Show of hands: Newforma users at RTC 2011

Newforma Chief Product Officer Allen Preger sends this report on last week's Revit Technology Conference:

The Revit Tech Conference (RTC) made its debut in the United States last week in lovely, laid back Huntington Beach (a.k.a. Surf City), California. Newforma was there as an exhibitor, sponsor and curious observer!

Carl Bass of Autodesk welcomed the group with an opening speech on the possibilities of infinite computing and projects like Photofly, Zeon and “Augmented Reality” in the Autodesk labs that will soon be productized to exploit the promise of “zero-cost computing.” The conference then divided into its format of 4-5 parallel tracks that ran across the three days.

Everybody I spoke to said they really were getting a lot out of the sessions. Not surprising when you consider the list of experienced speakers and the choice and depth of topics offered.

Location is everything and that proved true not only with the event city but also the Newforma booth. We were located amongst the food and drink, allowing for great opportunities to connect with a number of existing customers and many new prospects between sessions. This was the perfect audience to discuss our latest product, Newforma Add-in for Autodesk Revit. Product Manager Chris Hawkins and I were kept pretty busy demonstrating and discussing Newforma’s new Revit-focused functionality.

Most everyone that attended said they would try to make it back next year. There were also lots of good networking opportunities in the exhibit area and social functions, which included an “Aussie-style” BBQ on the lawn with views of the Pacific. (Yes, Ian, there were plenty of shrimp on the “barbie”!)

Check out Dave Light’s blog for photos and his observations on some of the RTC technical program content. Click here for Dave’s comments on Day 1 and here for Days 2 and 3.

Another highlight was the closing event, which Newforma sponsored. Prior to introducing the closing speaker, Screampoint President Paul Doherty, I had a few minutes to introduce PIM (project information management) to this audience of BIM experts. When I asked how many in the audience knew about PIM, it was somewhat encouraging to see so many hands shoot up. When I followed up to ask how many were Newforma users, or had used Newforma at their prior job, it was awesome to see all those same hands shoot up again! RTC2011 was well done and very worthwhile for us. Looking forward to next year!