Autodesk University 2019 Recap: Better Starts Here—With a Great Community!

That was a blast: We’re now back from what was an incredible Autodesk University 2019 in Las Vegas, and we took the time to reflect on some of our experiences, conversations, and takeaways from what was a phenomenal event for the entire industry that showed one more time what community means!

HoloBuilder
HoloBuilder

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Autodesk University never disappoints and 2019 was no exception. It’s hard to put all the great interactions and our excitement into words, but we’d like to try it and present you with a recap from the perspective of a construction technology provider.

For us, all the buzz kicked off at Connect & Construct with the launch of SpotWalk — our brand new job site offering that combines our AI-powered 360° reality capture technology with Boston Dynamics’ sophisticated and adaptable robot, Spot.

Everybody loved to see Spot walking the job site equipped with a 360° camera in our presentation at C&C. Spot + JobWalk = SpotWalk!

We were overwhelmed with the interest and positive feedback we received from all the thought-leaders in the room and from everyone at our booth later on, plus extensive media coverage on various platforms!

It was a special pleasure to present SpotWalk at the Connect & Construct panel together with Will Plato, VDC Manager at Hensel Phelps, a very innovative, 100% employee-owned ENR Top 20 General Contractor. Will presented on the evolution of 360° reality capture, the values, and benefits of leveraging AI & machine learning within his organization, as well as next-generation automation and robotics. He specifically highlighted the value 360° documentation powered by machine learning provides to “quality” through increased visibility on site, effective coordination, and improved planning and documentation. He also highlighted its impact on “schedule” through improved “plan to actual” ratios, schedule control, and reduced schedule delays.

A view on the Connect & Construct panel in which we revealed SpotWalk—from a different perspective!

For Autodesk University 2019 we predicted that it would be of key interest how to put data to work in earnest, in a way that promotes simplicity over complexity and substance over style. Our CEO and Founder, Mo Akbari- Hochberg, was invited to an industry panel discussion on “Forge, Connected Data, Machine Learning, and Predictive Insights”, in which it became clear that this is where our entire industry is heading.

The CS324010 Industry Panel at #AU2019: Forge, Connected Data, Machine Learning, and Predictive Insights!

Also later in the week, we shared further details of our work with Hensel Phelps, explaining how our 360° reality capture technology is driving value on the $1.2 billion construction project of Harvey Milk Terminal 1 at the San Francisco International Airport. For this session, Hensel Phelps Project Manager, Andrew Cameron, presented with us and outlined the value 360° reality capture has been providing to his project over the past 3 years during which his team has been using HoloBuilder, in front of a truly great audience! He also outlined the benefits of having a “single source of truth”, that one gets with the structured data within the HoloBuilder platform, as well as the value in partnering to co-develop new technologies.

A view on the great audience at our second session at AU 2019— again from an uncommon perspective!

It was inspirational to be around so many great companies that are busy innovating to deliver real benefits and efficiencies to the construction industry.

Talking about innovation: It was a special pleasure to hang out with the Boston Dynamics team at the conference again, who made working on the SpotWalk integration a really great experience during the past year.

Even better was the knowledge-sharing aspect; with experts, entrepreneurs, and veterans educating one another as part of a big open conversation. As Autodesk puts it: “This is the Power of Community.”

It was a pleasure to speak to so many of you and an overwhelmingly great feeling to experience what “community” means in the context of #AU2019 at our booth!

Aside from our presentations and great interactions at the booth, some of our highlights from #AU2019 included connecting with friends, the fantastic keynote speech, and of course the Thursday night “Opportunity Rocks” AU Block Party.

Opportunity Rocks — The AU Block Party!

And one of the biggest highlights for sure was our friend, Spot, from our partners over at Boston Dynamics who took everyone’s heart by storm.

The small quadruped named “Spot” was the secret hero of the show and took everyone’s hearts by storm!

We’re already thrilled to meet all of you again at Autodesk University 2020, to showcase our latest developments as well as to get inspired by more cutting-edge technology & innovations!

What was your highlight at Autodesk University 2019 in Las Vegas? What do you think about SpotWalk? Let us know your thoughts and send us an email to buildingtogether@holobuilder.com!

We are looking forward to reading from you—and if you liked this article, leave us some 👏s! Thank you 🙂

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