Welcome to the Kleber & Associates blog! Here’s the latest on The Pacific Coast Builders Conference
PCBC | San Diego, CA
The annual Pacific Coast Builders Conference (PCBC) was held on June 5 and 6, 2013 at the San Diego Convention Center. Sponsored by the California Building Industry Association, this year’s show had record breaking attendance and sold out vendor space. Marking the first time the show was held in a city other than San Francisco, the 2013 conference proved to be a great success, taking advantage of Southern California’s thriving marketplace with exposure to new buyers, new prospects and remarkable state-wide housing industry growth.
It’s no coincidence that the housing industry’s leading builders, developers, investors, architects, contractors, marketers and product manufacturers are assembled in California, a state leading in new home starts up and down the coast. Year-over-year increases in new home starts are at 134% in Northern California, 95% in Southern California and 76% in Central California. Where better to engage industry leaders as they gather to influence, educate, network and transact business with their peers?
Exhibitor Highlights & Trends
Of the many exciting and innovative products and services exhibited at PCBC, there were a number of exhibits that stood out as noteworthy, including Walpole PVC, Masonite, Danver Outdoor Kitchens, Feeney Inc. CableRail, Earthcore / Isokern and ClimateMaster. Let’s talk about a few of these:
Walpole Outdoors PVC Pergolas
The PVC pergola exhibit by Walpole Outdoors demonstrated how to use an attractive and charming PVC pergola to create a stylish, sophisticated extension to any home. Walpole Outdoors offers handcrafted cellular PVC pergola kit options that contractors will find easy to install. In addition, Walpole works with designers and contractors to construct customized pergolas for special installations. Walpole Outdoors’ cellular PVC pergolas have a natural appearance imitating painted wood; however, they will never peel, rot, or split; in fact, they’ll maintain a beautiful appearance season after season.
Masonite Doors
The Lemieux Torrefied Collection of doors by Masonite was on display at this year’s convention. Torrefaction is an all-natural green process where wood is heated over time to eliminate its tendency to rot, and increase its resistance to heat, cold and moisture. The Lemieux Torrefied Collection by Masonite is offered in a vast array of design options, and available in four new exterior wood door species– select grade Douglas Fir, Brazilian Mahogany, Appalachian Poplar and Aspen.
Earthcore/Isokern
Earthcore Industries/Isokern manufactures and distributes innovative fireplace and chimney systems including attractive modular masonry hearth systems available with a variety of finish materials including natural stone, brick, stucco, veneers and cultured stone. They also offer unique modular wood burning stoves that can be used outdoors.
ClimateMaster
As the world’s largest manufacturer of American-made residential geothermal heating and cooling systems, ClimateMaster, Inc. offers energy efficient HVAC technologies and products that create real value for homeowners, including geothermal heating systems that last much longer than conventional heating systems.
Keynote Speakers
The annual Pacific Coast Builders Conference is renowned as a unique source of inspiration and innovation for housing industry leaders. “You can find larger housing industry events. But you will not find any higher caliber events, drawing more influential builders, creating richer intersections of capital—human, intellectual and financial—anywhere in North America,” says pcbc.com.
Central to that reputation for excellence are the inspiring messages delivered annually by the keynote addresses. The PCBC 2013 keynote speakers offered two perspectives on how the housing industry does business, first from Richard Florida, senior editor at The Atlantic and editor-at-large for Atlantic Cities, and second, from bestselling author Daniel Pink.
Florida believes the young urban “creative class” will help to invigorate cities, saying, “Just as the American Dream of owning a home shaped and directed the aspirations of past generations, today’s ‘back to the city’ movement both reflects and is giving rise to a new set of values and creating a whole new way of life and housing needs.”
Pink is the author of five bestsellers including a recent book on the art and science of sales. He appealed to housing industry leaders to rethink how they approach sales — promoting the new A, B, C’s of selling, “A-Attunement (taking another perspective); B-Buoyancy (staying afloat in an ocean of rejection); and C-Clarity (Identifying hidden problems and making sense of murky situations).”
Pink maintains that the information technology age has revolutionized housing industry sales, as buyers now have as much information as sellers. The vital housing information sellers previously offered as a drawing card, is now easily acquired as available public information. What new commodity/strategy will sellers use to attract and engage buyers? The ABC’s of sales.
PCBC 2014 is scheduled for June 25-26 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, CA.PCBC exists to help builders, developers, manufacturers and associated professionals “…advance the Art, Science + Business of Housing.” And, that’s what happened!
