Field notes
Notes from Mansion Builder Live
In early November our team spent two days at Mansion Builder Live, the gathering our strategic partner, Assisted Living Mansion, hosts for the groups building Mansions around the country.
Who was in the room
The room held teams at every stage, from groups still looking for land to groups preparing to open. Around them were the specialists a Mansion needs: lenders who focus on senior care, architects with years in senior living, insurers who cover a project from construction through licensing, and the people who build the care software and websites that communities run on.
The regional managers who run our partner's operating Mansions were there all weekend to answer questions about operations.
What the two days covered
Sessions ran from investor communication and community outreach to lending, construction and a day in the life of a team building its own Mansion. The second day was built around small working groups, sorted by stage, where teams compared notes on where they were stuck.
Three things we brought back
- Learn from buildings that run. The most useful conversations were with people who operate Mansions every day. Their answers were specific because they came from experience.
- The specialists exist. Senior living has its own lenders, architects and insurers. Working with people who do only this work removes guesswork.
- Start telling the story early. The advice we heard more than once was not to wait until a building is nearly finished to introduce it to the community.
Why we go
We build to a standard design and we learned the model from communities that already run. Time with the wider group of builders is part of that. Each team's lessons make the next project better, including ours.
Follow the build.
A short note when something real happens. No pitch.