Monday, April 14, 2008

How Do Bloggers Find the Time?

So, I spent the weekend in Scottsdale at COFES without ever once getting online to post any of my impressions of the event. COFES 2009 was fantastic, and I made note of lots of things that I want to write about, but at this point, I still don't have time to do so. But stay tuned...

I'm now in Dallas attending Autodesk Tech Camp. I spent most of the day installing the software that I need to train on over the next few days. Right now I'm patiently waiting for Revit datasets to download from Autodesk...and waiting...and waiting. There's lots of content.

There's not much to report from here yet. Today was mostly about upper management telling us about the importance of digital prototyping, something that I've been writing and talking about now for several years.

The high point for me was a keynote address by Mario Andretti. Yes, that Mario Andretti.

Those of you who know me know that I am a big open wheel autoracing fan. And I readily admit that Mario has been a hero of mine for a long time. I knew that Mario was going to be talking at Tech Camp, and so before coming to Dallas, I located several photos that I had taken of Mario over the years and had two sets of 8x12 enlargements made—one to give to him and one for him to autograph for me. I was successful in that quest and will scan and post those photos in a future posting. (You can see examples of my professional race photos on my website at http://www.dscohn.com/racephotos.htm.)

I guess that's about it for now. I've still got more software to load before I sleep, and while I'd love to actually write something of substance tonight, I have to attend to the installs.

I just don't know how people who blog on a more regular basis do it.

Thursday, April 10, 2008

On the Road Again

Yeah, I know. It sounds like a Willie Nelson song. But after getting to stay mostly at home for the past several months, the travel season is upon me. I'm currently sitting in a hotel room in Portland, Oregon, about to walk over to The PPI Group where I'll be doing a webcast this morning and then teaching a 4-hour "hands-on" BIM for Principals class this afternoon to a dozen architects that have flown in from various cities around the U.S. They're part of an AIA "Rainmakers" group, and I'm very excited to get to address these firm leaders.

I don't get to hang out and smooze with them, however, because as soon as that class finishes today at 5pm, I head right back to Portland Airport to hop a flight to Phoenix. Today marks the start of the 9th annual Congress On the Future of Engineering Software. COFES is an annual event that is part think tank, part technology summit, and part business conference. Run by my former partners at Cyon Research Corp., it brings together more than 200 top executives from the engineering software industry and some of their more influential customers and places them in an environment where they can talk freely about their future development plans and customer needs.

I look forward to COFES every year, both for the chance to engage in fascinating conversation and also to catch up with old friends. I'll try to find time to report on the event here on CADman-Do.

I won't get to relax very long, however, because on Sunday afternoon it's on to Dallas to attend this year's Autodesk Tech Camp, where I'll get my "official" Autodesk training on all of the new software. So continue watching this space for my reports on that event as well.