Phoenix AUGI CAD Camp

On Tuesday of this week I attended Autodesk User Group International (AUGI) CAD Camp right here in my own backyard at the Phoenix Hilton Pointe Resort.

It was a thrill to learn about Autodesk applications. I attended sessions on AutoCAD, Inventor, and Revit. Our instructors from CADsoft and Ketiv were very knowledgeable. I also got to network with Autodesk customers directly. It was very gratifying to hear that many of them were Autodesk Labs fans.

As with all CAD Camps, there were prizes. The top 10 "Top DAUG" competitors received T-shirts. These contestants answered 25 Autodesk related questions in under 5 minutes. Thanks to Matt Murphy for giving me a shirt as "an honorary top DAUG."

I assure you that even though I am an employee, my ability to answer these questions pales in comparison to our most loyal customers.

We also had some raffle prizes. At Shaan Hurley's suggestion, Matt selected me to help pick the winners. We used the course evaluation forms to draw from. Imagine my surprise when out of all those who attended, I picked my own name.Yes we put the form back in the pile, and I picked someone else. The day was filled with surprises like that - mostly surprises about how much I learned.

For a CAD Camp near you, see AUGI's Regional One-Day Learning and Networking Events. I encourage you to attend one of these. You'll be glad you did. CAD Camp attendees get $150 discount off Autodesk University 2008 attendance. So CAD Camp pays for itself in many ways.