It was a great Autodesk University ending in what can only be described as an “EPIC” party that will go down as possibly the best I have attended in all 15 years of attending AU. I want to sincerely thank the Autodesk University Team for pulling off this excellent 20th year AU in grand style ending with the grand finale of all AU parties. The party’s food and drinks including Jell-O shots were excellent and the entertainment awesome with several large rooms each with different types of music and activities. I did finally get found by my crazy Australian & New Zealand friends who dragged me out until the wee hours of the morning. Don’t believe any of the stories you hear such as me Irish clogging.
My only future AU hopes are that it is not at Mandalay Bay again. I have heard though a little bird we might be looking at AU 2013 at the Hard Rock (may not be correct and instead be at the Venetian) which would be AWESOME and is where the AU 2012 epic party was held. I also heard a few attendees and non-attendees asking for a non Las Vegas AU option again in the future perhaps held in a place like San Diego, San Francisco California or Austin Texas so that some that had employers not willing to send employees to Las Vegas. Also it would be nice to get less competition for valuable and scarce time between classes and the Innovation Forums. Perhaps an optional day with Innovation Forums as they are amazing, but hard to attend with classes at the same time.
See the AU 2012 Photos and post some yourself for free:http://www.flickr.com/groups/au2012/. If you have photos of me especially the cage match or my classes please feel free to email me or upload them free to Flickr at. A few of the people that post the best photos will receive a Snagit and Camtasia license courtesy of Techsmith.
I enjoyed seeing everyone and wish everyone safe travels and can’t wait to see you all again.
Cheers,
Shaan
Lynn’s Twitter feed said “Venetian/Palazzo” for next year https://twitter.com/Lynn_Allen/status/274619882153312257
I agree with the Mandalay, unless you are going to issue everyone Segways.
Other than Vegas, it’s not easy to find a place that’s inexpensive (hotel wise) and can accommodate 8-10K people. One of the main reasons it’s Vegas and that week is because it’s the slowest week in Las Vegas, and you can get hotel rooms for nothing. Also, everyone can easily fly to Vegas, as I believe it is the number one US City with the most direct flights from everywhere around the world (between Vegas and Orlando, and let’s not go through that Swan and Dolphin fiasco again)
SF and SD are too expensive.
Austin would be interesting, as would somewhere like Nashville. Ultimately, it needs to be a hub city for ease of travel, or a fun, inexpensive city.
The Venetian is nice and preffered to Mndalay, perhaps my little bird was wrong.
For the record, the staff at Mandalay Bay was great. It’s just the distances between venues, confusing layout and that gawdawful stamped concrete floor that make the Venetian much more attractive (IMHO, of course).
Assuming AU and F1 calendars remain similar (next year is 17/11/2013 Grand Prix of USA (Austin)) I can imagine Austin working. The thought of an F1 GP weekend then stay a week or so for AU201# would be rather awesome!
Oh, we had Jell-O shots – forgot about those snd probably some other things! Best AU party I’ve been too, and the impromptu Aussies/Kiwis/Autodeskers after party was the icing on the cake. 🙂
Glad to see it will be at the Venetian next year.
Oh that would be fantastic!
Where was this impromptu party?
MGM Grand, then onto the Nine Fine Irishmen bar at New York, New York (great band) and then back to the MGM Grand.
I have some co-workers here who attend the ESRI UC and from what I am told, the attendance for that event is in the 12-14k range – and it’s held in San Diego. I’m not complaining about Las Vegas, but I wouldn’t think 10k attendance would be a limiting factor for locations.
PING:
TITLE: Thank you Schuyler Sledgehammer St.Leger
BLOG NAME: Between the Lines
Some may have attended or seen the fun Cage Match on “3D Printing is a Toy” with 12 year old prodigy Schuyler St.Leger last week. I even wore the Nacho Libra mask and cape in an unsuccessful attempt to intimidate Schuyler. This was really a no win deba…