NAHB National Green Building Conference Attendance Exceeds Expectations
More than 1,200 builders, remodelers, designers and other industry professionals attended the National Association of Home Builders’ National Green Building Conference in Dallas – the second-largest attendance yet and another sign that the industry is preparing to get back to work after the deepest recession in decades.
“The surprisingly strong attendance figures are a very encouraging sign that builders see the bottom of the downturn, and a clear indication that our industry will be greener than ever as it comes back to thrive,” said NAHB Chairman Joe Robson, a builder and developer in Tulsa, Okla.
Held May 8-10, the 11th annual conference included more than 30 educational seminars, including keynote presentations that featured luminaries like financier T. Boone Pickens, green business expert Joel Makower and architect Michelle Kaufmann. The exhibition included product displays from 95 manufacturers and service providers.
Top attractions of the conference included the annual Tour of Green Homes; the NAHB National Green Building Awards honoring the best in green home design and advocacy; and a reception to celebrate recent Certified Green Professional (CGP) designees, which now number more than 3,000. All three special events were sold out, attracting record attendance.
Among the most popular sessions this year: “From the Basement to the Attic: A Deep Energy Retrofit,” presented by green building science expert Peter Yost; “Valuing Green Homes,” a session designed to help real estate brokers better recognize sustainable design features; and “The High-Performance Energy Remodel,” focusing on ways to improve the energy efficiency of existing homes.
Designer Randy Lanou of Studio B Architecture and Build Sense, an architecture and general contracting company in Durham, N.C., noted the appeal of the conference to mainstream professionals. The conference no longer attracts only the “hard-core green builder,” Lanou said. The networking, education and exhibit opportunities cast a wider net this year. “They’re all coming into the fold.”
Frank Sillik, owner of Speed Rod LLC, a Tucson, Ariz.-based company that makes equipment to support the installation of batt insulation, said his booth’s visitors ran the gamut from corporate builders to small, family-owned companies. “They were looking for products that they can put to use right away. They’re looking for good solutions, so they can get to work,” Sillik said.
The 12th annual NAHB National Green Building Conference will take place May 16-18, 2010 at the Raleigh, N.C., Convention Center.
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