Hey. You Unplugged!!!!

Thank you very much for taking on this style of un-conference. An unconference is a conference where the content of the sessions is driven and created by the participants.

This is where it’s at!!!!!! This is the bomb. Small personal sessions, where we not only learn, but also contribute. These sessions ROCK!!!! This is what it’s about. No slides, no pictures, no one sided talk, just pure passion and inspiration.

I find it strange that the other market groups didn’t make use of this. Its very well supported by the Revit community.These were held as 50min sessions with no more than 40 people in the room. These are brainstorm sessions with a real personal touch and feel.

Learn, contribute or get out! All positive, get negative and get shot, as Jim put it.

First up was Jim Balding’s (WATG) session, Digital Design: Where are we going? Innovative, thought provoking, controlled, slick. Some excellent input.

Next was Wesley Benn, Benn Design. Process change: New tools, New methods. Although we have and work with many similarities, this session was an absolute eye opener in how odd the American processes of design and construction is. Wesley just connected all the dots, and hopefully opened new ways forward, for many professionals and the services they provide as well as the manner in which they do, with and too their clients.

It’s not all about software and software solutions. It’s also about the business of the Built Environment and fixing the fundamental flaws that plague the processes.

Straight after, we sat in Steve Stafford’s Advanced Use of the Revit Family Editor. Packed to the brim of eager beaver’s. Thanks to Steve for not making this a shoot out, or a display of “How too”. It emphasized the need to learn how to make your own, and bloody well share.
KISS. There was a strong consensus of, stop trying to make these over complicated advanced families that no one but yourself knows how to use the darn thing, and just keep it simple. It’s all and very well we can do it in the family editor, but often it’s just way over the users head.

Well I certainly got what I needed out of it today and far more than expected. For me it was the personal hand shake and greeting with the likes of Jim Balding, Wesley Benn, James van, Robert Manna, and then the awesome lunch with Steve Stafford, Daniel Hurtubise, and David Baldacchino, What a great bunch of guys. “Hey You”…. James Van, sorry I missed your session, BIM visionaries, but our lunch almost turned into dinner.

What a great day!
All session details should get posted to the AU site so keep a look out.