My second day at this year's Autodesk University started with another lovely sunrise.After breakfast I spent an hour or so writing my Day 1 blog post in the Community Zone before I realised a queue was forming to enter the general session. I wandered over and joined it - quite near the front - and chatted with a number of people who were clearly very excited about listening to the day's guest speaker.
Here are the people waiting in the Community Zone for the general session to open its doors.
I found a single seat free in the third row behind the VIP section. Score!
I sat down and got my computer out to continue work on my post. At one point I looked over and saw the person sitting next to me taking a selfie. I glanced at the screen and got a bit of a shock.
Hats off to someone who will sit in a packed audience with a mask that limits both vision and breathing. That's dedication.
The excitement in the hall was palpable.
After a brief speech, our COO Steve Blum introduced our CMO Dara Treseder, who interviewed some of our customers close to where we were sitting.The Steve introduced the special guest, Ryan Reynolds.
Steve then spoke with Ryan for about 45 minutes, and I have to say it was riveting. Ryan was everything you’d have hoped for: funny, humble and inspiring. You couldn’t help but come away loving this amazing, talented man.
One thing that resonated with me was when Ryan talked about being a storyteller who amplifies the work of interesting, intelligent people. I feel exactly that way about my work, too. I’m not comparing myself with Ryan Reynolds, of course, but it was interesting to hear him say something that I’ve often thought about myself.
We've been asked not to post images of the session, so here's a picture of someone taking a photo of the session. I hope that's OK.
After the keynote ended I headed across to the expo for a bit before going to lunch at the APS Certified Partner Lunch with Mike Haley. Afterwards I had the chance to catch up with Jim Quanci, who is attending what may well be his last AU (given his upcoming retirement). I still have a lot of trouble coming to terms with this idea, but I'm reassured by the fact Jim says he'll be visiting us regularly in Switzerland once he has the time. He'd better!
Back in the expo, I spent some time chatting with a visitor from 2029 (Elliott Montgomery from our Strategic Foresight team). It was a blast!
Our booth had a lot of interest, as people experience the “From Steps to Stories” exhibit...
... but also donned our data capture helmets to capture the human experience of the AU 2023 Expo. Having this experiential data will be hugely valuable when considering how to improve the AU exhibit hall - and architectural spaces, thinking more broadly - in the future.
Have you seen the Tandem tandem? What fun. :-)Once finished at the expo, I headed across to an internal Autodesk mixer before joining the Dynamo party.
It was so nice to catch up with old friends!
After this it was off to Tao, where we joined the Named Accounts party.
Adam Gaier and I had some fun trying to get served. I think they could tell we didn’t belong.
On the way back to my room I took a quick snap of the Strip, which has really been transformed ahead of this week's Grand Prix.
There was a different video playing on the Sphere that I captured before falling asleep.