The 2019 ILDA Conference will be in Orlando, Florida from November 8 through 10, with a group theme park visit on November 11.

The conference hotel is the Embassy Suites by Hilton — Orlando Lake Buena Vista Resort, in the north Lake Buena Vista area near Disney Springs shopping and restaurant district. We expect the rooms to be less than USD $150 per night.

Orlando area attractions of course include Walt Disney World, Universal Studios Orlando, SeaWorld and Kennedy Space Center. The new Star Wars Galaxy's Edge land at Disney's Hollywood Studios opens in August, so this will be new to most ILDA attendees. In addition, Florida has some of the best beaches in the U.S., including Daytona and Cocoa beaches, both about 1 hour away.

We do not yet have Conference or hotel registration information. The information we do have is at the 2019 Conference page. We will post here and on the page when registration opens.

The 2018 ILDA Award winners were announced at a gala presentation November 12, 2018 — the finale of the ILDA Conference in Montréal.

Congratulations to all winners, and especially to the recipient of ILDA's highest honor, Glenn Thomas, the 2018 Career Achievement Award winner. His acceptance speech and a list of all the award winners are at the 2018 Awards page.

Also, a compilation video is now at YouTube. It has short excerpts from each of the winners, giving a good overview of the best laser shows in the world. Click the image below to watch the video on this page.

The 28-minute 2018 ILDA Award winners compilation video includes work from the three top shows in each of these categories:

We also have the 2017, 2016 and 2015 ILDA Award compilation videos. Each one is about 20-25 minutes long, and has the best shows from those years.

ILDA is pleased to publish the online version of Glenn Thomas' book "The Laserium® Laserist: The Greatest Job on Earth."

The book is a fascinating look at the pioneering efforts that first brought the beauty of laser light to wide audiences.

In the early 1970's, filmmaker Ivan Dryer created the first permanent laser light show, Laserium®, at the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles. It dazzled audiences there for 28 years.

Glenn Thomas's book describes the technical and artistic efforts that go into a Laserium® show. It was a constant battle with the technical limitations of the unwieldy krypton-ion laser. And without computer assistance, almost all of the show was performed live each night by a new artist, the "laserist."

We hope ILDA Members and the general public will enjoy this account from a person who loved his work and felt, as so many of us do, that being a laserist is "the greatest job on earth."

ILDA thanks Glenn Thomas for permission to put this online, the ILDA Board for supporting Glenn and this book, and the current holder of the Laserium® trademark, Tim Zigenbein of LumaLaser Inc and Laserium.com.