OSHBA leaders begin planning the 2015 Building Summit at a recent meeting.
Planning for the 2015 Oklahoma Building Summit Aug. 26-27 began in earnest Thursday, with more than a dozen Oklahoma State Home Builders Association leaders looking over survey results of the 2014 summit.
A good response rate from the 400 surveys was received, with the Lean building practices (keynote) getting the most thumbs-up responses.
The business performance segment, by attorney Sean Rieger received the next best reviews for breakout sessions, followed by energy efficiency Kelly Parker with GWS and Curtis McCarty's talk on Top 10 mistakes builders make.
All supported an expanded trade show concept, which is in place for 2015 for the two-day show to be held at Cox Convention Center, with most willing to spend an overnight for the conference purposes.
Topics suggested for future consideration by participants were: Residential design, local municipal building inspector presentation, the cost of construction, state of the economy, proposed code changes and passive homes.
Improvements suggested in the summit were more networking time. Next year, that will be in the offing as the show can host as many as 100 vendors and the two-day event opens up more socialization time.
The survey summary, as provided by OSHBA executive vice president Mike Means: "We are on the right track. We will be giving more time for participants to visit with vendors and there will be more networking."
The group discussed opening up the advertising options to Wichita and Northwest Texas and expand the coverage area. Another suggestion was allowing the vendors to have mini-education' sessions at their booth location.
The evening event would be opened up for entertainment, with options for silent auction, giveaways.
"Let's make the evening a big splash. Make it fun," said Phil Rhees, incoming OSHBA president and 2015 summit chair. "This is what used to be the state convention. It's just not called that."
