How does San Diego in November sound? What if you also attended a business conference with instant return on investment? Then add face-to-face interaction with hundreds of custom builders, architects and designers looking for solutions to the same challenges you’re facing. Sounds pretty good, doesn’t it?

You’ve just read a description of the 2009 Custom Builder Symposium & Design Institute taking place Nov. 6-8 at the Hilton San Diego Bayfront in San Diego. Two major developments have enhanced the annual educational event put on by the Custom Builder Committee of the National Association of Home Builders. First, the addition of the Design Institute delivers solid design-based content. Secondly, a two-part structure has been created for education courses: Part one is a lecture-based seminar; part two is a hands-on workshop in which builders and designers will apply knowledge learned during the lecture.

“For example, a builder attending the course on business plans will attend a lecture in the morning, then in the afternoon will actually work on his business plan under the guidance of on-site experts. It’s more advanced course work than in the past,” says Brad Simons, chairman, symposium and design institute subcommittee.

Thus, the theme of this year’s event is Creating Solutions Together. Education courses are tailored to those who design and build custom homes, but anyone involved in the custom home market is invited to attend.

Solid Education

Enhancements to this year’s education courses are built on successes of prior symposiums. For example, the design-based classes were the best-attended classes last year so more design courses are offered this year. “Custom builders are all about design. They build other people’s dreams, so adding that component to the symposium is a huge plus,” Simons says. “The Design Institute event had been around for a few years and developed a good following.

Now we’re putting custom builders in the same room as architects, interior designers, land planners and developers and are creating synergies we haven’t had in the past.”

One of the course topics is green building which will include a lecture followed by a session during which attendees bring their own plan and work through rating it on the new NAHB green scale. “We want this event to be hands-on so people get something done,” Simons says.