ICEL Emergency Lighting Conference 2026 Preview & Why Compliance on Paper Isn’t Keeping Buildings Safe
There is a moment early in every lighting designer’s career when the theoretical bubble pops and reality comes crashing in. For me, it was being chased around by a fire officer while designing a scheme for a major brewery. When I tried to push back on a detail, he stopped, looked me dead in the eye, and said: “People die in places like this.” That was all that needed to be said. Emergency lighting is the one corner of our industry where numbers are absolute, life safety is on the line, and yet the gap between what is drawn on paper and what happens on site remains stubbornly wide.
With just a month to go before the annual ICEL Emergency Lighting Conference lands at the Cavendish Conference Centre in London on Thursday 10th September 2026, Chris Fordham and I sat down with our good friend Dan Griffiths, Technical Operations Manager at the Lighting Industry Association (LIA). What followed was an honest, wide-ranging discussion on why the industry needs to move beyond rigid binary box-ticking and start talking about practical, real-world safety. From the headaches of the Building Safety Act and 5-year verifications to spacing tables, maintenance substitutions, and the sobering lessons from Grenfell, this is an essential conversation for anyone who specifies, designs, or maintains emergency lighting. So then, lighters all . . . are we actually keeping people safe, or are we just marking our own homework??
Podcast: The Strike a Light Podcast
Produced by: Duncan Smith for The Light Review
Hosts: John Bullock & Chris Fordham
Guest: Dan Griffiths (Technical Operations Manager, The LIA)
Episode: 12 (Bonus Episode)
Episode Introduction: “We’re here because it’s a month today before we hit the ICEL 2026 conference and we will all be talking about emergency lighting. It’s keeping people safe. It’s not about design standards, it’s not about signing schemes off. It’s about: is it safe?”
Episode Summary
When emergency lighting fails, the consequences are catastrophic. Yet across the construction and lighting sectors, designers, contractors, and facility managers frequently find themselves wrestling with conflicting standards, missing site data, and an overly binary compliance culture. In this special bonus episode of the Strike a Light Podcast, John Bullock and Chris Fordham welcome Dan Griffiths from the Lighting Industry Association (LIA) to unpack the complex realities of emergency lighting today.
The conversation previews the upcoming ICEL Emergency Lighting Conference 2026 (taking place on 10 September 2026 at London’s Cavendish Conference Centre) and dives deep into practical application. Dan explains why this year’s conference pivots toward pragmatic “how-to” guidance, addressing the friction between architectural aesthetics, engineering standards, and on-the-ground maintenance realities.
Together, the panel explores why compliance on paper does not always equal safety in practice. They examine the growing impact of the Building Safety Act, the daunting practicalities of 5-year photometric verification under BS 5266, the risks of like-for-like maintenance substitutions, and why the entire supply chain must embrace common-sense safety over superficial box-ticking.
Key Takeaways You’ll Hear in This Episode:
- Previewing the ICEL Conference 2026: Why the fourth annual conference is shifting focus toward practical application, fire risk assessment perspectives, and real-world problem solving rather than purely reciting standard clauses.
- The Binary Compliance Trap: Why emergency lighting is the most mathematically rigid discipline in lighting design, yet the one that demands the greatest degree of practical common sense when dealing with real buildings and historic fabric.
- The Maintenance and Substitution Dilemma: What happens when a luminaire fails six years after installation, company A no longer exists, and a facility manager must find a suitable replacement without re-engineering the entire building.
- BS 5266 Five-Year Verification Challenges: The practical hurdles of blacking out working commercial buildings to perform lux-level verifications and how spacing tables offer a sensible path forward.
- A Sobering Reality Check: Reflecting on firefighter Rick Nuttall’s testimony from Grenfell, reminding everyone across the industry of the human cost when emergency lighting and escape route signage fail under stress.
The Bottom Line
Emergency lighting is not an exercise in bureaucratic sign-off; it is a life-safety critical system. As the industry adapts to higher levels of accountability under the Building Safety Act, the need for open dialogue between designers, manufacturers, regulators, and building operators has never been more urgent.
Join the conversation in person at the ICEL Emergency Lighting Conference 2026 on Thursday 10 September 2026 at the Cavendish Conference Centre, London W1. Visit The LIA Event Page to register your interest.
🎧 Listen to the full episode above to hear the complete discussion, industry war stories, and an inside look at the future of emergency lighting!
💬 Have your say! What are your biggest challenges with emergency lighting design, 5-year verification, or maintenance substitutions? Use the comment form below the shownotes to share your thoughts and experiences.
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