AU in Practice

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Its been a while since my last blog, partly because I'm working on a new super top secret project (well its not that secret if you use twitter), and partly because I've been been really busy in the office.  We have now successfully deployed our BIM protocols, an experience that I think I'll save for a future blog (the run in to 10.10.10 was a bit hectic getting those up to speed) and since then I've been really busy preparing for our updated "BIM in Practice" seminars.

The idea behind the 'BIM in practice' seminars is really a response to feedback we get a lot with people we work with - what's this BIM thing?  Becasue we're so passionate about BIM, we've put together a seminar that we share with people we work with (both clients and consultants) that are interested about using BIM in the real world, away from all the marketing material and to be quite frank, information overload available on the net.  It's been a really useful way in which to engage people in BIM, which we're very passionate about.

However, that's not the point of this blog post.  Putting those presentations together made me reflect on us going to AU again this year.  We (me and Adam, representing _space) attended for the first time last year and looking at all the tweets and facebook posts already, I can see a lot of people getting excited and also a lot asking why they should go and how they convince their bosses that they need to go.  So here's my attempt to let you guys into our real world experience of attending AU, how we got there, and why our bosses think its important we go every year from an impartial point of view - hence AU in practice...

LEARN. 

Far from being the jolly most of your colleagues will see your visit to Vegas as being, the main thing you will do at AU is learn.  For the three days of the conference, expect to be in classes from as early as 7am until upto 7pm.  Even the evening events contain an element of geekery for those of you with the energy left - we had a great time at the Pecha Kucha event and the design slam last year, and both focus on showcasing more things for you to learn.  We also attended the design computation symposium which actually sits outwith the conferenec dates and provides another full day of exciting things to see.  Thats potentially 40 hours of training for $1895 if you register early, which is good value alone.

During last years AU, Adam and I attended 25 individual classes between us, as well as sitting in on the Design Computation Symposium (Unmissable!), an Autodesk Customer Focus group, and both of us took the Autodesk Certification Exams for free.

The topics covered whilst we were there have formed the basis of our BIM development strategy for this past year.  Adam has used the classes and their contents to present to our Revit User Group that meets each month.  I have used the templates and management classes I attended to help inform the creation of our own protocols, and the resources available afterwards through the virtual portal have been used by nearly everyone in our office this year, whether they knew it or not!  What we picked up has also helped shape the curriculum for our training delivery this year, which I helped put together based on my own experiences at AU.  And finally, the knowledge we gained has been used on nearly every project in the office since we got back.

CONNECT.

AU is a fantastic place to meet people.  Most of us are probably considered to be (or at least expected to be!) 'experts' within the comfort zone of our own offices - at AU you'll be amazed at what you don't know and how many true experts there really are - a good sense of perspective to develop for any budding leader!  The best part about AU is that you actually get to meet and talk to them too...

An example - sitting down for lunch, Adam and I had a very interesting chat with the head of development for Revit MEP (this was before 2011 release so you can imagine our line of questions) and outside of the classes we met up with lots of people in the BIM world that we have continued to stay in touch with this past year - can't wait to meet up again at this years conference!  Considering I had never written a blog, or even used twitter prior to last years AU, its been a steep learning curve since...!

Another side to the conference is the exhibit hall.  Our exposure to the technologies in there last year have yielded real developments over the past 12 months.  Perhaps the biggest area of development has been our companies involvement in Laser Scanning, culminating in our first Laser Scanned BIM project coming into the office this Summer.  We have also followed up with research into 3D printing, Holographic projection and augmented reality, all from contacts we made in last years exhibit hall.

EXPLORE.

I think this is perhaps the most important facet of the 3 word tag attached to Autodesk's AU logo.  It is impossible to overstate the impact that AU had on mine and Adam's enthusiasm for work when we returned to the UK.  I distinctly remember talking to Adam after we had both sat the professional Certification exams and we were both discussing how much we were missing using Revit, and couldn't wait to get back to the office to put into practice what we had learnt.  How often have you felt excited about going back to work - honestly?!!  When you consider we arrived home into the worst January we have seen in the UK (both financially and weather wise), the enthusiam we brought back can really help to revitalise the office.

I think perhaps the most important point to understand when considering the benefits of attending AU sits here too.  The exposure that we had at AU to new methods of working, new technologies, and better ways of doing things we already did, has been central to the development of BIM in our company this year.  When we left for AU last December, we felt that there was nowhere in the UK that could realistically expand our understanding of BIM and Revit - we felt there was very much a glass ceiling on our development.  AU opened our eyes to a global community, and exploring that over the past 12 months has had a massive impact on us. It's not so much that we knew everything, because we didn't - but AU gave us the insight to ask the right questions, and helped us find the right people to answer them.  We have since revisited our company protocols, templates, training programme and our development has been truly exponential.

BUT IT STILL COSTS MONEY, AND WE'RE IN A RECESSION.

Thats probably the single most common argument I hear whilst we're speaking with people about BIM and I think if you pushed people for an answer, its probably the single largest barrier to BIM uptake aside from fear.

I'm not sponsored by Autodesk.  I'm also not sponsored by BIM (if that were ever posible, but stay with me).  Yet I still spend a lot of time going around telling people how great it is, and why they should be doing it.  Its about doing things better at the end of the day, and I've seen how much better it can be.

And that's really what I learnt at AU!  If you're trying to explain to your management/boss why you should attend this year, then perhaps this point of view will be of some help.  A big part of the process when you're trying to get your bsuiness to turn to BIM (and thats been my challenge for a year now) is to have the buy in of management.  When people tell you its quicker in CAD, that Revit hampers their design flair, and that they're going to export the project to CAD because there's not enough time - its the backing of your boss that will count the most.  I think that its the same with AU, if they can see what it can do for you and your firm, then its actually harder to find reasons not to go.

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