Shining a Light on Mentorship At LiGHT 24, the Silhouette Awards hosted an evening of entertaining discussions and networking opportunities, showcasing the benefits of the programme, and the importance of mentorship. SILHOUETTE AWARDS
The Silhouette Awards team hosted an engaging experience at this year’s LiGHT 24 exhibition, which boasted more than 5,500 visitors across two days. The in-person celebration inspired keen attendees through an interactive event that celebrated the power of mentorship and the impact of the growing Silhouette Awards community. The ‘Shining a Light on Mentorship’ Silhouette Awards experience’ kicked off with an introduction to the key elements of the Silhouette Awards, hosted by representatives from the co-founding companies – Katia Kolovea of Archifos and Nikki Westwood of Parrot PR and Marketing. The introduction showcased how the awards programme empowers the next generation of lighting talent while also fostering growth and mentorship. A highlight of the experience was a mentor-mentee ‘quick-fire’ conversation showcasing the real-world benefits of this transformative global programme, from previous mentor-mentee pairing Panos Ferentinos and Tiziana Regalado, from year three of the awards. An exciting live pitch from rising stars in the programme followed, demonstrating their growth and development over the six-month mentorship journey - Frankie Boyle, winning mentee from year one, Jessica Keates and Alperen Ekici from year two, and Andra Munro from year three. The winner of the ‘live pitch challenge’ which was voted for in person by the audience straight after 112 / 113
the four presentations, saw Andra Munro who was mentored by Tejas Doshi in year three, win the best presentation award. Andra will now be receiving an additional press release interview with the Silhouette Awards team to talk about her work and future goals. The event continued with an insightful panel discussion featuring mentors from this year’s programme, who shared wisdom on leadership, how best to cultivate creativity, and how to provide meaningful career growth opportunities, moderated by Nikki Westwood. The panel included Daniel Blaker of Nulty, Eugenia Cheng, Founder & Principal at Lightorigin studio, Fabiana Nery Pardhanani of Glare, and Sacha Abizadeh of WSP. Following the talk, a curated networking session gave all LiGHT 24 attendees the chance to connect, collaborate, and celebrate with mentors, mentees, sponsors, and supporters. This successful Silhouette Awards talk was part of the new addition to this year’s LiGHT 24 event, a splinter programme to the main [d]arc thoughts talks programme in The Associations Lounge. The Silhouette Awards was also able to showcase the success of the mentorship programme as first-year winning mentee Frankie Boyle showcased her never-before-seen, exclusively created art installation ‘Intra-spectrum’ at LiGHT 24. Katia Kolovea of Archifos said: “We are so thankful to our amazing supporter, LiGHT Expo London and the