Letter from the President - January 2017
Happy New Year!
January is a great time to look back on the year we’ve just finished and to look ahead at the year to come. (And to sign up for gym memberships that we won’t use after February.) It’s a time to plan big, and dream bigger.
As I write this, it’s just a few weeks after Autodesk University 2016. Talk about a place for big ideas! In the past, AU was mainly composed of picks-and-clicks classes. You can still find them there, but now there are just as many sessions with more high-level topics: discussions of process, theory, and possibilities.
I always come back from AU with some great new ideas. Sometimes they’re really specific feature-related tips that I just know my colleagues will love. Sometimes they’re more blue-sky concepts—ones that I want to keep an eye on to see how they develop. The trick, though, is turning these ideas into actions. You can think about things all you want, but eventually you’ll need results. How to get from point A to point B?
Despite the season, I won’t be making any resolutions. Resolutions are too easy to break. (See above re: gym memberships.) Instead, I set goals. Once you have a goal, you can make plans to achieve it.
For many of you, the goals you set for 2017 will involve expanding your professional skill set. In that spirit, this issue of AUGIWORLD is dedicated to advanced topics. You’ll hear from people who are pushing their design software to the limits—and beyond—with some amazing results. Implementing plans often means dealing with change. We heard a lot about change at AU, especially at the closing keynote. Andrew Anagnost highlighted three Autodesk customers that changed themselves, changed their companies, and changed their industries. If you weren’t in Las Vegas, I highly recommend that you watch the recording, and be inspired yourself. (All three keynotes, along with many other sessions, were recorded live and are now available at AU Online.)
2017 will also be a time of change and growth for AUGI. The Board of Directors is bidding farewell to three long-serving volunteers: Robert Bell, Melanie Perry, and Walt Sparling. We thank them for their service and dedication to our organization. They’re leaving some big shoes to fll, but we’re confident that our two newest directors will be up to the challenge! As of January 1st, Kimberly Fuhrman and Robert Green have joined the board. Their names should already be familiar to AUGIWORLD readers as content managers and frequent contributors, and the Board is looking forward to the addition of their skills and talents to our team. We’ll be working hard this year, along with our fantastic Management Team, to set our own goals for supporting our current initiatives and developing new ones.
So what’s your big idea? Maybe you’ll fnd something in the pages of this magazine that will spark your creativity. Maybe you saw a post on the AUGI Forums that will jumpstart an improvement to your company’s workflow. Or maybe you’re working on an app in your free time that will change how your industry does business.
Whatever your idea is, whatever your goal, I wish you success with it!
