injured my foot kicking Bill’s butt all over the internet, just recovering from achilles surgery.…
Lighting Isn’t Just About Lighting Anymore By Chris Brown
Lighting used to be about lumens, foot candles, color temperature, CRI and, oh yes, energy efficiency. Today we talk about sensors, controls, connectivity, IoT, IoE, data mining, Smart Lighting, Intelligent Lighting, Lighting as a Service, etc. And who knows what…
Tagged with: Chris Brown, Illumigeddon, IoT, smart lighting intelligent lighting
Posted in Featured Articles
Posted in Featured Articles
EASY TO DO BUSINESS WITH… WHAT DOES IT MEAN TODAY? by Chris Brown
My previous column dealt with Amazon Business and Disintermediation as aspects of Illumigeddon. My simple suggestion for distribution response to both is to find ways to stay relevant and invaluable to both clients and vendors. Distribution must add significant, measurable,…
Solid-State Lighting: Will Distributors Survive?
Solid-state lighting has changed the lighting industry forever. NAILD’s Today’s Lighting Distributor asked industry insiders Chris Brown and Bill Attardi to discuss the possible outcome with dueling columns – (pages 6 to 11). Can they both be correct? http://www.pageturnpro.com/NAILD/66933-NAILD-TLD-Summer-2015/index.html#1
Disintermediation and Amazon Business – Two Reasons for Distributors to Lose Sleep by Chris Brown, CEO Wiedenbach-Brown
@illumigeddon Solid State Lighting brings both threats and opportunities to electrical distribution. While not responsible for disintermediation, SSL may accelerate it. We know about LED startups and brand-recognizable new entrants to the U.S. lighting market, but what about established domestic…
Tagged with: Chris Brown, disintermediation, distribution, Illumigeddon, SSL
Posted in Featured Articles
Posted in Featured Articles
IT’S DECISION TIME: ILLUMIGEDDON OR FORTUITY BY BILL ATTARDI
Maybe you noticed that Chris Brown, CEO of Wiedenbach-Brown and I are having a little debate about the future of lighting. Traditional Lighting vs. Smart Lighting; Chicken Little vs. Captain Sunshine; Illumigeddon vs. Fortuity………whatever! We see things differently yet we…
ILLUMIGEDDON OR FORTUITY
A two-hour session with Chris Brown and Bill Attardi. ILLUMIGEDDON per Chris portends the end of our grandfather’s traditional lighting business and foretells that some lighting distributors are out of business, they just don’t know it yet. Bill counters with…
ILLUMIGEDDON AND THE NEW AGE OF LIGHTING DISTRIBUTION BY CHRIS BROWN
Several years ago, I started a project to ‘connect the dots’ of the lighting industry… all the new technology, new manufacturers, new business models, new competition and the fact that solid-state lighting (SSL) is a classic disruptive technology, and also…
