Today, Jim Meyer from Solidvapor guided an AU Online/AU event customer focus group. Five participants shared their insights about the event and the website, and I found it incredibly insightful. We are working on getting a new AU website launched next week—and several of the comments we heard today will appear on the new site. Two items that struck me most were: Users did not know handouts are free to anyone The perception of what AU Online is On Monday, with the launch of the new site, we will not introduce a lot of new functionality, but I am excited about the features and improvements ... READ MORE >

The Monday before AU may be my favorite day of AU. A ton of people arrive on Monday and as of right now 7203 (77%) have checked in. It is great to see everyone, and particularly the presenters, many of whom I have worked with over the last 9 years. As for others, it is just nice to put a face to those hundreds of emails we exchanged since the “Call for Papers” got AU 2008 started, sometime back in March. This evening, we had the Speaker Social and approximately 250 speakers were thanked by Chris Bradshaw and Lynn Allen for all their hard work. Chris mentioned that one of the greatest challenge... READ MORE >

Ev'rywhere you go in the Venetian Hotel and Conference Centers... AU is starting to come together in Las Vegas. Yesterday, folks like me who work on AU year round have started to arrive in Las Vegas. Some of our vendors, those who will manage registration, setup the meeting rooms and network 600-plus computers had to skip their home-cooked turkey, and they have been here for a few days already. This will be my ninth AU, and I am still impressed how the AU staff is able to transform the Venetian Conference Center into the Autodesk University campus—in just a few days. For the most part, I am re... READ MORE >

My colleagues over at the Geospatial division asked me to help them spread the word about their council, and what they are doing at AU. The Autodesk Geospatial Customer Council (AGCC) is a web panel that consists of hundreds of Geospatial product users. It is designed as a forum that the Autodesk Geospatial team uses to elicit feedback on any number of subjects. Council feedback is received directly by the Geospatial product teams and provides valuable insight on new product concepts or developments. From time to time council members will hear from Autodesk on any number of topics. Autodesk ma... READ MORE >

Industrial and Architectural Designers Will Go Head-to-Head in Live Competition in Las Vegas December 3 and 4. The nation's top designers are entering a new dimension—a third one, to be exact. Cut&Paste (www.cutandpaste.com) is bringing its live, on-stage competition to Autodesk University, the world's largest gathering of designers, engineers and Autodesk customers worldwide, in Las Vegas this December, but this time around, competing teams will be working in 3D. Contestants in the AU Design Slam, powered by Cut&Paste, will use the latest in 3D software, including Autodesk Maya, Alias... READ MORE >