The Kitchen & Bath Industry Show (KBIS) and the International Builders’ Show (IBS) were held January 9 to 11 at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando. This year’s shows brought one of the highest turnouts in recent history.
Design & Construction Week, as the combined events are known, drew more than 85,000 attendees, and 60,000 of those were registered for IBS.
“Each and every year, a tremendous amount of work goes into making IBS an extremely valuable, can’t-miss event for anyone in residential construction,” said Geoff Cassidy, NAHB senior vice president of exhibitions and meetings. “And once again, the show was an incredible success with a palpable enthusiasm reflective of the momentum in the homebuilding industry.”
This year also marked an expansion of space for IBS from 569,000 sq. ft. to 583,000 sq. ft., and more than 1,500 exhibitors were available to demonstrate and display all the latest products and technology for homebuilders, which includes the countertop industry. Increased foot traffic was widely reported by the exhibitors.
“The show is back, and we were extremely busy all week,” said Vicki Frye, director of corporate marketing for Ply Gem. “People are eager to know what’s new, so we had a lot of fun showing them a wide variety of real products for real projects, from entry-level and do-it-yourself, to higher price-point homes.”
Attendees at the shows were able to view and interact with product demos, network with peers and attend more than 140 educational classes and presentations by industry experts.
“After attending just two [education] sessions, I already found exactly what I came for,” said Walt Schumm, a custom home builder and president of C.D., LLC in Crestwood, Ky. “I’ve made several new connections with whom I think we’ll strike up business relationships. Plus, it’s really interesting to see a huge presence from Asian and European vendors on the show floor. The products they’ve got on display are just unbelievable.”
KBIS Awards and Honorees
Although no one from the countertop industry was a Best of KBIS 2018 award winner, several great products were chosen:
- Best of Kitchen: Gold – Tresco Lighting by Rev-A-Shelf
- Best of Kitchen: Silver – FlexWash + FlexDry by Samsung Electronics
- Best of Bath: Gold – Grid by Kallista
- Best of Bath: Silver – D-KAURI designed by Daniel Germani for Cosentino
- Best of Smart Home Technology – Front Load Washer with QuickDrive by Samsung Electronics
- Best in Show – Grid by Kallista
In addition to product awards, several kitchen and bath showrooms were honored, including the following:
- Independent Retail Showroom Locations (1-5 showroom locations): Small – K2 Kitchens & K2 Kitchens Design Group
- Independent Retail Showroom Locations (1-5 showroom locations): Medium – Häfele America Co.
- Independent Retail Showroom Locations (1-5 showroom locations): Large – Empire Kitchen & Bath
- Multi Location Retail Showrooms (6+ showroom locations): Medium – Miele
- Multi Location Retail Showrooms (6+ showroom locations): Large – Ferguson Bath, Kitchen & Lighting Gallery – Naples
- Overall Award Winner – Empire Kitchen & Bath
Design & Construction Week 2019 will be held in Las Vegas from February 19 to 21.