Off Topic - AUGI Beer Bust Mugs - AU 2008

Don't freeze your AUGI Beer Bust mug, it may "bust" when you add your beverage to it!!

For those of you who attend Autodesk University each year or have at least once you are probably aware that AUGI has given away a beer mug at the end of the AUGI general meeting (Sponsors pay for these mugs so that AUGI and you don't have to, they are listed on the mug too). Attendees then go to the AUGI Beer Bust in the exhibition hall to wander around and see what vendors are offering and to, yep you guessed it, drink beer.


This past AU was no different. Well there were mugs again but they were not glass as they were in previous years. This year the the hotel/convention services people told Autodesk/AUGI that they would not be allowed to bring glass into the exhibit hall. The only option to provide a mug and access to the beer was something other than glass. Thus this year's offering was a clear acrylic mug with a liquid that claimed to be "freezable" so that a beverage could stay colder longer.

We've had a few reports so far that mugs have "shattered" and "cracked" when they were frozen and then used. If this has happened to you please respond to this thread at AUGI and "vote" on the appropriate response in the poll. We don't know what can or will be done about mugs that have "failed" to perform. When we do we'll let "you" know too.

For those of you with a sense of humor about this, one member opined that maybe the vendor took the "Beer Bust" labeling on the mug literally?

(Note: You must be a member to view the thread and vote in the poll however.)

Shameless Plug - AU 2008 Classes by Bruce Gow

My friend from "the land down undah" (Australia) Bruce Gow is presenting some classes at AU that deserve some attention in my opinion, if you are schedule to attend AU 2008.

They are:

AB304-1 A Better Understanding Of Revit® Architecture Families for Advanced Users

ME114-1P A Better Understanding Of Revit® MEP Families: Advanced

I thought I saw a third for Revit Structure content too but I can't find it right now? Well...I hope you get a chance to attend AU and his classes!

Un-Conference Encore - AU2008

I have it on very good authority that Autodesk University will run an encore performance of the very well received "Un-Conference Sessions" at Autodesk University 2008. I moderated one last year about advanced family editing that I'm told received the most "let's do it" votes. I don't know that it lived up to the hype but I enjoyed the discussion.

A recent thread at AUGI brought this up and I checked in with my contact at AU. Stay tuned to BLAUG this week for more details.

I've been kicking around a couple ideas for sessions. One about multi-discipline collaboration and another focused on organizing "our" priorities about what "we" want Autodesk to do. If I end up submitting something you can tell "me" how badly you want to do it by voting when they go live.

AU 2008 Sessions

The selection of the next Revit classes to attend at Autodesk University 2008 is well under way. A recent post by David Baldacchino (Do U Revit?) pointed this out already and you can visit the BLAUG blog too. If you haven't voted already you can take a look at the list and see. Once you've voted you can't get back in to look over the list, or at least I couldn't.

I received an email asking why my name was not among the submissions. Simple, I didn't submit anything this year.

Last year I felt that I was unable to participate as much as I would have liked to, in my role as a board member with Autodesk User Group International (AUGI). This year I'm not going to have that conflict. Plus I hope to actually attend more classes this year!

Besides, there are so many more very capable users now, compared with a few years ago, that I doubt my absence will be noticeable. There are a great many classes to choose from and I wish the AU planning team all the best trying to pick from them. Hopefully the polling will help too!!

See you at AU 2008!