In 2023, more than 200,000 housing and design professionals from around the world attended Design & Construction Week in Las Vegas, Nevada. Design & Construction Week is the co-location of the National Association of Home Builders’ International Builders’ Show (IBS) and the National Kitchen & Bath Association’s Kitchen & Bath Industry Show (KBIS).
This annual event is unique because of the large-scale opportunity it affords industry professionals to network, see new products and attend educational sessions, all in one place.
Design & Construction Week returns to Las Vegas this month — February 27-29. The show is the place to learn and see everything related to home construction in general, but it’s also an opportunity to research offsite construction in particular, and to see finished homes in person.
This year, five offsite-built model homes will be on display in the Pro Builder Show Village at IBS. National companies Cavco and Champion will each have two models on-site and a tiny home from Liv-Connected (highlighted in this issue) will be featured. Interspersed with these will be other vendors that stand out in the offsite construction space. And, once again, I and some of my team members from Impresa Modular will be in the heart of the Show Village promoting offsite construction.
Ongoing networking and education about offsite will happen in the Building Systems Councils Lounge in the North Hall and will feature Builder Knowledge Sessions with industry leaders, including Scott Sedam and me, and Roundtable events where you will have the opportunity to sit down in a small group forum and get your questions answered by industry leaders (while also hearing questions and insights from like-minded attendees).
Offsite is a growing topic at IBS; in fact, every year the drumbeat for this way of building grows louder. That’s no surprise.
Although labor issues, rising labor costs and supply chain issues continue to increase the pain of building homes, the industry creates more and more Band-Aid solutions in an attempt to let builders continue business as usual in the face of these challenges. It’s not working. In a quote often (mis)attributed to Albert Einstein: “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” (Einstein never actually said that, but it’s still very true.)
Offsite construction solves these challenges. Virtually everything we buy today is manufactured…except our home. It’s time to stop the insanity of putting Band-Aids on our outdated ways of construction and learn a better way to build.
The 2024 International Builders’ Show brings together the largest collection of residential construction vendors and industry-specific educational opportunities in the world. It gives builders the chance to see and learn about the many aspects of offsite construction. Visit Show Village. Ask questions. Get answers. Come and learn about offsite construction at IBS 2024!
If you liked this article, you can follow Ken Semler on LinkedIn, where he offers daily insights and commentary about offsite construction.
