More than 700 have now registered to attend housing's first HIVE conference, later this month, Sept. 28 and 29, at the JW Marriott/LA Live in Los Angeles. A look at this video will tell you why we've attracted such a crowd, and why you might want one of the remaining places at our event, which is near sell-out.

The formula for HIVE--which stands for Housing Innovation Vision and Economics--is relatively simple. It's an investigation and a celebration. The investigation starts with five friction points everybody in housing encounters. For each friction point, we've reached out to a world-class expert to lead our conversations and attract even more insight and experience. Those experts, five of them, we've called our HIVE deans.

They are William McDonough, FAIA, Int. FRIBA; Stuart Miller, ceo of Lennar; Dowell Myers, Ph. D., a USC professor and renowned housing demographer; architect and "Not So Big ..." author Sarah Susanka, FAIA; and, finally, Zelman & Associates ceo Ivy Zelman.

Here, in brief, are HIVE '16's five solvable challenges:

  • Can housing's successful firms innovate to prevent disruption?
  • Can residential real estate investors' interests clear the hurdles of regulatory overreach?
  • Can responsible, sustainable product development be profitable?
  • Can 55+ communities be reinvented around independent, connected living?
  • Can the dream of homeownership win over Millennials?

What's more, we've enlisted an A-list of moderators from housing's pantheon of leaders, including housing investment sage Barbara Alexander, the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies' Chris Herbert, former Weyerhaeuser ceo Dan Fulton, and USC economics whiz Richard Green

The celebration part of HIVE is a brand new spotlight on housing's most innovative people and accomplishments, the HIVE 100, which we'll bring to light over the next few days. The reason for HIVE is not to kindle or cause innovation, for it's already happening in scores of organizations and in the community at large, as people and departments work to improve the individual components or processes within the framework of a larger product or platform.

We've been working with our deans now for six months, gathering around each of them a "discovery panel" of perspectives, insights, data and technical sources, and strategic leaders. By putting all this together under one roof at HIVE--builders, architects, engineers, product developers, distributors, investors, lenders, real estate sellers, labor leaders, educators, and community planners--we hope to stir the pot, even as it. The promise of HIVE '16 is three-fold.

  • The agenda offers a blue-print for how to look at housing's friction points as challenges that innovation can break down into solvable parts and pieces
  • The networking focus will allow for clearer recognition of opportunity areas for collaboration, for shared insight, and a role for aligned interests in addressing some of those challenges
  • The take-away is not simply a new awareness of disruptive forces at work that could cause housing's successful businesses to fail, but tactics and strategies you can put in place now that will help you predict, manage, and make important choices as to how your firm invests in new technological paths and models even as you execute on your current operational model at a high level of excellence.

William, Stuart, Dowell, Sarah, and Ivy--and their teams and organizations--have been remarkable partners in giving HIVE an amazing personality and energy coming out of the gate. The entire Hanley Wood and BUILDER team is proud, excited, and committed to this journey because housing deserves a committed, invested, and sustainable conversation on how successful companies, individuals, and organizations need profit, purpose, and technology stars to align as they perform on plan.

To register, click here.