Wednesday and Thursday were my busy days at this year's Autodesk University in Las Vegas. After a breakfast meeting with a colleague from Toronto, I had my first class of AU2019 to deliver.
It was a live-streamed class that was focused on advanced visualization (primarily of IoT data) using the Forge viewer. Somewhat unfortunately the class was scheduled at the same time as the AEC mainstage (more on this later), but that basically just meant that the room wasn't completely full and that most of the attendees were Forge-focused.
As it was live-streamed the class recording is already available:
Since returning I've had the chance to go back and watch the AEC mainstage. It was really well done, this year. Not only that, but Dasher 360 was featured prominently (even if it had it's "brand" blanked out).
As I wasn't there to take photos, here are some screenshots from the recorded live-stream. Nicolas Mangon kicked things off and was the one to focus on "digital twins":
It was great to see so much of Dasher on the big screen! It was also great to see Project Refinery get a mention during Racel Williams's excellent segment (I was really impressed with how well both Racel and Alli Scott presented during the mainstage – great job, both of you!).
If you're interested in watching the "digital twins" section, it's between the 19- and 24-minute marks. The whole thing is well worth watching, though.
The rest of my Wednesday was spent in customer meetings, although I did manage to stick my head into the Design Slam to see it beginning. It looked like a lot of fun!
After the day's meeting were over, there was a "mixer" for members of the CTO organization and special guests (I had a very nice time catching up with Thord Backe, for instance – someone I've known since my early days at Autodesk).
After this I popped into the Dynamo Party across the Strip at Señor Frog's. (I saw a number of people jumping the barrier to cross the Strip rather than walking a bit further to take the overpass… my friend Elise and I joked about them playing Señor Frogger.) We arrived while the "lightning talks" were taking place. The first I saw was by Dominique Aupy from Engie AXIMA.
Up next was That BIM Girl, Jacqueline Rohrmann.
Jaime Rosales was there filming:
Many old friends were there, despite the poor weather (raining in Las Vegas?!?). I enjoyed catching up with Racel and Mehdi, among others.
Thursday started with a quick customer meeting before my 10:30am class on Project Rediscover.
This one was also recorded, but I don't think recordings of classes that weren't live-streamed are available yet (I'll post the recording once it is, of course).
There was a good crowd in this class – the room was pretty much at capacity.
After a break over lunch, I had my last "speaking gig" of the week, with my first ever AU Theater Talk. This was part of the Transformation of Design track, which contained four talks of 12-15 minutes each.
The room was really full – it was all quite intimidating.
The first speaker was David Weir-McCall, who talked about "Where Digital Reality and Reality Coexist".
I then talked about "Building the Infrastructure for Performance-Based Generative Design". (Thanks to Russell Loveridge, who kindly snapped these two photos while I was speaking.)
Next was Bill Allen, who talked about "Where Do We Go From Here? Crossing The Data Driven Chasm." Including some fun he's had optimising pizza with Project Refinery.
The final speaker was Jeffrey McGrew, who presented "Talking with Robots about Architecture. Or how Automation is changing the construction industry."
Here's the recording of my slot, in case you're interested:
It was a real honour being included in this session: the other speakers were excellent… I have no idea how I stacked up – and as I hate watching myself on screen I'll probably never find out – and I'm really glad to have had the opportunity, despite the additional stress.
Once this was done I had one final customer meeting before heading to the airport for my Thursday night flight home. I actually had no regrets about missing the last night's party: I was completely shattered by this point, and just dreamed of sleeping on the plane.
I had a fairly quick connection at Heathrow before my onwards flight to Geneva. By the time I got home it was 10pm on Friday night, and I've spent much of the weekend catching up on sleep. Hopefully I'll be back at 100% before too long!
It was great seeing so many people in Las Vegas. Thanks to all of you who took the time to say hello (and I'm sorry if others saw me rushing by and chose not to stop me… it really was a busy one, this
year). If you haven't yet filled out your class evaluations, please do so via the AU app (if you still can… as I didn't have time to attend – and scan into – any classes, I haven't received any surveys myself).
Update:
Here's a post that includes recordings for all three of my classes at this year's AU.
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