Are you an Expert..

…or are you looking for help?

About 500 users have now signed on to AU Connect.  I just looked at a report were attendees share what they are an expert on – or what they might need help with.  Perhaps, next time you are on AU Connect, check out the search feature on the left side and find someone you could help – or findsome that might be able to help you. The lists I posted are directly downloaded from AU Connect unedited, in all their glory.

Civil 3D Powertrack…also Rocks!

…just not as loud as the Revit PT.

Eight out of ten of the most popular classes in the Infrastructure track are part of the C3D PT and we will see very full rooms for almost all C3D classes. Anthony Governanti is working with a group of great presenters, including Angel Espinoza and Pete Kelsey, on a 14-class track that should give anyone interested in C3D a very good understanding of what the product can do. C3D PT will have something of value to anyone using C3D – at any experience level.

Today, the Infrastructure team (the group that works on our Civil and Geospatial products) provided some more information on whats planned for their ISD Industry Mainstage on Thursday. Check it out. If you have not signed up for it, please do so. Go back to the scheduler and updated. We want to make sure we bring enough of the free stuff.

AU Map and Floor Plans

Today, the webteam added yet another page to the AU website.  Under the community link, you will see AU Map and Floor Plans.  Below the map are a few links to the different hotels we are using (currently 4) and detailed floor plans of where the sessions will be, where exhibit hall/food will be and some hotel maps. 

AU Community Map is still changing. If you have not been there in the last few days you should check it out.  Now the map shows in red dots where everyone is coming from – and blue dots (zoomed in) indicate hometown for all AUGI members. I am pretty impressed how well the map looks on the site.  What I don’t like is that the legend takes up almost 1/4 of the space of the map. Hope this will get changed soon. 

Revit Rocks!

Seven out of the ten most popular classes at this years AU are part of the Revit PowerTrack. Registration is still open for another 6 weeks (Early Bird less then 2 week – if you want to save $500). We did little re-org on our floor plan today and were able to added 50% more seats to the Revit PT.

So – if you are coming to AU to learn Revit, we have space for you

New Labs – Coming Soon!

In the next few days, I will add three new hands-on labs to the schedule

• Revit Building Lab (linking files) Wed @ 3p
• AutoCAD 2007 3D – Wed @ 3p
• Dynamic Blocks (J. Beltran doing his lab 4 times this AU) – Tue @ 1030a

I will updated posting once sessions are posted to the AU site – if interested, go back to scheduler to add your self as I am sure those session will fill up quickly.  (today a reminder message was send about early bird reg – which usually brings a spike in registrations and open labs fill quickly)

Class Cancelations

Over the next few days some of you (very few) will receive notification that one of the classes you signed up for got canceled.  We are canceling a few classes which either failed to attracted sign-ups, speaker is not available anymore or class does not seem valid anymore as it did in May when classes were selected.  Canceling those smaller classes will free up more space for some of the more popular classes.
If you do receive notification from our registration company, please go back to the eScheduler and add something new to your schedule.  Hopefully, this will not cause to much of an inconvenience.

AU Japan & AUGI CAD Camps

We did not want to keep a good thing to ourselfs – and so, on November 7th, Japan will be the first country to host its very own AU -  AU Japan.  AU Japan will be a one day event (with a very full schedule).  Most of the presenters will be Japansese.  Key note presentation will be given by Craig Russell from Imagineering/Disney.

The UK had its first tast of a “mini AU” this summer with the AUGI CAD Camp making a stop there.  Next European destination for the CAD Camp is Denmark – on November 14th. 

CAD Camps are great.  The one I went to (San Jose/Mtn View), the quality of materiel presented was as good as you would expect at AU.  Of course, venues are much smaller and it is a different kind of networking that happens at those events but CAD Camps are a great primer for AU.  With a CAD Camp, you are back home in the evening and back on the job the next morning – AU allows you to immerse yourself into everything “CAD” for almost an entire week.

Hotels

We booked 3400 rooms at the Venetian – and they were all taken by the time September rolled around. The Flamingo – our first overflow hotel was booked up pretty quickly as well and now we are on to our 3rd hotel. Unlike in Orlando, hotels are pretty close to each other – but we will have transportation from the Flamingo to the conference. Mirage is walking distance.Later this week I will post a pretty cool, interactive map to the AU site – something the DWF team put together. Will show you all the hotels we are using – and I believe distance in feet and meters. (Said map will also show what classes are in every room)

List of hotels:

Mirage
3400 Las Vegas Blvd. South
Las Vegas, NV 89109

The Venetian Resort – Hotel – casino
3355 Las Vegas Blvd. South
Las Vegas, NV 89109

Flamingo Las Vegas
3555 Las Vegas Blvd. South
Las Vegas, 89109

Autodesk University is bigger than ever!

Hi everyone…Lynn Allen here guest blogging…Even though we still have 2 months to go until Autodesk University, we already have almost as many registrations signed up now as we did at the actual event last year!  Yoo-Hoo!  That means that if you haven’t signed up yet you’d better get going…Schedule some time with your manager to cement the deal because you are not going to want to miss all the action packed courses we have going on this year!  The Autodesk University team has been working over time for you to insure a fabulous AU experience.

If you’ve already signed up it’s time to think about anything else you want to do in Vegas while you are there.  Even though we have nearly every night filled up with fun filled exciting activities, you still have the night you arrive and perhaps even an extra night if you choose to stay a little longer.  How about a great Vegas show?  There are so many great performers in Las Vegas nowadays it will be very difficult to make a decision.  But one thing is for sure, you’ll want to get your tickets as soon as possible.  Maybe a Cirque du Soleil?  Maybe a great entertainer like Celine Dion? 

I look forward to seeing you at Autodesk University 2006!

Your Meeting at AU!

A group of you has been coming to AU and you are doing your thing.  In the spirit of AU, you want to reach out to other AU attendees and let them know about your thing – but just don’t know how.  Here is how you can do it.

 AU Connect – under forms has a tab for unofficial AU events – list your event there and provide as much information as you can.   So – if you are a Revit user and a group of you has been getting together before AU begins for a drink – or a game of golf – post your event there if you would like your circle to grow.