For a period of time, the primary showcase for the world's most advanced network based applications were the biannual iGRID conferences, which demonstrated the power and potential of the "International Grid." Many innovative, next generation applications were demonstrated at the iGrid international applications and technology showcases. These iGRID demonstrations were organized by the Electronic Visualization Lab at the University of Illinois at Chicago along with other organizational partners, including the StarLight Consortium, which also staged demonstrations during the conferences. The goal of iGRID events was showcase the evolution and importance of global research community networking, especially by demonstrating applications being prototyped on the Global Grid. iGrid highlighted achievements in Grid architecture development and the advancements enabled in science, engineering, cultural heritage, distance education, media communications, and art and architecture. These demonstrations also showcased the potential for the "Global Lambda Grid," distributed infrastructure based on dynamic lightpath provisioning.