What We Heard at IBS 2026: More Capability. Fewer Systems.

The 2026 International Builders’ Show filled the Orange County Convention Center with movement, sound, and constant activity.

Booths stretched in every direction — construction software platforms, financial services, full-scale product installations, lighting displays, live demonstrations, even fully built-out fireplaces flickering inside elaborate exhibits. Music carried across the hall. Presentations drew tight crowds. Somewhere nearby, fresh cookies were baking, the smell drifting through the aisles where teams, families, and the occasional dog made their way through the crowd. A steady hum of conversation underneath all of it. 

It was impossible not to feel the scale of it. Nearly 75,000 attendees. More than 1,600 exhibitors. Thousands of conversations happening at once.

And yet, amid the spectacle, one theme surfaced again and again in conversations at our booth:

Builders aren’t looking for more software. They’re looking for fewer systems.

When More Tools Create More Problems

Over three days at Booth S4023, we spoke with custom home builders, remodelers, general contractors, specialty trades, and developers expanding into new markets. Their businesses varied in size and focus. But many described the same operational reality. 

Over the years, they assembled the tools they needed at the time: one solution for estimating, another for scheduling, accounting in QuickBooks, a project management layer on top, separate file storage, siloed communication happening wherever the conversation started. Each addition made sense in isolation.

Collectively, though, they’re finding that those systems aren’t working together. Information lives in multiple places. Teams enter the same data more than once. Leadership pulls reports from different platforms just to piece together a reliable picture of where things stand. They're at a crossroads of inefficiency and ambiguity, and many teams are starting to see that it's time for a change.

The challenge isn’t a lack of technology — if anything, there is more software available to builders than ever before.  But more tools hasn't meant more clarity. None of it connects. 

What we heard repeatedly was a call for consolidation: unified access to information, centralized workflows, and confidence that everyone is working from the same information.

Shifting the Conversation

When discussions moved from existing challenges to available solutions, the tone changed instantly.

For many builders, managing disconnected systems has become so normal that they’ve stopped questioning it. They’ve just accepted that it’s just the cost of running a construction business. So when we explained how ConstructionOnline brings estimating, scheduling, financial tracking, documentation, communication, and more into a single connected system, the response was often less “interesting...” and more “that’s actually possible?!”

Attendees leaned in. Some asked detailed follow-up questions immediately. Others tested the edges — “What about job costing?” “What about reporting?” “What about client visibility?”

When the answer wasn’t another workaround or third-party integration, but an intentional connection within the same platform, skepticism often gave way to curiosity. Seeing a genuinely unified alternative for construction management — one designed for cohesion from the outset, not stitched together over time — reframes what’s possible.

That reframing was one of the most consistent things we saw across the three days, and it showed up just as clearly in the conversations we weren’t having for the first time.

Old Customers, New Chapters

By midweek, the energy in the exhibit hall reached its peak. The volume rose. Conversations overlapped. Demo stations ran continuously. Our entire team was fully engaged, rotating through discussions about workflows, reporting, integrations, and growth plans.

Just as meaningful as the new introductions were the returning faces.

One contractor we’ve worked with for nearly a decade stopped by to share that his company had doubled in headcount since he first came on board, and that ConstructionOnline had scaled with him in ways he hadn’t anticipated were initially possible. Other teams inquired about renewing their contracts and expanding their accounts. A couple brought referrals directly to the booth, wanting to purposefully make the in-person introduction. Many of the clients we connected with simply wanted to say thank you.

In an industry driven by relationships, those moments carry real weight. A trade show is easy to measure in leads and demos. It’s harder to measure in loyalty and trust, but that’s truly what matters most.

Clarity in the Crowd

Standing in a hall filled with more than a thousand exhibitors sharpens perspective quickly. Attendees make fast decisions about where to spend their time. Companies have seconds to communicate who they are, what they do, and who they serve.

That reality reinforces something simple but easy to underestimate: clarity matters. Not just in design or messaging, but in how clearly a product’s value aligns with the actual problems people are trying to solve.

In a crowded construction software landscape, robust functionality is table stakes. What cuts through is specificity — the ability to speak directly to the operational friction builders are living with every day. Fragmentation. Visibility gaps. The pressure of managing complex projects across disconnected tools.

When messaging connects to those realities, conversations become more substantive. That was consistently true across the week.

Looking Ahead

IBS 2026 was a reminder of how much is happening in this industry and how much is at stake for the builders navigating it. Growth, increasing project complexity, rising expectations around documentation and transparency…the pressure isn’t slowing down; it's continuing to build. 

What many builders are seeking isn’t another standalone tool to add to the stack. What they are seeking is something more powerful. It’s cohesion. It’s visibility. It’s confidence in the systems supporting their work.

We’re grateful to everyone who stopped by Booth S4023, shared their challenges, and trusted us with their questions. The conversations at IBS don’t end when the exhibit hall closes. They continue in the day-to-day decisions builders make as they refine how their businesses operate.

And this year, one message came through clearly:
More capability. Fewer systems.

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