The International Builders’ Show 2024 in Las Vegas has finally come to a close. After several months of planning for the biggest trade show of the year, our time in Vegas this year is over. Tune in for our top highlights from the trip!

Return of the Golfers

We did go to Topgolf again this year on Wednesday evening, and I was surprised with the outcome, honestly. I had heard a couple of my colleagues talk about how exciting Topgolf was last year, but it's important to keep in mind that these particular colleagues play golf any chance they get. You can imagine that for those of us (including me) that have very little golf knowledge, the idea of showing up to a place for our colleagues to show off how much better at golf they are than us was not that enticing...

But like I said, I was surprised. Even though our reservations were late in the evening, we all ended up having a great time. The golf pros on our team didn't make any of us feel insecure with our skills, and there was really no pressure to do well in the first place. Aside from dropping my (very full) drink on the floor right by the bay, I think I avoided the first-time-golfer embarrassment.  Our waiter was so kind to bring me a refill soon after the incident, but in a kids' cup this time...

The food wasn't the best food we had this week, but it wasn't bad by any means. It's pretty much you would expect from a Topgolf-- burgers, chicken, fried food, and so on and so forth. I will say though, someone in our group ordered some kind of pork buns and that bun was one of the best things I had throughout the whole week! Like the darts night, we spent two hours at Topgolf. At Topgolf though, we felt like we could have spent more time. Regardless, it was getting late and we had one day of the trade show left the next morning.

The Jaw-Dropping Exhibit

Thursday was day three, the last day of IBS 2024, and it was slower at the show than it had been the previous two days. That was expected though, since that’s usually the case every year. Attendees make their way through the show on day one and day two, then by day three they usually just stop by wherever they didn’t have time to visit on the previous days.

Around lunchtime, I got to step away from our booth for a little bit and spend some time in the ProBuilder Show Village, which was very impressive. In the show village, I got to check out equipment vendors, a number of energy efficient system vendors, and (the most impressive part in my opinion) manufactured small homes. The homes by Genesis and Cavco were luxury, spacious, and stunning. The weather was perfect, and I made some great connections with other smaller vendors from all over the country.

I noticed that many vendors and attendees alike were from the West United States in general. We all spoke to individuals primarily from California and Washington. It's a strange feeling to go from hearing southern accents all around us, to being surprised when someone speaks with one. 

Attendees still stopped by our booth, and at one point early in the day the booth was full, but about halfway through the day it was pretty empty throughout the whole convention center. By 5:00, we were ready to wrap up and we had already started tearing down the booth. 

When in Vegas...

Last night, we revisited one of our favorite Vegas spots, which of course is Chica! We got seated in our own private room, and the night began...

Chica was a fun time. The pressure of the upcoming show was gone, and we all got the chance to let loose. After spending so much time together over the last week, we had all begun to feel more comfortable with one another. Even though we sat ourselves by people we didn't know all that well, it felt like we had known each other for years at that moment.

One of our leaders asked the question around the table "If _____ had a T-Shirt, what would it say?" Now that may not make any sense at the moment (I was thinking the same thing), but he explained it as acknowledging something that that individual did often, a quote that they said often, or just generally any recognizable features about that person.

At this point, we had all pretty much known each other well enough to come up with something, and that conversation sparked a lot of laughs. The food was immaculate, especially the street corn (even though Drew was very against trying it-- he thought street corn was just corn and mayonnaise). My New York Strip was definitely in the list of top five steaks I have ever eaten, but Gordon Ramsay's Beef Wellington from Sunday night topped Chica's by just a pinch. We got to try each of the desserts, including the cheesecake that looked like street corn and the famous flaming skull (of which I got a gorgeous video of, but stay tuned for that...)

Feeding the Beast

The best part of last night though must be the night life that we finally gave into after dinner at Chica.

Our leaders went back to the hotel, but the rest of us decided to check out the Venetian hotel's night life after dinner. We told one another that we would only stay out for an hour or so, which turned into quite a few hours. Some of us were gambling all week, but not everyone. I gambled a small amount once (and lost), but that's all. The night was still a blast, even when some of us just hung around, had a drink, and watched the others play table games. We ended up checking out Caesar's Palace and Planet Hollywood too, just before making our way back to the hotel and packing our suitcases to head out in the morning.

Last Call!

The Las Vegas Airport is chaotic-- probably the least organized and most overwhelming airport I have ever been to, but we got to the gate on time, and after going through TSA, everything ran smoothly. The flight was on time, and about three and a half hours later, we touched down back in Atlanta.

At the end of the trade show, the announcer let us know that IBS 2025 will be from February 25th through the 27th, and back in the Las Vegas convention center. We loved getting to meet so many of our clients that stopped by to speak to one of us in particular, or to check out our new features for ConstructionOnline 2024. We also loved getting to meet new people--interested in consolidating their workflow and protecting their company with ConstructionOnline. If that's you, we can't wait to touch base with you and start working with you soon. 

Thank you again for reading our UDA Technologies in IBS 2024 series, and stay tuned for more content-- we've got some exciting things in the works! If you enjoyed the series, let me know below, and leave any suggestions for next year, or anything you'd like to hear about from us in general.

Thanks for an awesome IBS 2024, and we are already so excited for IBS 2025!