Each year the International Builder’s Show features the latest products and services for homes and the home building industry. Partnered with the National Kitchen and Bath Show, the show hosts some 80,000 professionals from around the world. The showroom floors alone cover over 550,000 square feet. Hosted by the National Association of Home Builders, it is considered the most comprehensive residential builder’s show in the U.S. In addition to the vast showrooms, it also features leading edge training and speakers from around the country. The Jenkins Team attends the Builder’s show annually to stay current on trends and products in the industry. Here are some recent shows we attended and information we found relevant.
2018 International Builders Show
In 2018 International Builders Show was held in Orlando, FL. The International Builders Show is the industry’s largest annual trade show and exhibition. It allows professionals in every aspect of the building industry from all across the US to come together. Housing professionals are able to experience some of the most cutting-edge designs, technologies, products and services in the industry. Here are just a few of the exhibits we were able to visit at the showcase. Discovering these new advances allows us to provide our clients with high quality products in every room.
To kick off the show, the opening ceremonies included incredible speakers such as Terry Bradshaw who is a four-time Superbowl Champion (Pittsburgh Steelers) and current award-winning broadcaster on FOX NFL Sunday.
We were able to explore several of the exhibits set up at the show, such as the Kohler Exhibit! This booth featured the DTV+ Shower System with KOHLER Konnect. This incredible system allows enables you to create and automate personalized showering experiences. The KOHLER Konnect app allows you to create and manage presets for sound, water, steam, and lighting to program the shower experience. You can even use voice to access those presets! It also features a wall mounted interface to adjust water temperature, and control showerheads, body sprays, music, lighting, steam, and shower duration. This also allows you to use lights for Chromotherapy!
Ever feel too tired to even get up and make your cup of coffee in the morning? Problem solved! At the Therma
dor booth, we were able to see how Alexa works with the HomeConnect coffee machine. Simply tell Alexa to, “ask HomeConnect coffee machine to make a strong, small coffee.” This also allows you to make cappuccinos or any of your favorite pick-me-up’s which means you can stay in bed a few minutes longer or have your hands free to do other things!
Curtis Stone led the show at the Bosch exhibit! The Bosch Induction Cooktop is absolutely incredible; it boils water in under 1 minute! The Induction cooktop gives such precision with temperature as opposed to the typical electric cooktop. As if it needs any more pros, the clean up for it is a breeze and it happens to be more energy efficient than an electric cooktop!
Hafele is a company out of Germany, we love their products for closet organization. You’ll have no problem finding your things in style with standard full-extension, soft close drawers and pullouts. Some of the personal touches available include jewelry and watch organizers, shoe racks, hampers and much more. Hafele also has their own Wardrobe Tubes, which reduce noise all while preventing scratching and giving lasting beauty and functionality to the space. Mounting hardware options include standard wall fittings as well as suspension fittings which make wardrobe tubes appear to float for a sleek, sophisticated look.
At the Thermodor exhibit, we were able to see their beautiful new Steam Convection Ovens. These are full size ovens including the broil option. These ovens also include a self cleaning feature, so you never have to worry about cleaning your oven again! They are also are faster than the previous models and have greater nutrient retention.
An incredible device at the Bosch exhibit is able to detect what kind of stain you have on your clothes. The Bosch Xspect identifies the type of fabric (including blended fabrics) and can immediately send washing instructions to the nearest washing machine. In the future, Bosch plans to develop this product into one that is able to scan food for ripeness or even scan a pizza and automatically preheat the oven to the correct temperature for it!
Another amazing feature to add into a home is the Samsung Family Hub fridge. This is more than just a fridge! It allows you to see into your fridge and take a picture of an item and add it to your shopping list so that you know exactly what you need when you are grocery shopping. It is also able to work with Amazon Dash and show USDA recommendations on how long each item will take to age. In addition, you can view a doorbell camera right on the screen!
One of our favorite materials to use in our homes is Dekton. This is a Consentino product and is similar to a standard countertop, but is much thinner profile, as well as harder and stronger. It is highly scratch and stain resistant. It also has a high resistance for hot and cold temperatures, meaning you can place a hot pot right on the countertop with no worry of damage. It comes in a variety of natural and solid finishes and can even be used as flooring!
Here is a video of our experience at the International Builders show in Orlando this year. We are so excited to continue bringing top of the line products and technology right into our clients’ homes.
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This year at the International Builder’s Show, we took our entire team. It was so fun to attend seminars, walk the booths, and see the sights of Las Vegas together! We truly enjoy being together and have such admiration and respect for each other. I know we all feel enthusiastic about what we learned and are excited to bring it back and apply it.
One of the more interesting booths this year was the Kohler booth, not because of the plumbing fixtures, although they were great as always. However, the real attraction for me this year was “Ed”, the guy from Extreme Home Makeovers…well, not him personally…rather, what he was showing. It was a backup whole-home generator. The best part about this generator is that they have partnered up with the company that manufactures the electrical panel to create a generator-ready electrical panel for very little additional cost. What this means for you and me is that we can build our custom home with this panel and then decide later (if and when electrical shortages occur) to add the generator. Adding a generator used to be an extremely costly proposition. This makes it possible to prepare for it but not invest in it until it’s really needed or desired.
