RTCAUS 2016 RECAP (SUMMARY)

I recently returned from one of the best RTC conferences ever.
If you were not fortunate enough to attend let me attempt to summarize my experience at the conference and then hopefully you will get a sense of how amazing it was.

DAY 0

• What a treat, the first day of travel (May 9-10) I was able to travel thru the new LAX international terminal. Why was it such a treat? I spent 3 years of my life designing and modeling the structure for the new terminal.

LAX International Terminal

• I flew from LAX to Sydney and traveled to Hunter Valley Australia via car with Steven Taskin and Konrad Sobon. We had a great time!

DAY 1 

Course near Hotel

• I was able to go running out on the golf course and see some beautiful sites. 

Opening Session

Jason Howden Showing "String Theory"

• I was then off to the Opening session where Chris Needham welcomed everyone and we were treated to a keynote from David Randell

Harlan Brumm showing off the new Revit Ideas Website

• Next Harlan Brumm from Autodesk Showed a new website freshly launched called "Revit Ideas" where users could post Ideas about what Revit should include etc. (way to go Autodesk!)

Luke Johnston showing is collaboration skill

• Next Luke Johnson from the "whatrevitwants" fame and all around great guy showed how BIM is broken but it could be fixed with the following bullet points... (secret? use Revizto) or some other collaboration software (more on that later)

Brett Dropping Structural Wisdom

• Next I attended Session 1.1 or "10 years of lessons" by Brett Taylor and fellow structural engineer. They had some very good points including not getting bogged down with lengthy BIM execution plans. Great tip! 

• Next I watched Jason Howden show his Dynamo Intro teaching skills. Jason taught 5 classes at this conference... .wow ... that is something I would never do. Hats off to you Jas!

• Then I watched Luke Johnson from the "whatrevitwants" fame show how real time collaboration is the key to solve BIM. What does that mean? Well basically it prevents everyone from working in their sillos and there are a large amount of collaboration software out there to help ... including.....  Revizto) I personally have not used it but I have used Fuzor and C4R. 

• Then I was off to my class to teach "Families in Motion" it was fun teaching this class because I have been creating this class content for about 4 years. It was an amazing audience and experience.

Me telling everyone "its ridiculously simple" in the Families in Motion Class

DAY 2

Morning Run with Graham and wild Kangaroos (see them in the background?)

• The day started out with a morning run with my New Zealand Friend Graham Allan where we ran into a wild herd of about 100 kangaroos Wow. 

Me teaching Structural Modeling 

• My first session I taught a lecture on how to use the analytical model for modeling structure then I had a lab that followed the lecture. It was fun to talk about structure and focus on how I personally tackle all the complicated roof structural framing problems. The audience was great and had many follow questions that I plan to incorporate into my next class proposal for AU 2016. The class basically throws out the traditional limitations of the structural framing families in Revit and uses Massing, AC,  analytical lines dynamo to get the structural framing job done.Why throw this out? because structural framing is 16 year old technology.. Enough said! The class mostly focused on more complicated situations such as roof framing. 

Konrad showing his dynamo skills

• Then I watched Konrad Sobon use his programming and dynamo skills to teach a class on "Mantis Shrimp" and how to get Grasshopper and Revit to talk to each other. Great stuff!

Aaron Maller showing off his door families

• Then I watched Aaron Maller do what he does best.... Perform... he showed off his door families and wow are they amazing. Any door family you want was presented in this class. He has been working on these files for many many years and it shows. If you ever need door content then look him up...he is great at it!



Me and Glenn at the Friday Social Function

• Then I attended the Friday Social event. It was hosted at the HOPE winery. (Hunter Valley is one of Australia's wine countries) and the weather is similar to Napa Valley in California. It was a beautiful place and I got to hang out with a lot of fun people including my long time friend  Glenn Jowett

• Also at the end of the day I was able to record a podcast session for "thearchitectshow" with Joe Banks and Nick Broadbent check it out here!What a great couple of guys who made me feel right at home in Australia. Please follow their podcast it has some great architectural content!

DAY 3

• The first session I attended was by Joe Banks. If you have not heard of Joe then you need to look him up. Joe made some great points about collaboration that are listed below.....



Joe making a point about gaming and the AEC industry

• Collaboration software is only as fast as the slowest internet connection. This means that for most people in Australia the severs need to sit in Australia to be viable. 
• the technical limitations of Collaboration with many parties logged in at the same time has already been solved with the gaming industry! If you think about Battlefield 4 over 64 players are allowed to be in the session together with no lag and amazing models and graphics... so why cant the AEC industry do this? Money? Why not use that gaming technology? there are some really good points here. You go Joe!
• Also I have to mention that I met Joe and I was instantly amazed at how friendly and smart he was about the industry. He also is an amazing speaker. 
•  I have talked about most of the high level speakers in the past including Aaron Maller, Paul Aubin, Brian Mackey and others. I thought I would talk about Joe in depth here so I don't leave him out......
• When I attend a class I absorb the content and I also absorb the speaker and how they deliver the material.  Here are some things that Joe did in his session that I thought was worth mentioning!.. and that I need to improve on....
• He was able to be very funny without being in any way offensive and used slides in a creative way
• He presented with a very conformable style where he talked with the class and not at them
• He allowed questions to be asked at any point in time and was not distracted by the comments and questions.
• He genuinely loved the material and it was clear he knew the material
• He was able to hold the audiences attention with just power point and no live demos



Me hanging with Luke Johnston from IGS

• Next I attended a class by Micah Gray where he showed how to take point clouds and turn them into a real time presentation. It was informative because he explained the basics of post production and most presentations skip that part. Plus I got to sit with my buddy Luke Johnston of IGS and the MEP content world 

• Next I attended a class by Jason Howden where he showed 60 BIM tips in 60 minutes. The class was full and very informative. I liked how they showed excel tips because lets face it... the best BIM software out there (right now) is excel :) I actually like this fast paced format and I am now thinking perhaps I should propose a class on say 75 structural modeling tips in 75 minutes but it be a fast paced live demo... I could dream right? 

Me hanging with Dom from IGS

• In this class I also got to sit with my other buddy from IGS Dom Martens. I should also mention I got to finally meet Ben Fox also from IGS they are a great group of guys and if you ever need custom content created for any platform call them up...

• Next I attended two dynamo classes one by Konrad Sobon and the other from RTC legend Steven Taskin they both do things with Dynamo I could only dream of. Keep up the good work you two!!!

Playing Tennis at RTCAUS with my NZ friends

                                    

• Next I was off to play tennis. I may look like Roger Federer but I dont play like him. I had a great time! Thanks all!

RTCAUS GALA Dinner

                                                      

• Then  I attended the GALA dinner. It was fun meeting new people and connecting up with people already knew. RTCAUS was an amazing event full of great sessions and great people. I encourage everyone to attend one of the RTC events in the future. I will be there! 

• I want to give a special thanks to the RTCAUS committee for allowing me the opportunity to present and experience this great event

• Finally, if I didn't include your name in this RTCAUS Recap my apologies but I thank you all who attended my sessions, who sessions I attended and who took the time to talk with me. This was truly a one in a lifetime event. Thank you!!!!!!!