International Builders Show

Last month as part of the International Builders Show in Las Vegas, I was able to visit the 2014 New American Home®, the 31st edition of the NAHB show home. The home is located in the exclusive foothills of Henderson’s Sky Terrace housing development. The New American Home truly represents all the best things about new homes bringing together the perfect balance of innovative design and cutting-edge technology.

Since The New American Home’s inception in 1984, each edition highlights the changing trends and environmental needs of each year’s new home buyers.This year’s New American Home is the 31st installment of the series, and serves as the perfect blueprint for builders to take away ideas for future floor plans and designs. For example, The New American Home boasts a ton of new features including two islands in the kitchen which nods to consumers’ demand for more functional spaces. Design and functionality improvements such as these are at the heart of what make each year’s New American Home the model of all model homes.

While new and exciting living features are always anticipated, The New American Home also represents some of the best things about our industry — collaboration, partnership and forward thinking. The best of the best came together to make this project happen. From the teams at NAHB and Hanley Wood who spearheaded the project to the architect, Jeff Berkus and Builder, Josh Anderson — the results were spectacular.

And of course I am so proud that BDX participated in this project by creating stills and animations for the interactive walk-through. In fact, if you weren’t able to see the show for yourself in Las Vegas, you can view some of our work as part of The New American Home Virtual Tour: http://www.newamericanhome2014.com/

We are excited to see what next year’s version of The New American Home brings, but we already know for sure it is going to be an instant classic.

 

The International Builders Show (IBS)  kicked off on Tuesday February 4th in Las Vegas.  This is always the most exciting and energetic event for the building industry and Day One of IBS did not disapoint. Whether it was the fact that the show was co-located with the Kitchen and Bath Industries show or the upswing in the market, builders, suppliers and industry VIPs are out in record numbers this year. Here are some of the highlights from BDX:

 

Our booth was hoppin’ — Come Visit Us At C2050!

This year, the BDX booth is in the Next Build section of Central Hall.  Our booth features some exciting new interactive technologies that drew in crowds of people. From Interactive Floor Plans (in HTML 5 of course!) to Kitchen Changers to our newest iPad tool for sales centers our demo stations were in constant use as we showcased these solutions for builders.

The show is always so great because not only do we get to meet new faces and make new contacts, but we get to connect with our loyal clients from across the country: Edge Homes, Payne Family Homes, Warmington, Lennar, Classic Communities, Fulton Homes, just to name a few. One of my favorite things to hear is “Hi, I’m already a BDX client — show me what’s new and cool this year!”

Showing Off NewHomeSource.com and Basic Listings

One of the highlights in our booth this year was a preview of the newly redesigned new home search experience on NewHomeSource.com. Visitors to the booth got an advanced look at the new site which will be debuting to the public in the next couple of weeks. We are also introducing free basic listings at the show. For the first time, builders can get list their homes for Free on NewHomeSource.com and MoveNewHomes.com. These basic listings do not include lead generation or click through capabilities, but are a great way for a builder to have a presence on the country’s leading new home websites. Not at the show but interested in a Free Basic Listing? Visit www.thebdx.com/free to sign up today — the process is simple.

“Start Fresh. Buy New.” Campaign Wins Nationals Award!

The BDX team finished the day off at the Nationals Awards where our Start Fresh Buy New initiative won a Gold Award for best marketing promotion/campaign by a supplier/associate. As BDX’s Melissa Morman said during her acceptance speach, the recognition of this campaign really is a win for the entire building industry.

We were so proud to see our very own Tammie Smoot on stage in her role as Chair for the National Sales & Marketing Council. It was also a fun night to see so many BDX builders, partners and friends nominated for awards. Congrats to all of last night’s presenters, nominees and winners!

AND THAT WAS JUST DAY ONE — we can’t wait to see what the rest of the show holds!