UNESCO has declared 2015 the International Year of Light and Light-based Technologies (IYL2015) and many events are planned. In this video, the European Photonics Industry Consortium (EPIC) has made an early and engaging contribution to the cause of educating and inspiring people not familiar with light-based technologies:
Also, as a warmup to IYL2015, October 21, 2014 has been declared the Day of Photonics, recognizing October 21, 1983, when the General Conference of Weights And Measures adopted the value of 299,792.458 km/s for the speed of light. On the anniversary, over 100 activities will be organized in more than 30 countries and encompass all kinds of demonstrations and discussions on the impact of photonics on daily life. More at: www.day-of-photonics.org.