AU Japan Huge Success!

First non-US based AU was a huge success. Over 1500 Japanese Autodesk product users showed up for a one day event. The Autodesk Japan team did an outstanding job of creating the AU “look & feel”. If it was not for kanji, anyone who has been to a US based AU, would have had a hard time noticing a difference. We will have 31 Japanese participants at AU in Las Vegas and other then our new theme (Agent of Change), they will see a lot of the same collateral.
Autodesk product usage is different in Japan then it is in the US which lead to a different mix of classes in terms of content and expertise level. Other then a Revit class and a Civil 3D class, all classes were offered in Japanese – which I of course did not understand. For those two sessions, AU Japan brought in a speaker from Australia (Revit) and the US (C3D).
Craig Russell from Walt Disney Imagineering delivered the keynote address. His talk was very well received. Many references Craig had to do with Disney Tokyo and many of the attendees seemed to be familiar with those projects.. Craig was introduced by Micky Mouse – I believe this received the loudest applause for the day.
AU Japan was positioned as a pre-AU event – almost like sticking your toe in the water to check temperature. With feedback collected after the event, Autodesk Japan will decide if they want “to jump into the water” next year. From what I have heard, a venue has been put on hold already.

On a more personal note:
In Tokyo, I met Martin from Autodesk Japan. Turns out Martin is from my home country – Austria – and it was interesting exchanging views on Japan in German.
Strange souvenier I brought back: Tirolian cookies, made in Japan. Tirol is a province of Austria and the packaging was very Austrian – but no such cookies exist in Tirol/Austria. Tokyo had a shop dedicated to those baked goods.

Anyway – I had great trip to Japan. AU Japan is off to a good start and I hope I can support them again next year.