Louisville Manufactured Housing Show : Days 2 and 3

Posted January 28, 2013

After a tremendously successful first day, we had a pretty good idea of what to expect heading into the remainder of the Louisville Manufactured Housing Convention.

Not having to expend any extra time setting up the booth, we were able to hit the ground running Thursday morning and people were immediately lining up to share their thoughts with us and learn more about ManufacturedHomes.com .

After Wednesday’s instructive lessons on interacting with the industry insiders who will eventually be utilizing our tool set, our CTO and lead designer, Russell, was well equipped with yesterday’s insights and fully prepared to take on any and all questions to get the discussion rolling on how to make ManufacturedHomes.com the definitive tool the industry has truly been waiting for.

Knowing that Russ had the booth on lockdown, we were able to devote a large part of Thursday to recording footage of the homes on display. What initially started as a mission to gather B-Roll quickly turned into an opportunity to talk to individual Manufacturers about their products. While the reactions were varied (some folks are just plain camera shy) most of the Manufacturers we talked to were more than happy to introduce themselves, their company and their product – in most cases this took the form of a brief walkthrough of one of their manufactured homes and a quick discussion of that particular model’s highlight features.

Many times the figure heads we wanted to interview would kindly request a few moments to gather their thoughts on what they wanted to say, the features of the home they wanted to address and answers to potential questions they might be asked. We understood this of course and were happy to oblige. While we waited for our manufacturers to get their thoughts in order, we did a quick sweep of the convention floor and supplemented our Manufacture/Dealer interviews with snippets from other industry insiders, ranging anywhere from skirting distributors to interior designers, from manufactured home transportation companies to storm shelter providers. Some were shy, most were excited but all appreciated our efforts to promote the industry as a whole.

It’s great to be able to dial down on such an individual, personal level with the people that make up the industry. Let’s not forget that the Manufactured Housing community consists not only of manufacturers and dealers, but also largely of those providing services that relate in any way to housing in general – flooring, siting, water systems, transportation, financing – you name it, they were there!

After a solid day of filming and interacting with the other attendees, we were ready to head back to the hotel for some Louisville BBQ and much needed R&R.

The last day of the convention was only a few hours long, and served primarily as a time to briefly reconnect with all those we’d been interviewing, get some last minute footage and to mainly just say our farewells. We spent a few minutes breaking down our booth and headed out, gear in stow, into the brisk air and gentle snow waiting for us outside the convention center.

After a hearty meal at the local Cracker Barrel the ManufacturedHomes.com team reconvened at the hotel, packed our bags and set off to the airport for the long flight back home to warm, sunny California.

(as it turned out, it rained the whole time we were gone!)

Thank you Kentucky!

This has been a great learning experience for us and a wonderful opportunity to connect with the rest of the industry.

Thanks to all you folks willing to spend a few moments of your time with us!

Rich Rice from Adventure Homes

Lee Peterman from Norris Homes

David Salamen from Alliance Credit (Congrats on the iPad!)

Dennis Duling from Legiance Investments

Scott Oliver from Oliver Technologies

Jason Mickley from Hart Housing

Alan Neely from Giles Industries

Mike Sauceman from N Tech Industries