So where in the world am I now? …..I’m back in Waltham for the second Autodesk Blogger Day event. More will be revealed in the next few hours, so watch this space…..
Great flight out and I managed to fly from Terminal 5, Heathrow. This is the first time I have stepped inside the terminal and I have to say it was immense! I have flown from Heathrow on a number of occasions and whilst it is far more convenient for me, getting to the heart of Heathrow has always been a bun fight. Those that travel regularly will know exactly what I mean. T5 on the other is junction directly off the M25 motorway and your there. Parking is a breeze and the check in took about 5 minutes, which gave me plenty of time to spend with the family drinking coffee and cakes before going through passport control. No rushing or pushing, cool and claim.
Hey, I’m sure not every traveler who goes through T5 will experience this, but Mr Rogers the architects behind T5, has got it spot on in my view. Also, it should be noted whilst T5 did have its issues (when doesn’t a project of this scale not?) this was a BIM project. Whilst Revit was in its infancy, Autodesk Architectural Desktop was BIM tool of choice and Navisworks played a bit part in the coordination of this functionality and quality building.
So in the afternoon I arrive at the Aloft Lexington, my hotel for the next 24 hours. I then meet up with Robert Manna and his pregnant wife Krista , Steve Stafford and Zach Kronz for a run through of Roberts and Zachs AU 2010 lab class, AB220-1L: Au Bon Panel: Baking Your Own Adaptive Components and Panels with Autodesk(R) Revit(R) Architecture. Zach takes us all over to the Autodesk Waltham office for some after hours moonlighting so we can pull apart and dissect what they have been working on. Steve and I will be the labs rats for the class, so it was really good to understand what they are planning to teach and how. Labs classes always seem to get booked up extremely quickly at any AU event, so much so this class will get a second slot.
Zach has to split and the rest of us head back to the hotel where we meet up with Dave Harrington and Wai Chu. As Dave H and I aren’t locals :-) they take us into Cambridge and we wonder around a bit doing some impromptu sightseeing. After getting a bite to eat we all head back to the hotel and meet with Dave Baldacchino who had flown in from Houston. There we sit until the early hours discussing and sharing stories on the challenging world of training and nurturing staff in the use of Revit!
