Another conference has come and gone... Midwest University 2019 at Mystic Lake Casino and Convention Center in Minnesota. During the keynote, the president of ATG described it as the largest AEC conference in the USA. I had to stop and think about that, but its probably true. Autodesk University has about 10k person but is not just an AEC conference, and with MU having around 700 attendees it is larger than BILT. But, where BILT is focused mainly on buildings, MU also caters to civil engineers using AutoCAD Civil 3D and InfraWorks - which is part of AEC.
The conference had some amazing presenters and attendees... I talked to multiple people from Gensler, Perkins + Will and more. Just to name a few of the presenters... Paul Aubin, Brian Mackey, Michael Kilkelly (ArchSmarter) and Steven Shell. Interestingly, the first three that came to mind are independent consultants, and then Steven is a sole proprietor of his own architecture firm. There where many other great firms and presenters at MU this year.
The North American Committee Chair for BILT, Robert Bell, also presented. I wish I could mention more people but my lunch break is almost over:)
Additionally...
The keynote was interesting as we heard several firms highlight work they have done over the past year. This was the entire group gather is a large beautiful theater.
Here is the president and general counsel of ATG, Ben Hollowell, getting things started. I did not get a chance to meet him.
CTC Software (Shawn Zirbes and Brian Levendowski) spent some time, during the keynote, talking about their offerings... including the MEP Productivity Pack (MEPPP) that LHB help create.
Harlan Brumm, head of Revit development at Autodesk, also had some stage time during the keynote. The timing of MU is always a little odd in that the next version of Revit should be out in just a few weeks (based on previous years) so he could not talk about that just yet. Apparently Phil Bernstein , Associate Dean, Yale School of Architecture, had some sort of inspiring comment on this slide, but due to my seat location it was obscured by a large speaker.
You can see the entire keynote presentation here: Midwest University 2019 Keynote
Here are a few shots of the venue. If you have ever been to Autodesk University in Las Vegas, this conference has a similar feel with the casino, conference center and hotel all combined.
I had the opportunity to hang out with the Enscape team, Kaj and Lisa, to talk to attendees about this great real-time rendering engine. I also presented in two sessions on this topic. My name badge even said "Exhibitor".
Here is the first session Kaj and I did together.
Adjusting the sun for nighttime and even the cars light up!
Originally, Enscape's Jonathan Knofel was supposed to be here, but he ended up going to Silicon Valley this same week to announce Enscape's support for the NVIDIA RTX graphics cards at NVIDIA GTC. Check that out here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPsxtKHyRMA&t=3s
Like all the good Autodesk-centric conference, attendees can take one of the Autodesk Certification Exams for free. BTW, I have a new book on this topic: http://bit.ly/2HJhCOh.
Here is a class Blake D. Guither, PE, BEMP, LEED AP O+M, Mechanical Engineer at Gausman and Moore, did on the MEPPP. We have created some real magic in a lot of our MEP families, in this pack, using the Articulated Cartesian Arm (ACA)... more on that in the near future.
My friend Michael Kilkelly presenting his second session at the conference on enhancing your BIM superpowers. FYI, I have an MEP Remodels and Alternates course on his ArchSmarter site.
Here is a photo of me with...
Harlan Brumm
My co-author for Autodesk Revit 2019 Architectural Command Reference, Jeff Hanson, who also works at Autodesk
The Rock-n-Roll Architect Steve Shell...
For fun Tuesday evening before the event, I took the Enscape folks, who are both from Germany, to the Mall of America (20 minutes away) where we rode a few of the roller coasters in the giant indoor amusement park (awesome in the middle of winter in here Minnesota).
Finally, my name badge!
At about $800 for a two day conference with a TON of sessions, it is hard to beat the value.
For BIM Chapters updates, follow @DanStine_MN on Twitter or connect on LinkedIn
I also write blog posts for Enscape - a new paradigm in rendering, animation and VR for AEC.
The conference had some amazing presenters and attendees... I talked to multiple people from Gensler, Perkins + Will and more. Just to name a few of the presenters... Paul Aubin, Brian Mackey, Michael Kilkelly (ArchSmarter) and Steven Shell. Interestingly, the first three that came to mind are independent consultants, and then Steven is a sole proprietor of his own architecture firm. There where many other great firms and presenters at MU this year.
The North American Committee Chair for BILT, Robert Bell, also presented. I wish I could mention more people but my lunch break is almost over:)
Additionally...
The keynote was interesting as we heard several firms highlight work they have done over the past year. This was the entire group gather is a large beautiful theater.
Here is the president and general counsel of ATG, Ben Hollowell, getting things started. I did not get a chance to meet him.
CTC Software (Shawn Zirbes and Brian Levendowski) spent some time, during the keynote, talking about their offerings... including the MEP Productivity Pack (MEPPP) that LHB help create.
Harlan Brumm, head of Revit development at Autodesk, also had some stage time during the keynote. The timing of MU is always a little odd in that the next version of Revit should be out in just a few weeks (based on previous years) so he could not talk about that just yet. Apparently Phil Bernstein , Associate Dean, Yale School of Architecture, had some sort of inspiring comment on this slide, but due to my seat location it was obscured by a large speaker.
You can see the entire keynote presentation here: Midwest University 2019 Keynote
Here are a few shots of the venue. If you have ever been to Autodesk University in Las Vegas, this conference has a similar feel with the casino, conference center and hotel all combined.
I had the opportunity to hang out with the Enscape team, Kaj and Lisa, to talk to attendees about this great real-time rendering engine. I also presented in two sessions on this topic. My name badge even said "Exhibitor".
Here is the first session Kaj and I did together.
Adjusting the sun for nighttime and even the cars light up!
Originally, Enscape's Jonathan Knofel was supposed to be here, but he ended up going to Silicon Valley this same week to announce Enscape's support for the NVIDIA RTX graphics cards at NVIDIA GTC. Check that out here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPsxtKHyRMA&t=3s
Like all the good Autodesk-centric conference, attendees can take one of the Autodesk Certification Exams for free. BTW, I have a new book on this topic: http://bit.ly/2HJhCOh.
Here is a class Blake D. Guither, PE, BEMP, LEED AP O+M, Mechanical Engineer at Gausman and Moore, did on the MEPPP. We have created some real magic in a lot of our MEP families, in this pack, using the Articulated Cartesian Arm (ACA)... more on that in the near future.
My friend Michael Kilkelly presenting his second session at the conference on enhancing your BIM superpowers. FYI, I have an MEP Remodels and Alternates course on his ArchSmarter site.
Here is a photo of me with...
Harlan Brumm
My co-author for Autodesk Revit 2019 Architectural Command Reference, Jeff Hanson, who also works at Autodesk
The Rock-n-Roll Architect Steve Shell...
For fun Tuesday evening before the event, I took the Enscape folks, who are both from Germany, to the Mall of America (20 minutes away) where we rode a few of the roller coasters in the giant indoor amusement park (awesome in the middle of winter in here Minnesota).
Finally, my name badge!
At about $800 for a two day conference with a TON of sessions, it is hard to beat the value.
For BIM Chapters updates, follow @DanStine_MN on Twitter or connect on LinkedIn
I also write blog posts for Enscape - a new paradigm in rendering, animation and VR for AEC.