Wayne Homes at the International Builders' Show
The NAHB International Builders’ Show® (IBS) is the largest annual construction show in the world. The show welcomes 76,000+ visitors from more than 100 countries. Wayne Homes is proud to attend every year, and this year we had quite a few team members representing us at the 2025 International Builders’ Show.
At Wayne Homes, we prioritize continuing education, connections with other industry professionals, and staying on top of home building trends. It’s not only good for our professional growth; it’s good for our customers, too! We go to IBS to gather information on trends, innovation, and overall improvements that we can then implement in our own processes and products. The result? We all benefit. It’s a win-win!
Here are the team members who attended the International Builders’ Show this year.
Each of them gave us a little insight into what they were hoping to get out of attending and how that connects with the Wayne Homes customer experience:
Emily Studenmund, Director of Marketing
Emily explored the latest in marketing and brand strategies in order to bring back fresh ideas that will make building our homeowners’ dream homes with Wayne Homes even better.
Jason Herb, Director of Purchasing
Jason discovered innovative materials and connected with industry suppliers to ensure we deliver top-notch homes while also remaining budget conscious for the benefit of our homeowners.
Keith Anstine, VP of IT
Keith discovered how technology could further enhance the homebuilding process with a focus on finding solutions that make our systems smarter, faster, and better for our customers.
Rhonda Mele, Director of Sales
Rhonda focused on making our customers’ home-buying experience smooth and exciting by diving into the latest buyer trends and sales strategies to better serve our amazing customers.
Ben Vogel, Director of Construction Services
Ben focused on staying ahead of construction trends and finding new ways to enhance quality and efficiency in every Wayne home we build.
Mike Leckie-Ewing, Director of Training & Development
Mike is passionate about helping our team grow and succeed, so he explored tools and techniques to take Wayne Homes’ training programs to the next level.
Julie Hoffman, Design Consultant
Julie soaked in the latest design trends, whether it was color palettes or innovative materials, to bring fresh ideas for our customers’ homes.
Jeannette Lengyel, New Home Consultant
Jeanette focused on exploring how we could make our customers’ home buying journey even better so that she could bring back fresh ideas to help customers find their perfect fit.
Steve Wessel, Senior VP of Construction
Steve connected with top industry leaders and explored cutting-edge construction practices to ensure our continued commitment to excellence in every home we build.
Dennis Gregory, Senior Product Analyst
Dennis looked for emerging home design trends and innovative solutions for insights to shape the unique features in every Wayne home.
Brittany Burkhart, Model & Virtual Design Coordinator
Brittany explored how tech and design came together – from model homes to virtual tours, she’s bringing the creativity and design inspiration for our homeowners’ new homes.
Education is a huge part of the International Builders’ Show. Educational sessions, workshops and demos help attendees walk away with strategies to tackle niche-specific challenges. These help us learn the latest home builder trends to wow our customers and discover the hottest, innovative tips from industry experts.
We asked each of our attending team members to answer questions about their experience at the International Builders’ Show. Their responses show you why we attend the show, and they might also give you a sneak peek into what’s to come at Wayne Homes.
Rhonda Mele: Now more than ever, homebuyers today are truly looking to us for guidance to make them feel comfortable making the biggest purchase of their lives. They need to trust that their builder is going to be there with them every step of the way. Technology has come so far in an affordable way. I’m excited to see what we implement in 2025 to enhance our buyer’s experience!
Emily Studenmund: The International Builder Show reinforced for me just how dedicated Wayne Homes is to delivering exceptional customer experiences. While we’re excited to explore new technology offerings to enhance our customers’ experiences, it’s clear that our focus on providing the best products and service truly sets us apart. The show highlighted the ways we can continue to innovate and lead the industry in offering an unparalleled experience for our homeowners.
Mike Leckie-Ewing: This year’s IBS reinforced how lucky we are to have the team that we do. Additionally, it reinforced the value of our systems and processes.
Ben Vogel: The technology solutions available to us as builders is changing almost daily. Finding the solutions that work best for our business and our customers will continue to be at the top of our priority list.
Keith Anstine: It is great to see all the new innovations in terms of products and technology and where we rate compared to companies across the world. It’s always great to see that we are so advanced over other companies for our employees and our customers. We would like to get an opportunity to help our customers have a better way to dream. We are looking at ways of enhancing our selection process and how we can help our customers see a 2D print in a way that they can visualize living in a 3D space.
Brittany Burkhart: What I took away from IBS this year was a sense of contentment with where Wayne Homes is with product offering. We’ve done a lot of work refining and updating our current product offering and from what I saw, we are offering a lot of the same or similar items that were trending at the show. So it just confirmed for me that what we are doing is in the right direction and we are on top of trends.
Steve Wessel: Attending the show allows us to stay up on new trends, products, and look for ways to provide new/ better solutions for the constantly evolving home.
There you have it, folks! Straight from the experts’ mouths. We couldn’t be more excited to implement updates and improvements with what we learned from IBS so you can rest assured that when you build with Wayne, you’ve made the best possible choice.
Do you have a question for the Wayne team of experts? Contact us! We’re here to help.
About Wayne Homes
Wayne Homes is a custom homebuilder in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and West Virginia (see all Model Home Centers). We offer more than 50 fully customizable floorplans and a team dedicated to providing the best experience in the home building industry. For more information, Ask Julie by Live Chat or call us at (866) 253-6807.
Disclaimer: The details of this blog are accurate as of the publish date, but are subject to change.
