TRACKS: REMODELING & HOME IMPROVEMENT | REPLACEMENT

Create Better Budgets with Better Management Insights Using AI

By Scott Siegal, Maggio Roofing; Certified Contractors Network

Remodelers and home improvement pros—like many small business owners—procrastinate when it comes to creating budgets. Today, easy-to-use AI tools are changing this. Siegal and other contractors from Certified Contractors Network will demonstrate new tools that allow them to quickly use their own data to create meaningful budgets faster. This session will also cover ways to train AI to offer new insights about your company and manage your people and processes for increased profit.

TRACKS: REMODELING & HOME IMPROVEMENT | REPLACEMENT

Create and Train Virtual Assistants—Agents—Using Open Claw and Other AI Tools

By Zac O’Hara, COO, North Shore Masonry and Contracting

Everyone is more productive with a well-trained assistant. In this session: a second-generation contractor explains how he used popular AI coding tools to create virtual assistants—agents—to assist company management with all manner of tasks, big and small. Each company staffer is given varying levels of permissions based on their responsibilities. See how these agents have boosted productivity and growth at O’Hara’s companies.

TRACKS: REMODELING & HOME IMPROVEMENT | REPLACEMENT

Grab Your AI Tools and Let’s Roll

Co-Presented by Anna Anderson, Roofing Technology Think Tank RT3 and by Michael Anschel, Owner, OA Design + Architecture

AI isn’t coming—it’s here, and it’s already reshaping how we design, estimate, communicate, and build. In this fast-paced, practical session, you’ll cut through the hype and see how remodelers can immediately put AI to work. From streamlining client communication and generating design concepts to reducing errors in scopes and improving team coordination, we’ll explore real tools delivering real results. Grounded in a chaordic approach, you’ll learn where human judgment matters most—and where AI can amplify your team’s effectiveness. Buckle up, grab the tools, and leave with a clear roadmap to start integrating AI into your remodeling business today.

TRACK: HOME IMPROVEMENT | REPLACEMENT

Make the Most of Your Leads. Insights on the Latest Marketing Technology

By Samantha Albarran, VP of Marketing Technology, Leaf Home

From appending each inquiry with new and relevant demographics to moving leads efficiently down the funnel to finding the best fit with your people. Sam Albarren shows how Leaf Home is handling thousands of inquiries and leads from all sources, including lead aggregation firms—and improving them while streamlining the lead-management process.

TRACK: REMODELING

The Five Systems Every Contractor Must Automate Before Hiring More People

By Paul McManus, Owner, McManus Kitchen & Bath

Most contractors struggle to hire because they too busy running the day to day. They think they need to 'grow a little bigger' and then they can hire. But growing create more work, which makes them even busier. The only way out of this is to create systems that allow you confidently hand off tasks to your team and still be able to audit/supervise results. I would include ideas for AI workflows to make each process a little easier.

TRACK: REMODELING

AI Workflow for Estimating and Closing More Deals

By Paul McManus, Owner, McManus Kitchen & Bath

Boost your close rate to 100 percent from design retainer to build contract. Most design-build companies hover around 70 percent. Make your estimating process very detailed and accurate. Develop a process to makes it less time consuming. Update your estimating tool and add functionality and use AI to create a one-page summary that is easier for clients to digest.

TRACK: REMODELING

Automating Empathy: The Tailored Client Experience

By Jeff Forward, Owner, Forward Design-Build Remodel

The Psychology: We know we should communicate differently with different personality types (e.g., a "Driver" wants bullet points, a "Steady" client wants reassurance), but we rarely have time to do it. The Workflow: I will show how to use AI to "translate" your communication based on a client’s DISC profile. The Demo: We will look at a live example of taking a standard weekly update and having an AI agent rewrite it 4 different ways to match the 4 DISC types. The Takeaway: It’s not about faking personalization; it’s about using tech to lower the friction in communication, so clients feel heard.

TRACK: REMODELING

The Split-Brain Method: Let AI Handle the Details So You Can Design and Build

By Jeff Forward, Owner, Forward Design-Build Remodel

The Philosophy: There’s a saying: "Your mind is for having ideas, not holding them." But as builders, we clog our brains with endless storage—specs, codes, schedules. It kills our focus. The "Split" Architecture: I’ll propose a new way to work consciously separating your ‘Storage Brain’—your files—from your ‘Processing Brain’—AI. The Field Impact: This isn't just theory—gain real momentum with your production team, the guys who typically shy away from tech. It reduces the drudgery of paperwork. This process also eliminates data entry. My team can dump raw input—a voice note or a photo of their handwritten notes—and let the ‘Processing Brain’ organize it. It reduces the friction of their day so they can focus on what they love doing: building.

TRACK: HOME IMPROVEMENT | REPLACEMENT

A Guide to Marketing Technology: A Simple Framework for Better Spend, Better Data, and Better Decisions

By Todd Sigler, VP Sales & Marketing, Direct Remodels

Marketing and sales leaders in home services are under constant pressure to adopt new technology—but more tools rarely lead to better outcomes. This session provides a clear, operator-built framework for evaluating marketing and sales technology based on what matters: decision clarity, integration across departments, and measurable ROI.

TRACK: HOME IMPROVEMENT | REPLACEMENT

Data Is a Two-Way Street: How Shared Accountability Creates Better Marketing Partners and Better RO

By Todd Sigler, VP Sales & Marketing, Direct Remodels

In home services, marketing and technology partners are often expected to deliver results in isolation—without access to the data required to optimize performance. This session challenges that mindset and reframes growth as a shared responsibility built on transparency, alignment, and consistent data feedback loops. This session outlines how to structure accountability, set realistic optimization timelines, and create feedback loops that allow both sides to make smarter decisions faster. Leaders will leave with a practical approach to strengthening partner relationships, improving performance, and turning large marketing invoices into long-term, profitable investments.

TRACKS: REMODELING & HOME IMPROVEMENT | REPLACEMENT

AI Tools 101: The Tools and How to Use Them

By Zac O’Hara, COO, North Shore Masonry and Contracting

From LLMs (large-language models) like Chat GPT, Gemini, Microsoft Co-Pilot, Grok, and many others—all the way up to multi-model models like Nanno Banana, Jasper, and others that create images and video—this class is an overview of the commonly used free and paid AI tools and how to begin putting them to use in your business.

TRACKS: REMODELING & HOME IMPROVEMENT | REPLACEMENT

AI 201: Next-Level Tools From Anthropic’s Claude to Training Agentic Assistants

By Zac O’Hara, COO, North Shore Masonry and Contracting

The world of AI is advancing quickly. Some contractors with a better-than-base-level knowledge of LLMs and common AI tools will want to learn how to ‘vibe code’ using Anthropic’s Claude, Open Claw as well as accessing MPCs that give contractors the ability to add new skills to their agents in a plug-and-play fashion.

TRACK: REMODELING

Kitchen and Bath Remodeling Design

By Scott Harris, Vice President, Chief Architect

This is a two-part tutorial on how to use the latest design tools to quickly create new kitchens in a 3D format. The goal is to sell more jobs by offering clients more ideas. Then, when it comes time to build the project, offers better estimates, takeoffs and working drawings.

TRACK: REMODELING

Using 3D Design Software to Sell More Jobs

By Scott Harris, Vice President, Chief Architect

Design software has advanced rapidly. Learn the tips and tricks of using 3D design software to quickly share realistic ideas with clients. Clients like and so will your bottom line.

Be on the lookout for:

A Panel Discussion on AI Tools and a Panel Discussion on Marketing Technology.

Plus get ready for 90-minutes of FAST-paced ideas—our 2nd Annual FAST Remodeler Live Hackathon. 14 Remodelers share 5-minute technology hacks that they are using in their business today—ideas you can implement in your businesses. The audience votes for the top hacks.

Monday, May 11, 2026

Tuesday, May 12, 2026

Wednesday, May 13, 2026