This is my second year attending Design and Construction Week (DCW), the annual design-build extravaganza, which was held this year from January 31 to February 2, 2023. More than 200,000 housing and design professionals descended upon DCW, the co-location of the Kitchen + Bath Industry Show (KBIS) put on by the National Kitchen + Bath Association (NKBA) and the International Builders’ Show (IBS) hosted by the National Association of Homebuilders (NAHB).
To add yet more letters to the acronym soup, this year featured three additional ‘co-dated’ industry shows: the National Hardware Show (NHS), The International Surfaces Event (TISE), and the Las Vegas Winter Market. Keeping track of all these monikers is difficult, but in short, the KBIS side of the show features kitchen and bath-related products from countertops to sinks to high-tech appliances, while the IBS portion focuses on more traditional building products outside the kitchen and bath.
This year’s show boasted the highest attendance in the history of DCW with more than 40,000 KBIS and 70,000 IBS attendees. There were 1,800+ exhibitors showcasing the latest housing products across 1 million net square feet of exhibit space at the Las Vegas Convention Center. This show is an absolute behemoth and leaves no stone unturned when it comes to design, building, architecture, and beyond.
With the Home Technology Association (HTA) having already forged strong relationships with both NAHB and the NKBA, I felt optimistic going into the show, acting as sort of a home technology ambassador representing the home technology integrator trade and the Home Technology Association. The alignment between HTA and both NAHB and NKBA is strong, generating more opportunity across all channels for more successful technology-integraded-home outcomes. My dance card was filled up with appointments with other home technology companies, many of them HTA Supporting Brands and a handful of HTA Certified integrators, plus participation in several educational sessions and panels.
At the Home Technology Association, it has been our mission to spread the word to the design-build trades about the need for qualified home technology professionals to be brought on early to projects, and this year’s mission was no different. All of my educational sessions centered around this concept.
Beating the Drum for HTA Initiatives
However, my first session—part of the Voices from the Industry Conference and entitled “The Technology Integrator - a Key Team Member for Designers”—proved to be a bit of an eye opener. Even after I presented the slides explaining who home technology integrators are and what they do, I was peppered with questions that surprised me, such as “So a home technology professional is someone that works for an electrician or a plumber, for example?” I was slightly disheartened to learn that some attendees actually had no idea that a home technology integrator is a distinct profession and part of the larger smart home industry. The good news, though, is that the attendees now all know who integrators are and why they need to get them involved on their projects at the earliest stage possible.
On day two of the show, I conducted the session “Two-Story Talk: Builder Essentials for Home Tech Planning & Products,” in which I moderated a conversation between Dan Ross, Managing Partner of Responsive Living (formerly with Savant), and Kris Barber, Director of Construction at Blue Heron Custom Homes, which incidentally is the builder of the Savant Vegas Modern Home (more on this smart home technological wonder later). The conversation (pictured above) centered around the fact that buyers increasingly demand more tech in their homes, but builders are struggling to find the sweet spot when it comes to their role in educating, selling, and delivering it.
The session examined both sides of the home tech coin—how to plan for its inclusion and what products are most in demand—so that builders could learn exactly when to be involved, how to bring up the home technology subject with their clients, and how to minimize headaches for their businesses while maximizing client satisfaction. Then, we turned our attention to the technologies themselves with a room-by-room home walk-through highlighting the various products/systems available and which are most in demand. I was pleased that the questions were more reflective of a savvy audience that understands what we do as an industry, if not necessarily the timelines involved in bringing a home technology firm into the process of building a high-tech home early. Well, now they know!
“This year’s show seemed to dwarf years past. It was massive, and overwhelming at times. Home Tech was represented well, and the Two-Story talk that I was able to participate in with Josh was received well by other builders. Tech was always an afterthought, and now more builders are recognizing it as a necessity and quite often another utility that needs to be pre-planned,” said Barber. If you are registered as an IBS attendee, you can watch the talk here.
My last session “How Custom Builders Can Meet Their Clients’ Technology Needs” was focused on how, despite the fact that homeowners increasingly want more technology for safety, convenience, and entertainment in their custom homes, managing the home’s technology systems is a challenge for custom builders as technology usually impacts other subcontractors. I helped guide attendees toward finding the right home technology installer, budgeting, and beyond.
In addition to all these insightful sessions, I also took the opportunity to beat the drum for our two new Partner programs at HTA. The HTA Design Partner program is a professional designation that identifies design-centric HTA Certified home technology integrators as a service to architects, interior designers, builders, and end users. Likewise, home design and build professionals that proactively plan for their clients' technology needs are designated by the Home Technology Association as an HTA Technology Partner. These new initiatives continue to help close the gap between industries.
Making Connections
At DCW, I also took the time to connect and support Home Technology Association Supporting Brands that exhibited at IBS 2023, including Ring, Sonos, and Savant. Many HTA Certified integration firms were also present on the show floor, including Integration Controls’ Jamie Briesemeister, who gave a great presentation at the KBIS NEXT Stage panel called “Designing for Short-Term Rentals.”
Ryan Lipkovicius of HTA Certified Audio Impact and Kevin Huisman of Grand Home Automation were both walking the show. They told me the main reason for being there was to understand what architects and interior designers are seeing and discover what the design-build industry looks like through their eyes. They were also curious to see how many manufacturers from the home electronics industry were exhibiting at the show.
The presence of some home technology manufacturers and integrators at this show means a lot and is a sign that the inroads we have made into the building industry are starting to come to fruition. But we still have work to do!
Angie Larsen, Savant, said that overall she was incredibly impressed with the traffic in the home technology pavilion at IBS. “Our team was slammed and not just with builders and specifiers passing through, but with builders and specifiers who were eager to spend time learning about the value of smart home and smart power solutions. Each conversation we had was a quality conversation that always ended with ‘Can you help me get started?’” she commented. “Our industry has been successful in educating building professionals on the value of having both a smart home plan and smart power plan for the home, now all that is left is to ‘get started’ working together to execute.”
Findings on the Show Floor
I hope many more home technology manufacturers exhibit at DCW in 2024. Some of the more DIY brands were there, enticing builders and designers with their very basic solutions. Interior designers, builders, and architects need to see the better and more luxury-centric products our channel is known for.
The HTA Sponsoring Brands, as I mentioned earlier, did a good job representing. There were also many companies from the design-build side who are incorporating technology into their offerings. Sapienstone, for example, had a very cool kitchen counter with a motorized hidden cabinet that popped out by touching a very discrete “button” on the counter. The button is technically invisible, they put stickers on the counter so you knew where to touch. Claudio Bizzaglia of Sapienstone demoed their latest countertop offering, shown here.
Kohler also showed a really interesting faucet called the Purist Suspend. It’s a truly innovative faucet design that provides unprecedented reach and uses a Bluetooth-controlled wireless control puck for a clean, clutter-free countertop.
One key takeaway that I got in my discussions with NKBA members is that they all understand that technology is on the increase in their clients’ everyday lives. They also see technology as coming into more “smart” appliances they are putting into their designs. The bathroom has evolved into a getaway spa space in the house with homeowners putting kitchenettes in the bathroom, complete with mini fridges! Connectivity options abound in the kitchen and bath.
Again, I was a bit shocked when I talked to people who were not even aware of what the home technology integrator does in the smart home category. The good news is, designers and builders are seeing technology come into their world, and they want to know how to get it designed and installed, and how to take advantage of connected products from the likes of Samsung, Kohler, and LG. Where the HTA Certified integrator comes in is that the people who install these types of traditionally designer or builder-specified products do not typically even connect these appliances to the client’s network. If a product is connected to WiFi, it’s an opportunity for the home technology integrator because home networking is usually the integrator’s purview.
Savant Home Vegas Modern Tour
One of the highlights of DCW 2023 was my tour of the Savant Home Vegas Modern Showhouse courtesy of NKBA Manhattan's Sponsorship Chair Toni Sabatino of Toni Sabatino Style. Toni did an interview with me during this offsite excursion, in which we chatted about how design and technology combine for the best user experience. The interview covers everything from blending technology and design, designing for life, matching integrators with designers, and more—all against the stunning backdrop of this truly incredible 15,000-square-foot smart home. Watch the interview here.
It was wonderful to get to see designers’ reaction to the home known as “Vegas Modern 001”. All of the technology was very cleverly integrated into the home’s design, which made them realize how important pre-planning for technology really is. That aha moment is the entire reason I was at the show, so it was gratifying to see. The tour guides did a great job reinforcing this position, and everyone seemed to really get it by the end of the night.
Even after that light bulb goes off, it’s our job to continue to tell the story of why getting an integrator involved early benefits everyone—from design and engineering documents to reducing expensive change orders and project delays that come from delaying the technology conversation. If the design-build community can get in front of this conversation, they will be the hero in their customers’ eyes! The HTA is leading the charge in this with the creation of the HTA Technology Partner program for architects, interior designers, and builders.
Stay tuned here for more on the intersection of technology and design.
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