The 2006 Congress and Expo of Manufactured and Modular Housing was set in beautiful Las Vegas at the Paris Hotel. We had an exhibit booth there, and also were one of the show sponsors. The MHI put on a very well organized event, and we are very glad we attended.
There were interesting, informational speakers and many exhibitors to speak with and products to learn about. Wednesday morning's opening session speaker was Tom Halford of Whirlpool Corporation speaking about how Whirlpool has become a world leader in appliances and offering ideas for how the manufactured and modular housing industry can renew itself in the new millennium. The Thursday morning speaker was Sam Zell who was very entertaining as he described his adventures in the real estate and manufactured housing industry over the years.
The 2006 Congress and Expo was attended by over 2,000 attendees from all over the nation plus we also met people from Canada, Brazil, Mexico and New Zealand. Our booth held a drawing for a free iPod, and the winner was Larry Tardie of Residential Properties in Oregon. Larry also won 3 months of free advertising on ManufacturedHomesToday.com™. We also had 2 other winners of free advertising space from playing the toy slot machine we brought along. One winner was Christy Mays of Commonwealth Property Management Services in Washington State and the other was Kristi Dyer-Pierce of Kirkwood Estates in Iowa. Congratulations to all of our winners!
Thursday noon we were served an awards luncheon. Awards were given out for best regional communities and retail sales centers though out the nation as well for other industry bests. We congratulate all the awards winners at the 2006 Congress. If you would like to view the list of winners, please visit the MHI press release.
On Thursday afternoon we attended an interesting (and very entertaining) presentation given by Kenneth Lipshutz and Richard Winkleman of Brookside Communities describing the battle against the local community and successful development of their award winning community, Woodland Ridge, located in South Lyon, Michigan. Woodland Ridge was the Best New Land-Lease Community of the Year in 2005, and is an advertiser on ManufacturedHomesToday.com™. You can order recordings of the all the seminars at the 2006 Congress as well at the iPlayback website.