Just a little heads-up that I'll be headed out to San Francisco tomorrow to attend the 2009
PCBC Show and Executive Conference. The show has been scaled back by some measure to accommodate what is no doubt going to be a smaller crowd of attendees, speakers, and exhibitors. But as many home builders have come to believe these days,
a smaller footprint may equal more value.
So, with that thought in mind, here's a sneak peek of the top three things on the program that I'll be checking out:
Given my love of all things social media, one of the educational sessions I'm going to attend is "
Building an Effective Home Builder Brand Using Social Media." The stars of this session include Jason Baer of Convince & Convert, Jonathan Bailey of Bailey Gardiner, and Lora Heramb of Brookfield Homes. I'm looking forward to this session because it promises to showcase "real life case studies of home builders and other industry social media programs." I'm hoping to see some examples of successful social media strategies from builders that I haven't covered, and I'm guessing I won't be disappointed especially since Jonathan Bailey's head of what I would consider an innovative PR firm that's carved out a decent niche in the industry, working with home builder clients as diverse as Shea Homes and the Olson Co.
As an added bonus, I'll be tracking down Mike Lyon (@mikelyon) of
DoYouConvert.com and Jim Adams (@jim_adams) of
NewHomesDirectory.com who will be streaming live video from the conference. (Exciting stuff, right?)
Another session that sparked my interest is one titled "
Solving Problems and Selling Ideas with Pictures." The speaker, Dan Roam, wrote a book called "Back of the Napkin," in which he makes the case that complex ideas can be generated and developed using simple graphic representations--we're talking stick figures and such. I'm guessing he'll be illustrating (pun totally intended) his concept by doing some graphic facilitating magic to show how business leaders can jump-start their visual imaginations to help drive business opportunities and solutions. (To get an idea of what he does, be sure to check out his video. It's a little long, but you'll get it right away.) This type of thinking--"visual thinking," if you will--is absolutely fascinating.
Big Builder has worked with a similar company called
Alphachimp Studios in the past, and the takeaways from this type of graphic brainstorming sessions are tremendous. Very cool and something I'm not missing.
My curiosity was also piqued by a session called "
Transforming Self, Transforming Home by Design Psychology." Design psychology? What does that mean? Got me hooked. So, I'll no doubt be in the first row listing to speaker Dr. Toby Israel, a pioneer in this avant garde field, talk about how environmental psychology can drive community and home design. Should be rather interesting considering these days it feels like design is being entirely driven by buyers' pocketbooks, as terms like "architectural details" and "home features" have been replaced by "value" and "cost per square foot" in the home building lexicon.
Not to worry, if these topics have perked your interest, I'll be there and will share my takeaways with you in real time. So, get ready for information overload as I send you news and information via Twitter, blogs, and news stories. And if you plan on being there in person, don't hesitate to give me a shout-out at syaussi@hanleywood.com. I'm always up for meeting for a coffee or a cocktail and some good conversation about the industry's latest news, trends, and developments.
Thanks for the shout-out Sarah! I'm excited to share in the conversation about social media at PCBC this year, and looking forward to hearing about everyone's best practices in this area. Lora, Jason and I expect there will be a lot of dialogue and questions about this area of marketing -- there is so much to learn for all of us! In the meantime, you can follow me on twitter @jonjonbailey and Jason Baer @jaybaer, and check out our agency blog at http://www.dontdrinkthekoolaidblog.com/ See you at PCBC!