To preview the event, Annet van Egmond was invited for a presentation at het Hoofdkantoor, a popular design boutique in Bussum, where she told the story to an audience of influential female professionals and enthusiasts in sustainable design products, the journey of how she overcame obstacles in the manufacturing, engineering and product design process to bring her new Miss Nightingale lamps to the world.

A special highlight of the occasion was the first Women in Tech Conference at the Hi-tech University of Eindhoven, with an impressive attendance of 300 Women that included inspiring presentations by speakers who joined the VIP dinner where the discussion continued regarding the Miss Solar Light campaign, in co-operation with WWF, to use sales of the Miss Nightingale Lamp to fund Nature conservation at the Southern African Wildlife College as one of their Ambassadors.

From the start of her career, Annet van Egmond is stimulating Dutch Design and exploring new horizons, representing a diverse portfolio of collaborations with talented Dutch designers.

Since the 80s, she enlightened design trends with an organic style of welding metal sculptures in the garage of her parents where she, later together with her former partner, established “Brand van Egmond”, a global leader in the Design and Lighting industry.

In 2014, Annet van Egmond decided to influence her conscious way of approaching design into the light industry by turning to a free and accessible source of energy,… the Sun,…and an innovative ecological way to engineering solutions in the design process that are less harmful to Nature and our Planet.

Inspired by her passion for Wildlife and Nature, she created a new venture called Miss Solar Light© with Design, Nature, Sustainability and the empowerment of Women at the heart of her new brand and introduced an eco-friendly solar light succinctly entitled… Miss Nightingale©

For the occasion of the Dutch Design Week, Annet wants to share the story of her journey in which she transitioned from working on one-off highly customized Art lighting sculptures to Hi-Tech sustainable volume lighting lamps.

Saturday March 24th was this year’s timing for the annual Earth Hour event. Earth Hour is an initiative of the World Wildlife Fund for Nature WWF to draw attention to the threats our Planet Earth is faced with. Every year lights at monumental buildings globally are switched off for one hour. The iconic Erasmus Bridge in Rotterdam was the 2018 location in The Netherlands with the Dutch national Broadcaster NOS covering the event live. The former Dutch astronaut, André Kuipers, ambassador of WWF pressed the red bottom and then the lights were switched off and the bridge turned dark.

Especially for the occasion and to support and enhance WWF’s message, Light Designer Annet van Egmond introduced a brand new product to the market. The “Miss Nightingale”, referring to the well-known nurse with her burning candle, is iconic like the Erasmus Bridge. During day time the product uses the eternal source of energy, the Sun, to charge its battery. The battery feeds the very energy efficient LED lamp when it is dark. The product itself is made out of recycled plastic. With this product Annet combines her specific skills for design with her passion for Nature.