That's not to say that if a company isn't there that you should assume there's an issue. There are plenty of great companies that are simply looking at where the bodies have to be, and when, and not able to fit it in all into the schedule. "Attend the board meeting or go to the Summit... hmmm. I'll just blow off my investors, they'll understand," says the CEO (not). There are also more than a few startups that simply have $XXX per month to travel on, and those sales calls are already scheduled. Hey, we all have budgets, and the discipline to live with them is one key to success. There are also the ones who haven't heard about it (consciously). We have more than one industry friend who are avid readers, must have the banners in their faces at least weekly, and that reply with, "Oh shoot... I didn't notice the dates. Is that coming up in just a few weeks?" The sign-up typically follows the next day or two, as soon as they have the flights.

There will also be plenty of attending manufacturers that are bringing quality to the market, but didn't choose to be in the sponsor's showcase or didn't get in early enough to have a talk. Lack of product on display is not a measure of whether they have a worthwhile product or not. Those are decisions to be made about promotion and exposure. We all have our opinions on where and how it's best to invest, and we'd all do things differently with an unlimited budget, but no one in their right mind would ever give marketing an unlimited budget. (Insert your favorite political diatribe on government spending programs here for illustration...)

The companies that we find interesting are those big talkers that stormed Lightfair with their "wide range of products" and "great performance", who are suddenly confronted with the possibility of facing actual high-level customers. "We're not quite ready to be there yet." Interesting. If they could get through to the decision makers at all, they'd be qualifying with just the right words such as, "Looks good for availability this fall," when it could be rightly restated as, "If everything went smoother than ever has happened, we can make one available to the labs for testing to see if it comes close to matching what we put on our preliminary spec sheet." I guess that means, "Would look good for availability...". What I suspect they're hoping is that the only thing that will stick is the company name so they can get through again "when they're ready" and start things rolling for real. Good luck with that. Again, don't assume this is condemnation of anyone with a schedule slip versus expectations. If you don't plan aggressively, you won't achieve aggressively, and quite frankly, the only way you know you've gotten to the edge is to slip a bit and catch your balance. Ask anyone in motorsports. You need to go to the edge to find out where the edge is. The talent is in learning to hang on that edge without blowing out of the corner. That's why many, many entrepreneurs have a failure in their past. It's how they learned to do it right (and faster) this time.

So who will you find there? Winners. Not the only winners, but a good representation of companies that are offering competent solutions. All have made mistakes, I am sure, with some of those mistakes being visible and others having escaped the light of day. That decision making audience will also be made up of winners, whether they are designers, consultants or engineers, or personally managing a few million square feet (let's see... 2M sqft x $50/sqft rent makes a tidy little $100M business they're running with an equivalent market cap of a quarter to a half billion). Winners will also be there in lower key ways, even if their product isn't yet to the point they want to shine the kind of spotlight on it that others might. They're winners because they're working to engage with other winners.

Special thanks to our 2010 Summit NY and Series supporters, including diamond sponsors Lithonia Lighting and LEDnovation. Platinum sponsors include Wiedenbach Brown, Greenlight Initiative, Toshiba, Graftech and Array Lighting. This year's showcase participants also so far include Gold sponsors CRS, Cree, and Philips Lumileds.

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