This week, as we announced that our Focus On Excellence registration site went live, we made a claim.

This is not just a conference."

What makes Focus On Excellence different?

Our program "reveals" over the next couple of weeks will clarify this, and today, we start at the heart and soul of how and why it will be unlike any homebuilding leaders' gathering on the calendar.

It’s not the speakers. It’s not the venue. It’s not even the content, though that will be excellent, high-level, and provocative.

What makes Focus On Excellence different is the design.

Focus On Excellence is more of a leader's bootcamp, learning lab, and workshop, and less of a typical conference.

Check it out.

This year's design is a leadership transformation in three acts. It’s a hands-on, peer-driven, professionally guided immersion into what it takes to make a homebuilding enterprise viable — and competitive — in 2030 and beyond.

At its core and in the capable hands of the on-site experience are two of the sharpest minds in leadership transformation working today: Chris Ertel and Johanna Buurman of Tradecraft Central.

If you've never heard of them, good.

They aren’t celebrities. They don’t do hype. What they do is guide serious leaders through serious, pragmatic business change.

They’ve done it for U.S. Army generals. They’ve done it for Fortune 100 executives. They’ve done it for nonprofit visionaries and tech pioneers.

Now, they’re bringing their hard-earned practice to Focus On Excellence 2025 — to help homebuilding leaders do the hardest thing: not just change, but change together.

... to raise their own expectations of themselves, and by doing that, elevate their teams' potential to surpass those expectations.

Our role isn’t to tell people what to do," says Ertel. "It’s to create the conditions where the real work can get done—the work leaders can only do with each other."

Buurman adds:

There’s no PowerPoint that can build alignment. But a shared experience? A shared struggle? That can."

The Three-Act Journey

Focus On Excellence 2025's agenda – such that it is – is built around a three-act journey:

Act I: Confront the Moment. We open with an unflinching look at where the business stands: demographically, technologically, financially. The goal: clarity. This is not a year to hide from the truth. Builders need to know what’s real, what’s risky, and what’s urgent.

Act II: Connect the People. Next, we forge the relationships and shared purpose to navigate what comes next. This means structured dialogue, cross-generational collaboration, and guided exercises designed to unlock what leaders can do together, not in theory, but in practice.

Act III: Commit to the Future. Finally, leaders walk out with a plan—not a binder—a real, personal, operational commitment to the kind of business they intend to run, the kind of culture they want to build, and the kind of customer experience they want to deliver.

Why Now?

The timing couldn’t be more important. According to a 2023 PwC global survey of 4,410 CEOs, 40% of business leaders don’t believe their companies will be viable in 10 years if they stay on their current path.

And it’s not just fear talking. It’s a recognition that digital transformation isn’t optional. AI isn’t hype. And the greatest threat to homebuilders isn’t interest rates—it’s staying analog while the world moves on.

"Too many homebuilders still operate as loosely connected communities of practice," Ertel notes. "They need to become integrated systems of performance. That’s a different mindset. It’s a different operating model. And it requires a different kind of leadership."

Leadership Transfer, Not Just Networking

This isn’t about keynotes and cocktails. Focus On Excellence is designed to be a learning lab, where the seasoned wisdom of today's builders intersects with next-gen leaders' fluency and digital savvy.

The entire experience is built to accelerate leadership succession, foster operational excellence, and prepare people to lead in an age where customer behavior is shifting as fast as the technology itself.

Buurman says, "Leadership is a craft. Like any craft, it has to be practiced. We’re not creating a curriculum. We’re creating a forge."

Details: The What, Where, and When

Focus On Excellence 2025 takes place October 27-29, 2025, at the Four Seasons Hotel in Denver. It begins with a welcome gathering Monday evening and moves into two intensive days of collaborative workshops, strategic sessions, and facilitated peer learning.

This experience is for:

• Owners, CEOs, and division presidents
• COOs, CTOs, construction, operations, and data and technology leaders
• Heads of sales, marketing, and customer care
• Senior strategists and succession-ready next-gen leaders

With Thanks to Our Sponsors

Elite Sponsor: New Home Star
Premier Sponsors: Boise Cascade, Builder Advisor Group, Higharc, Launch Development Finance Advisors, Westwood Insurance Agency

Join Us

The future isn’t coming later. It’s already here.

Don’t come to Denver to listen. Come to build.

Register now for Focus On Excellence 2025—and experience what it means to lead in this business, right now.

More "reveals" to come this week and next.