Yesterday Lisa Campbell, Autodesk’s Chief Marketing Officer, announced the decision to move all this year’s Autodesk University events to a fully digital platform: this makes a lot of sense given the ongoing uncertainty around the duration and impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
It’s going to change the shape of AU for many of us, inevitably, but I’m looking forward to these events, nonetheless. For one thing it means I’m going to be able to attend – or even participate in – more of them, with less impact on my family and the planet.
I’m also really curious to see how the events team manages to replicate the AU experience for remote attendees: whatever gets put in place for this year’s events is likely to remain – or continue to be an option, at least – for future events that merge physical and remote attendance. Having a “forcing function” can be a good thing, and the current crisis is certainly providing plenty of those for digitalisation and remote access.
There are a lot of outstanding questions, about registration costs, the call for proposals process, etc. Some questions have already been addressed in the FAQ, and others will no doubt be addressed there, over time.
And who knows – perhaps we’ll look back and say “why did we ever cross oceans to spend the better part of a week in an air-conditioned conference centre without any natural daylight, when we could engage with people remotely so effectively from our homes?”
What do you think about the move? Do you see inconvenience or opportunity?
