Autodesk University 2004 ~ Day 1

AU kicked off for me with a 3 hour Viz/Max session with Ted "Viz God" Boardman. I'd been told by Rich Sales he would be good and he was. The focus was materials and the content was real world solutions to problems most, especially me, struggle with in Viz. How to get good grass, tiles, reflections, highlights and more. Also learnt a lot about use of maps and mapping/modeling techniques. Awesome session.

In the afternoon we had the whole conference together for the Autodesk Corporate introduction. It was held in a big ballroom and the first real chance to see all 4400 attendees together. After and introduction from Lynn Allen there were presentations from Carol Bartz and the Division VP's and others. Some nice content in this with examples from all the industries present (AEC, GIS, Civil, Mechanical, General etc). Also some sneak previews of stuff that "might be in a future release" of several products... (Photo: AU Stage)

After this we split into industry specific sessions. I was in the Building Solutions Division group and heard more about moves to continue Revit's development into Structural and Building systems. Interestingly there have  been strong statements about continued commitment to ADT/ABS but they didn't feature in any of the BSD live demo's. The 2005 releases show that some great work is happening with them and was a pity it wasn't featured. The message  they will continue is clear but marketing support push doesn't seem to back this up.

Then we had the keynote speaker. Dean Kamen, probably best known for the Segway, gave an inspiring talk on the innovation. He had some great examples of how great technology doesn't always mean great innovation. The message was change is hard, but necessary, and keep your focus on solving the problem, not fixing a solution to the problem. A really interesting and thought provoking start to the week. (Photo: Dean Kamen presenting on Segway)