2005 ILDA Career Achievement
Award recipient:
L. Michael Roberts
At the 2006 ILDA Conference in Rimini, Italy, the 2005 ILDA Career Achievement Award was presented to L. Michael Roberts. The CAA honors "exceptional individuals with a distinguished history of achievement in the laser display industry."
This page contains a biography, Michael's acceptance speech, and remarks by the three CAA judges about Michael.
L. Michael Roberts: A laser biography
L. Michael Roberts has led a distinguished dual career: one in laser shows and artwork, and the other in assisting ILDA and the laser industry.
Laser shows and artwork
Michael is a pioneer in Canadian laser shows. Inspired by a Laserium show in Toronto, in 1976 he built his own laser system and started his company, Laser F/X. Later that year, he presented the first-ever Laser Dance Party, making him the father of laser raves.
He
has also toured with Canadian rock groups such as Saga and Triumph, performed
for HRH Queen Elizabeth II, and produced lasers at the Canada Pavilion at Expo
86 in Vancouver. In 1984, he produced the first laser billboard in Canada
(pictured at right). In 1993, Michael became one of the first
creators of "laser clip art". Also in 1993, he won two ILDA artistic awards for
his laser artwork.
Assisting ILDA and the laser industry
While his laser work has been pioneering and distinguished, what most impressed ILDA’s judges was Michael’s extensive efforts to help ILDA and the laser industry.
Within
ILDA, Michael worked in many areas. In 1990, he helped organize the first
Lase-Off. He was a very active contributor to the Awards and the Terminology
Standardization committees. He pushed to make ILDA’s membership more open and
international, and personally recruited many new members.
In November 1996 he led "Team Canada" in hosting the first ILDA Conference held outside the U.S. This was also the first ILDA Conference to feature audience scanning.
Outside of ILDA, Michael was tireless in disseminating laser show related knowledge. In 1993, he produced and distributed the first non-ILDA newsletter for the laser industry, Laser Effects: The Light Show Newsletter. That same year, he began publishing his widely-used Laser Resource Directory, pulling together information that was hard to find in the pre-Internet age.
From
1996 to 2000, he ran the Laser F/X conference in Toronto. At its peak, it drew
120 attendees. At his conference, Michael introduced the "Brewster Awards", the
first to be judged solely in laser light, by laserists.
In 1996, he published the first and only book detailing how to do laser light shows. The 400-page Laser Light Show Handbook inspired many laserists (including ILDA’s Kelly Sticksel) and is in libraries at NASA, Dolby Labs, and colleges and universities.
His publications moved from print to the Internet in 1996, to his website at LaserFX.com. The site has grown to almost 1000 webpages, and is one of the Internet’s major resources teaching about laser shows. Also on the Internet, he is a regular contributor to the alt.lasers newsgroup, and for six years he ran a weekly IRC chat for laserists from around the world.
Conclusion
The laser display industry would be very different if it were not for the work of L. Michael Roberts. For his persevering work and many influences within the industry, ILDA recognizes him with the industry’s highest honor: the Career Achievement Award.
