Generation Next (Build)Seven Big Ideas you'll want to have at the International Builder's Show's newest technology pavilion.

It's fall 2006, and Mike Currier is particularly busy. The assistant vice president of exposition sales at the NAHB is scrambling to accommodate the ever-growing number of technology companies who want space at February's International Builders' Show (IBS) in Orlando, Fla.

“This is our third year in Orlando because we grew out of Atlanta,” Currier says. Now he's thinking up creative ways to grow the show's nextBuild technology pavilion until IBS moves to an even larger venue, namely Las Vegas “It keeps getting bigger,” Currier says of what until this year was called TecHomExpo (The name change has more to do with trademark issues than anything else.)

By NAHB's preshow estimates, about 100,000 people will descend on Orlando next month. Many will be looking to technology to help make their homes stand out in a challenging market.

“The past five years have been about how fast builders can put up homes,” says Levi Bouwman, who oversees Honeywell's builder program. “Now they're asking us, ‘How much value can I add to this home?' or ‘How can I differentiate this home in the same neighborhood as the builder across the street?'”

When Bouwman lands in Orlando, he doesn't expect to hear about a slowdown. Like Currier, he expects technology to mean growth. To that end, based on numerous conversations, we've identified seven digital home trends that builders should pick up on at IBS. All booths and sessions were up-to-date at press time, but double-check when you hit sunny Orlando.

Builders stay committed to digital features.

If you're looking for digital home technology that's actually rolling out in the production home market as we speak, stop by the On-Q/Legrand booth to find out why K. Hovnanian Homes recently inked a single-source relationship with the provider of structured wiring and home technology products.

“Instead of having several sources, we now have one point of contact,” says Doug Hazard, K. Hovnanian's national purchasing manager. “Moving forward, when a new technology comes out, we have an industry leader to help us introduce and implement the products.”

Among the products: structured wiring, distributed audio, intercom systems, home theaters, and video cameras. Packages are being offered to home buyers as determined locally by each division, says Hazard.

And K. Hovnanian is looking to the On-Q/Legrand experts to help get up to speed on selling the technology. Hazard says rolling out the packages to each division is a two-step process. At an initial event, the local purchasing departments meet the On-Q/Legrand staff. A second meeting features more detailed explanations of the products. These meetings are geared toward the entire K. Hovnanian staff, including employees from the sales group, home design gallery, construction department, and warranty staff. (www.onqlegrand.com, booth W3671)