Washington, D.C. -- The International Code Council and the ICC Evaluation Service (ICC-ES) facilitated new partnerships, strengthened existing relationships and brought together leaders from across the building industry at the fifth annual Design & Construction Week (DCW) in Orlando, Fla. As major sponsors and exhibitors at the 2018 National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) International Builders’ Show (IBS) and the National Kitchen and Bath Association (NKBA) Kitchen and Bath Industry Show (KBIS), the Code Council and ICC-ES sponsored educational events about building innovation, fire safety and the latest trends in the manufacturing sector.

Dominic Sims, Code Council CEO, spoke about housing affordability at the DCW Executive Roundtable with representatives from NAHB, NKBA and other associations. Other topics discussed included upcoming legislative priorities, labor shortages facing the building and construction sectors, and workforce development initiatives.

“Housing affordability goes hand-in-hand with our mission to create safe buildings and resilient communities,” said Sims. “We are committed to ensuring that the model codes we develop continue to result in the highest level of building safety in the industrial world while taking into account the needs of prospective home buyers, home builders and others to keep costs affordable.”

A large number of manufacturers took advantage of the opportunity to come face to face with ICC-ES personnel and applied for product listing and evaluation services at the ICC-ES exhibit booths. ICC-ES also sponsored the Metrostudy Housing Outlook Breakfast, where around 400 professionals gathered to discuss the latest economic and industry trends, and the NKBA SHARK! Breakfast, where manufacturers met to network and hear about the top five smart tech ideas that they can deliver to their dealers.

Robert Neale, Code Council Government Relations vice president of fire service activities, spoke about “Preventing Fires during Construction,” and Code Council staff meet the best and brightest college students and faculty in residential construction at an event hosted by the Kohler and the National Housing Endowment.

Also during DCW, the NAHB Resiliency Working Group voted to recommend participation in and financial support to the Alliance for National and Community Resilience (ANCR), the Code Council’s resiliency subsidiary. ANCR is a coalition of public and private entities working to create the nation’s first whole-community resilience benchmarking system.

Next year, IBS and KBIS will be held from February 19 to 21, 2019, in Las Vegas, Nev.

For more information, visit www.buildersshow.com or www.kbis.com.