The first day of BILT-NA 2017 in Toronto Canada is now behind us. For those not able to make it, or are not sure what this BIM-focused conference is all about, here are a few highlights...
Like most conferences, everyone gathers for a formal plenary introduction to the conference first thing. This was lead by the new fearless leader of the North American (NA) committee Robert Bell. Bob did a great job kicking things off.
The major sponsors were given a few minutes to get on stage and say a few words. ANTHONY HAUCK from Autodesk talked about some cool stuff his group is working on with generative design and AI. Next up ANDREW RINK from NVIDIA and SEAN YOUNG from HP announced Reinvent Life on Mars and the new HP Z VR backpack (more on this later).
ARMAN GUKASYAN from Revizto took the stage to highlight their product and then announce the keynote speaker DAVID RENDALL.
Like most conferences, everyone gathers for a formal plenary introduction to the conference first thing. This was lead by the new fearless leader of the North American (NA) committee Robert Bell. Bob did a great job kicking things off.
The major sponsors were given a few minutes to get on stage and say a few words. ANTHONY HAUCK from Autodesk talked about some cool stuff his group is working on with generative design and AI. Next up ANDREW RINK from NVIDIA and SEAN YOUNG from HP announced Reinvent Life on Mars and the new HP Z VR backpack (more on this later).
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| Andrew Rink and Sean Young |
ARMAN GUKASYAN from Revizto took the stage to highlight their product and then announce the keynote speaker DAVID RENDALL.
IAN MCGAW also spoke about his companies use of Revizto.
The registration desk was busy checking in over 500 attendees.
There are a number of larger-than-life schedules in the hallways in case you lose your program or don't have access to the conference app.
CLAY HICKLING and I had one of the first session slots on What's New in Revit 2018 (and 2018.1). I think the class went pretty well, with lots of interaction from the audience. At the end of the session I gave away 5 books.
Nice decals on the elevator doors, telling everyone how to get the conference app, on the conference floor!
The exhibit hall is spacious and packed with lots of great product and service providers.
At the HP & NVIDIA booth(s) I found TOM WHITEHEAD test driving the new HP VR backpack which is now available for purchase at about $3500US (nice!). This has two hot swappable batteries and a NVIDIA Quadro P5000 graphics card (click here is see my review of the P5000).
Of course I took it for a drive... next two images are of me:)
MARCELLO SGAMBELLURI and DON BOKMILLER presented an interesting session on using gaming engines in the MEP and structural disciplines. A fun session to be sure!
BRIAN MACKEY and MATT JEZYK (from Autodesk) did a session on using journal files to create scripts which can be used to make batch changes to content and project files. Excluding my session, because I am biased, this was the best session of the day. Brian always does great presentations.
The day wrapped up with dinner provided in the exhibit hall sponsored by Pluralsight... my family with with me in Toronto so we took off and went to dinner on our own.
In closing this post, I will say that a smaller conference like this with the number high caliber, industry influencers, makes this a great opportunity to network and take deep dives on topics that you are challenged with or just interest in.