Autodesk University

The AU 2011 Innovation Forums will leave you informed, inspired, and energized about trends and technologies that will be personally important to you and your business in the years ahead.

These sessions feature a mix of individual speakers and panels that will provoke, challenge, and enlighten you about entirely new ways to design and innovate.

The forums will encourage to you to think differently about how you get your work done. You will also learn where Autodesk stands on current trends and technologies, such as model-based design, the cloud, product lifecycle management, sustainability, and more.

Designing a Better World—From Green Cars and Carbon-Neutral Skyscrapers to Sustainable Cities and Communities

Wednesday, November 30, 3:00 p.m.–4:30 p.m.

Designing a better world starts with people like you—people who are redefining good design and innovating in ways that will radically transform both your business and the world as we know it. Designing for a better, more sustainable world is no longer the exception, but rather the expectation. It is simply good business, in the same vein as cost reduction, quality improvement, and improved delivery time.

Join us as we explore cities of the future—from buildings to manufactured goods, infrastructure to transportation. Learn how industry leaders are using sustainability to gain and maintain a competitive advantage with new business models, new market opportunities, and new ways of designing. You will walk away with practical knowledge and next steps for driving sustainable outcomes of a project or practice.

This session features a lineup of exciting speakers, including:

• Ed Mazria, Founder and CEO of Architecture 2030
• David Dornfeld, Dept. Chair and Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Univ. of California, Berkeley
• David Cooper, North American CEO of WSP Group
• Dr. Patrick Coulter, COO of Granta Design Limited
• Linda Maepa, COO of ElectronVault, Inc.
• Phil Bernstein, VP of Industry Strategy and Relations, AEC Solutions, Autodesk

The Promise of the Cloud—The Implications of Virtually Infinite Computing for Your Industry

Tuesday, November 29, 10:00 a.m.–11:30 a.m.

You hear about it every day. Everyone is talking about the potential of the cloud, but how real is this new technology? What does the cloud mean relative to team productivity and traditional design processes? If you move your data into the cloud, what are the security, bandwidth, and intellectual property risks? Does cloud computing offer tangible benefits that can better serve your customers and provide you with a competitive advantage?

Get a better understanding of these issues and learn why now is the time to embrace the possibilities of virtually infinite computing power in the cloud to truly transform your business and gain a real competitive advantage.

This session features:

• James Staten, Forrester Research
• Andrew Anagnost, Autodesk
• Greyson Lum, Disney
• Roger Corn, Sony Japan
• Ken Young, HOK

Everything Changes—The Future of Managing Innovation

Tuesday, November 29, 1:00 p.m.–2:30 p.m.

Along with the worldwide unveiling of our new, modern, accessible and affordable solutions, this forum will demonstrate how you can gain a complete view of your innovation process. From products to projects and bicycles to buildings, join us to learn how to break the tradition and benefit from improving your collaboration, data, and lifecycle management. Listen as these exciting presenters demystify your business process challenges:

• Randi Zuckerberg, former Facebook founder and director of marketing
• Monica Schnitger, founder and president of Schnitger Corporation, a market analysis firm focused on the software markets for engineering technology, specifically PLM, GIS, AEC, and plant design
• Oleg Shilovitsky, strategist, technologist, and ideologist of Inforbix, and an author of PLM Think Tank and Beyond PLM

During this forum, we will show that by providing diverse, distributed teams with secure, affordable, easy-to-use, and simple-to-deploy solutions, Autodesk is removing the traditional barriers associated with managing innovation, making information available to anyone, anytime, anywhere. Enabled by the cloud and fully integrated with in-house design applications and data management systems, these solutions streamline business processes and design workflows for increased efficiency, improved profitability, and higher quality outcomes.

Creativity 2.0—Making Design Personal Again

Tuesday, November 29, 3:00 p.m.–4:30 p.m.

What is the nature of creativity and the creative process? How do we teach creativity? How does a company like Nike equip its design professionals and encourage creative collaboration with each other and their customer? How can you apply lessons from creative Hollywood storytellers as you narrate your own design story? Join this diverse community of world-renowned speakers to explore the origins of creativity and how technology can be applied to creative questions:

• Sir Ken Robinson, creative expert, educator, author, and British knight
• Mark Foster Gage, principal and architect, Gage/Clemenceau
• Rob Barnette, digital creation director, Nike
• Louise Leakey, paleoanthropologist with the Turkana Basin Institute
• Alex McDowell, acclaimed artist and Hollywood film production designer
• Saul Griffith, inventor and recipient of a “genius grant” from the MacArthur Foundation

Don’t miss this fast-paced, jam-packed session built on the model of TED conferences and presented by the world’s most creative professionals who work at the juncture of creativity, community and technology.

Innovation Cage Match—Grey Matter Smackdown Featuring Free Drinks and No PowerPoint!

Tuesday, November 29, 5:00 p.m.–6:30 p.m.

The term "innovation" is one of the most popular and misunderstood terms in business today. More than ever, everyone is realizing that they must become more innovative to succeed among an accelerating field of ideas, competitors, and market factors.

But what does it really mean to be an innovative company? How can you catalyze an innovative culture where you work? Is it possible to measure innovation and the associated business results? And, what is the future of innovation? A single correct answer will not suffice.

Innovation Cage Match features intellectual sparring, where some of today’s brightest innovators put on their gloves to defend and exemplify their stand on innovation:

• Mark Foster Gage, Partner, Gage/Clemenceau Architects
• Matt Daly, Chief Scientist, Leviathan
• Nathan Shedroff, Director, MBA in Design Strategy, California College of the Arts
• Adam Richardson, VP, Strategy & Marketing, Frog Design
• Mark Hatch, CEO, Tech Shop
• Mark Hawkins, Autodesk CFO
• Daniel Kelly, President, Motor VFX
• Tom Wujec, Autodesk Fellow and Head Referee

Be there to cheer, learn, support, and to have fun over a few drinks! Do not miss the bare knuckles round where anything goes!

Cool BIM, Digital Prototyping, and Visualization—How Modeling Improves the World

Wednesday, November 30, 1:00 p.m.–2:30 p.m.

Human progress and technological innovation have always moved in concert. Yet until the 21st century, all of those innovations were created and explored in two dimensions through the convention of drawings, and mostly transcribed on paper.

Today’s innovation is fueled by the new and deeply empowering possibilities of digital modeling. This Innovation Forum will showcase the real-world experiences of customers using model-based processes:

• Drew Berry, Biological Animator, will describe how he creates scientifically accurate visualizations of cellular and molecular processes that inspire the next generation of biologists.
• Adam Booher, of Illini Prosthetic Technologies, will discuss how his firm is developing a more affordable and easily fitted prosthetic arm for below-elbow amputees, particularly those living in developing nations.
• Dennis Sheldon, of Gehry Technologies, will show how modeling is enabling his customers to design and construct some of the industry’s most challenging, sustainable, aesthetically unique buildings.

From their stories, you will learn how today’s modeling technology enables innovation that was not possible before, and their experiences will give you practical ideas for using 3D modeling in new and innovative ways to advance the human condition.