I've been in a blogger hole over the last couple of weeks. A deep, dark and cavernous hole where what goes on in AU, stays at AU - unless you have to blog about it. So prepared to be outed - HA! Just kidding. It wasn't that bad, at least not for me anyway, I can't speak for everyone...
AU 2010 was awesome, not from the typical we had X% more people attend (attendance was up), or we got to check out the new Tesla- all that is cool. What was awesome for me was the energy and positive outlook that all of the attendees I spoke to brought to the conference. Last year guys were walking around with "go ahead and kick me I'm already down" signs on their backs. We were all worried about the economy, the future of manufacturing as we knew it and many were looking for jobs.
This year the signs could have easily read "kick me and you'll miss because I'm moving too fast". I loved the energy! Guys that I talked to last year that were looking for work, said that they are looking to hire they are so busy. The eagerness to pick up that new tip, or learn that new workflow was contagious. The Manufacturing Lounge had people hanging out with our Product Managers, bending their ear about how they are using our software, an overall positive vibe as opposed to the concerned vibe from last year.
The silent auction raised over $2,700 for the Engineers without Borders project, so that was cool. Folks walked away with some framed art all designed on Sketchbook Mobile. PiMobility had several bikes on display, including one borrowed from Robin Williams. We brought in the FIRST Robotics Rookie Team of the Year robot, you know I'm a big fan of FIRST. Subsea7 shipped a model of one of their underwater rovers. We had product experts roaming around addressing questions, all in all a good source for networking and showcasing some of our customers work.
Speaking of PiMobility, we had free Autodesk Certification going on during the week. Nancy Tremblay and team had 2,997 folks get certified, myself included BTW. I was guilted into taking it by Nancy so I did. I'll be honest I was nervous about taking it. Imagine the amount of crap I would get from you guys if I failed...
Oh, yeah and if you took and passed the Autodesk Inventor Certified expert exam you were automatically enrolled in a drawing to win a PiMobility bike! Warren Sweet of H&T Battery in Waterbury, CT is the winner of the bike so congratulations Warren.
The classes. Man, every class I walked into was packed many were standing room only. I heard some we need more advanced classes feedback. And for those that see it that way, please, please submit for a class next year. I agree that advanced workflows and techniques are great, just keep submitting for those classes. The call for papers is surprisingly right around the corner. My classes were a lot of fun.
In my I Didn't Know Inventor Could Do That class, somebody's phone went off and it made a beeping sound while I was walking backward. The timing of it was crazy. So I asked "Is that me?" And somebody goes, yeah, its your back up alarm, I followed that with 'comon man, I'm not that big. The class got a kick out of it.
Believe it or not they let me up on the MFG Keynote stage to give our Hot Tech session. That was a lot of fun. The strange thing about giving a presentation to ~1,000 people is that you can't see beyond the first two rows, so there is no need to get nervous. But man I could have used a bottle of water. My mouth was so dry you would have thought that I'd eaten crackers and sand all morning. The main theme behind my discussion is how technology is evolving the impossible, to impractical, to expected, to redefining the status quo. And much of what is available today is redefining the status quo. I plan to post up a summary post next week. I'd appreciate your take on the content.
So there's my AU Hangover. Full of a lot of new tips and tricks so stay tuned.
-Rob
Subscribe
Comments