Autodesk University 2007 is Over

Wow, what a week. For those of you that have never experienced an Autodesk University conference, you are really missing out. The conference has grown every year by leaps and bounds! A staggering 10,000 people attended this year. That's right, 10,000 people, not including spouses along for the ride. The sessions (classes) were, as always, taught by men and women that either work with Autodesk products every day or develop them for Autodesk. The people are very sharp. The people attend vary in experience for newbies to experts. This is a 'must attend' type of conference if you are serious about your job and about knowing the tools you work with daily.

The conference was held at the Venetian Resort in Las Vegas. First thing I have to say is that this place is huge. 10,000 people roaming the halls, eating breakfast and lunch there for four days and it seemed less crowded than last year, which was a mess. Kudos goes out to Autodesk and the Venetian for a a job well done in making sure there were no bottlenecks and huge crowds all trying to access the escalators at one time.

Over the course of the next few weeks, I am sure you will find plenty of blogs and web pages claiming how great AU 2007 was and for the most part I would agree. However, there were some things that didn't sit right with me. Anyone that knows me knows what's coming next. Yep. I am going to tell you what I found to be blips in the conference. These are in no way extreme flaws by any means but maybe if someone from Autodesk happens on to this blog, they may be able to rectify these.

For the most part these are not "stop the conference" types of things but things that made the experience less enjoyable. They are as follows:

• Meals
• Breakfast - Even though most of the people that attended did so on their company's dime, it is expensive. The breakfast variety this year wasn't there. Scrambled eggs for for days got old quick. Another thing I noticed immediately about breakfast was that there was no ketchup or tobasco sauce like there was last year. Where were the tortillas? It was ok mind you but I really thought it could have been better.
• Lunch - What can I say about lunch. To be perfectly honest, there wasn't one, not one of those lunches I would have made myself or even paid to eat any where, any time. These were horrible. I realize that feeding 10,000 isn't easy but come on. First day was some kind of wrap thing that frankly was gross. I know there are people that love these things but I would wager that the majority, if polled honestly, would agree with me on this. The salmon and chicken was ok but frankly it was like going to eat at a fancy restaurant only to come away with the notion that the food sucked. We and our respective companies paid a lot of money to attend and my feeling is it could have been far better. Like Country buffet style good, not Le Che type of nasty.

• Instructors
• I will be the first to admit that 99% of the instructors were awesome. Matt Murphy, Robert Green, Ursula Sadiq, Darren Young, Gopinath Taget to name a few are standouts for me, at least from the classes I took this year and previous years. However, there were those that just were not good. They know the content sure but they couldn't hold the audience to save their lives. The was one gal who confessed that it was her first time public speaking ever. She did an awesome job, while others claimed it was their 10th or more AU and my ears was bleeding before they were finished introducing themselves. I guess this is true of any conference or even any college or university you attend but come on....

• The Final Party
• The final party every year is one thing that we all look forward too at the end of the conference. Our heads are full of information, ideas and wish lists of new Autodesk products. The conference ending party is something we look forward to. Las year was Blue Man Group. A hard act to follow. This year was a 1982 Party? Huh? This was supposed to be dinner and entertainment to unwind and network after a grueling week. We get finger food that you couldn't even find and celebrity look a likes to have your picture taken with? I didn't stay very long so I cannot speak on what happened later but I was so disappointed.

In summary, I must confess I had a blast. Most of the instructors were awesome. The people that worked the conference from the Venetian were totally awesome. The people that attended the conference were totally awesome. The set up and planning of the conference wasn't as good as previous years with the exception of managing the amount of people and their flow among the 5 floors of classes.

Next year AU will once again be in Vegas at the Venetian. I hope this next year's conference will be better in the above areas but in so far as the other areas, keep bring one the excellent stuff!

AU 2008 "Worlds Apart, Seconds Away"