Inman

Home builder show kicks off in Orlando

The annual International Builders’ Show, sponsored by the National Association of Home Builders, kicked off Thursday in Orlando, Fla. The show continues through Sunday, Jan. 16.

More than 100,000 building industry professionals and 1,600 suppliers are expected at this year’s show.

Highlights of the event include the Super Sales Rally and Sales Management Summit, which takes place today, and the 2005 Meet the Experts Symposium slated for today and Saturday. The tecHOMExpo, in its fifth year, also will be a large attraction for attendees. The tecHOMExpo offers builders ideas, new products, and hands-on demos for the technology they need to build new homes.

Several seminars are offered as part of the tecHOMExpo, including a builder technology forum to increase efficiency with estimating and scheduling software; “Wired for Sound,” which educates on various home wiring issues and techniques; a session on 3D rendering; how to profit from your Web site investment; what builders need to know about sales and warranty service; and much more.

Ross Perot Jr., president and CEO of Perot Systems Corp., will deliver a keynote address this morning. Football legend Terry Bradshaw, who led the Pittsburgh Steelers to four Super Bowl victories, also delivered a keynote address at the show’s opening ceremony Thursday.

The conference features the fifth annual Innovative Housing Technology Awards, as well as educational seminars, a bookstore and the largest home tradeshow in the nation, spanning more than 1.5 million square feet of trade floor space. On display will be the most cutting-edge designs, technologies, products and services available to the home building community in the new year.

The show is the housing industry’s largest new-product showcase, with suppliers spanning more than 300 categories ranging across every niche of the residential and light commercial construction fields.

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