What a great way to start the new year — at InspectionWorld Orlando. ASHI’s annual home inspector conference proved to be everything for which it has come to be known — and more.Education
Home inspectors were provided with 34 education courses in the Inspection Essentials, Advanced Learning, Green Energy Technology and Business Management tracks, plus two full-day ICC track seminars and one full-day seminar on “Understanding Green Building Technology” presented by ITA. Green technology and its importance to home inspectors were highlights of this year’s conference. Many courses earned attendees CE credits toward their state licensing or certification requirements — in addition to the 20 ASHI CE credits that all full conference attendees earned.Exhibits
Alternating with the educational sessions was this year’s vendor Expo, showcasing the products and services of more than 50 inspection-related product and service providers, including a number of first-time exhibitors. When they were not in class, attendees enjoyed breakfast, lunch and breaks in the Expo Hall. The Expo kicked off with the annual ribbon-cutting ceremony, followed by an evening of wining, dining and visiting with the exhibitors.Software was once again “showcased” at special one-hour Software Showcase breakout sessions held during Expo hours, which enabled software/internet vendors to demonstrate their products in an intimate question-and-answer format.
Networking
This year the decision was made to keep the President’s Gala on site, and with the outdoor Florida temperatures dipping into the 20s and 30s (of course, cold weather at InspectionWorld is an ASHI tradition), this proved to be a wise choice – not to mention the excellent food and entertainment enjoyed by all. The food provided by our host hotel — Disney’s Contemporary Resort — was the talk of the town.Business Meetings
The changing of the guard — new ASHI officers and directors installed — took place at a new time this year, the Annual Breakfast Meeting and Awards Ceremony. Moving the meeting from a lunch meeting to breakfast proved to be popular with the attendees.
The overall consensus was that InspectionWorld Orlando was an unqualified success and met everyone’s expectations.
While the conference is now a memory, you can view and purchase photos from the event, and also purchase session MP3 audio files and (something new this year) Webex-recorded presentation files by visiting www.inspectionworld.org.
Planning is already under way for the next annual conference — InspectionWorld Las Vegas, which will be held at Bally’s Hotel January 17-20, 2010.