2022 Partner Summit: Networking, Strategy Planning for 2023 and More

2022 HomeSphere Partner Summit Summary

HomeSphere is all about helping manufacturers retain customers and win new business, resulting in overall market share growth, and the 2022 HomeSphere Partner Summit built upon that mission in person. Together with our partners, we reviewed account performance region by region, uncovered areas to charge up sales heading into 2023, and many became a HomeSphere-IQ® experts. The one-and-a-half-day event included one-on-one discussions with our builder sales and executive teams, product training, a builder panel, industry forecast, Partner Awards and more. And, we even held an optional golf tournament before we got down to business.

"An impressive dual record was set with our 2022 event — firstly, with of the highest number of manufacturer partners to attend a summit and, secondly, with the highest percentage of partners in attendance at our summit historically. We look forward to trying to break that record together again in 2023!"

- Greg Schwarzer
  President & CEO at HomeSphere

Mike Hagen, National Builder Sales Director at Rinnai, and Dave Sacchetti, VP of Builder Sales at HomeSphere 

HomeSphere Golf Tournament

Denver area weather was very favorable as many of our partners, HomeSphere sales team and some our builders assembled to play a round on the J. Press Maxwell PGA championship golf course on the afternoon of Wednesday, Oct. 5. Before heading out on the practice range, players were treated to a boxed lunch sponsored by Lennox and while out on the course, the players enjoyed some cold drinks from the beverage cart, sponsored by Ply Gem.

2022 HomeSphere Golf Tournament winners hold up their well-deserved trophy

Welcome Reception and Golf Awards

Winners of our golf tournament were awarded with gift cards to Golf Galaxy that were presented during the Welcome Reception immediately following the conclusion of the tournament. The 2022 HomeSphere Golf Cup winners from Team #6 included A.J. Steele and Ryan Altomare of GAF, and John Poe and Jeramy Hooper of HomeSphere. Other winners for contests included the Putting Champion, John Gann of C.H.I. Overhead Doors, Closest to the Pin winners A.J. Steele of GAF and Tim Randolph of Siemens, as well as Long Drive for Men, Adam Hermansen of Georgia-Pacific and the Long Drive for the Women, Katherine Dunton of HomeSphere.

The Welcome Reception on Wednesday evening, held at the Centennial Garden adjacent to the golf course, was a wonderful networking opportunity between other manufacturers and members of the HomeSphere team. Holding on to every last bit of summer, a delicious and grand buffet of BBQ and accompaniments, as well as a hosted bar, helped fuel the evening and led to lively discussions into the night hours.

Greg Schwarzer, CEO of HomeSphere, delivers keynote address: "Opportunity Abounds"

Keynote Address by Greg Schwarzer, CEO of HomeSphere 

The official kick-off of the Partner Summit was on Thursday, Oct. 6 and led by HomeSphere’s CEO Greg Schwarzer, who delivered the engaging keynote address, "Opportunity Abounds." He discussed HomeSphere’s future vision, our close relationship with our partners and what developments will be coming to our platform, HomeSphere-IQ®. One of the key initiatives he spoke about is a first-ever direct purchasing portal for HomeSphere builders and their trade partners, where they gain access to a platform that provides much-needed transparency into product availability, better delivery control and, with HomeSphere rebates, the best price. HomeSphere offers this innovative solution based on technology created together with Jim Shelton, General Manager of Residential Ventilation Solutions at Greenheck, who was present at the summit.

Carl Reichardt Jr., Managing Director & BTIG Homebuilding Analyst, provides industry insights on the housing market

BTIG's Current Housing Landscape and Forecast for 2023

Carl Reichardt Jr., Managing Director and BTIG Homebuilding Analyst, once again provided fascinating insight to our manufacturer partners. He covered a wrap-up of 2022 and a look forward into the 2023 selling season, as well as what builders (large and small) are saying and other evolving trends in the market. He also focused on the impact of rising interest rates and financial market volatility on housing demand and pricing. Reichardt also continues to have his finger on the pulse of the single-family build-to-rent channel and what it means for the industry.

HomeSphere and BTIG, a global investment bank, partner to survey HomeSphere's home builders about market conditions for a monthly report called the HomeSphere/BTIG State of the Industry Report.

Stay tuned for a future blog in November 2022 where we go into greater detail on Carl’s analysis of the current mid-marketing housing landscape and his predications for the conditions heading into 2023.

Trent Asbury, VP of Construction at Holland Partner Group responds to a question during the 2022 Builder Panel

2022 HomeSphere Builder Panel

HomeSphere presented a builder panel, moderated by Carl Reichardt, Jr. and sponsored by GAF, featuring representatives from two builders local to the Denver metro area. Thank you to Trent Asbury, VP of Construction at Holland Partner Group, and Scott Davis, Colorado Division President of Trumark Homes, for taking part in our 2022 Builder Panel. Reichardt led the builders through some exploratory questions on obtaining building supplies and how closing dates and projects and project plans have been affected by the current housing landscape. Asbury and Davis spoke on how their respective companies have navigated new construction in a post-COVID world. "It's a little bit of zig when they zag," Davis put it.

"I enjoyed participating in the Summit and learned a great deal. I am looking forward to applying some of the tips and tricks that I learned.”

- Lorel Humiston, CPP
  Residential Business Marketing Manager at Siemens Industry, Inc.

Jessica Pappas, Regional Market Specialist - Mountain Region, engaged in a session with Rubbermaid

One-on-One Meetings with Regional Market Specialists

After the builder panel, the conference space was transformed into a series of meeting stations for our manufacturers to meet one-on-one with our regional market specialists. When the manufacturers and HomeSphere team returned to the summit after a buffet lunch, the room with filled with a flurry of energy and dynamic conversations as each of the manufacturers met with one of our ten regional sales team members. They discussed strategies for promoting the manufacturers' products within individual markets, current challenges, and built even deeper relationships face-to-face.

In addition to meeting with the regional market specialists, manufacturers also met with marketing leaders at HomeSphere as well as others on the HomeSphere executive team. The manufacturers were excited for the opportunity to connect face-to-face in this meeting format, and not only did these meetings take place on Thursday afternoon, but they continued until late Friday morning.

Mike Rosenbach and Kaycee Marks, Partner Engagement team members, deliver break-out session to summit attendees

Break-Out Sessions by the Partner Engagement Team

The partner engagement team held four unique break-out sessions to fill in some of the gaps in the one-on-one meeting schedules with compelling content. The goal of these break-out sessions was reviewing or educating our partners on the advantages of their relationship with HomeSphere as well as leveraging the HomeSphere-IQ platform.

Our building product manufacturers were really engaged with the break-out sessions. One such attendee, Lorel Humiston, Residential Business Marketing Manager at Siemens, noted, "I enjoyed participating in the Summit and learned a great deal. I am looking forward to applying some of the tips and tricks that I learned."

Sessions included: How to Talk About HomeSphere to Your Sales Team, HomeSphere-IQ® Best Practices, How to Use HomeSphere Rebates as a Selling Tool, and for the first time ever — HomeSphere-IQ® Bootcamp. The Bootcamp session concluded with a gameshow-like quiz format where the competition was fierce among our manufacturers — each eager to prove their expertise with our platform! These informative and engaging sessions were well attended and, in fact, many afforded standing-room-only as manufacturers wanted in on the action!

Lennox accepts the Partner Excellence award at the 2022 HomeSphere Partner Awards ceremony

Partner Awards Reception and Dinnner

On Thursday evening, manufacturers gathered to celebrate each other’s successes with their relationship with HomeSphere during the Partner Awards reception and dinner. The highest award, the HomeSphere Partner Excellence Award, was presented by Greg Schwarzer to Lennox International, a manufacturer that is extremely popular with our builders and one of our longest-standing partners. Other winners include Nice Group for the HomeSphere-IQ Expert Award, Leviton for Outstanding New Partner Award, GAF for HomeSphere Partner Engagement Choice Award and Kwikset for HomeSphere Sales Choice Award.

For photos of each award recipient, as well as descriptions of the award criteria, see our Partner Awards blog.

Already Looking Forward to Our 2023 Partner Summit

We would like to thank all of our partners who attended along with the all the members of the HomeSphere team that made the success of the 2022 HomeSphere Partner Summit possible.

"An impressive dual record was set with our 2022 event — firstly, with of the highest number of manufacturer partners to attend a summit and secondly, with the highest percentage of partners in attendance at our summit historically," exclaims HomeSphere's President and CEO, Greg Schwarzer. "We look forward to trying to break that record together again in 2023!"

As we begin to plan the 2023 HomeSphere Partner Summit, we are gathering feedback from our manufacturers and HomeSphere team to make the event even better next year.

Want to tap into a network of 2,700 hard to reach builders? Explore the opportunity to be a manufacturer with HomeSphere.