Today begins Day 2 officially, though for me it began Sunday and Monday.

Sunday we walked to the Mirage to pick up our tickets for the LOVE concert that night and then walked through the Venetian Grand Canal Shoppes.

I met Shaan Hurley at the front desk as he was checking in and returning from his hike mentioned on his blog.

That afternoon we walked over to where AU would be held as they were setting up to get a lay of the land. This doesn’t come off easily, though Autodesk would leave you to believe that the way the finished conference looks. There is a lot of hard behind the scenes work. Thank you AU you staff!

I found the Speaker Ready Room and almost felt goosebumps walking in there. I was there. I was still having a hard time believing that I was finally chosen as a speaker. Thank you for your confidence.

I met Robert Bell’s wife and the man whom I admire that is all AU, Joseph Wurcher.

The speaker shirts and AU messenger bags are all black with red letters for AU. It’s almost ominous to see all this black all around the hallways. I was all dressed in black on Tuesday since that was the day I presented and almost felt a part of some cult or previous portion of 20th century history. I didn’t march, however.

Watching all the attendees walking the halls with their badges on and the way we are herded into the main stage or for meals almost makes me fearful that we are going to collect our Soylent Green. O.K., so maybe I enjoy history and old movies a little too much!

My class went off beautifully. I believe that I am the luckiest of presenters here as my class was at the top of the list and was the first session of the first day. The students were wonderful. I was very fortunate to have two top notch lab assistants. Steve Bennett is well known through AUGI and his dedication is amazing. Matt Stachoni I confess I have not heard of previously, but was really amazed to find that he is also an AU presenter. How great to have a fellow presenter be your lab assistant!

The workstations in the lab I taught were very nice HP machines and the technicians were very helpful. There wasn’t a single hitch with equipment during the 90-minute lab.

I visited with several students as they were filing into the class to get a feel for why they were really there and what they did. I met some really good people and was able to gauge the fact that everyone really did want to learn exactly what I was going to be teaching. There really are a lot of people out there that have AutoCAD Architecture and only use it to draw lines as if it was only AutoCAD.

I met a lot of people in just the first day. Some were people I’d only known through the Internet and some I hadn’t seen in a number of years. I met at least half of the AUGI BOD that I served with during my term. I met 3 people from Brazil including the couple that are involved in the Brazilian Chapter and will be hosting the first ever Brazil CAD Camp next week. I met old friends from AUG-JP from Japan that I met during my term on the BOD and at the last AU I attended in 2004. I met Melanie Perry finally after reading her blog for so long. I also met in person some people with EastCoast CAD that have asked me to teach a day and a half AutoCAD MEP session in conjunction with them for their fabrication product.

There were many more people and is much more to tell. Now it’s time to head downstairs and get a start on what will be my longest day here yet.

We also visited the Imperial Palace Auto Collection on Monday before I attended the Speaker’s Social and the Beta & Bloggers event that night.

More later…(including The Birds of a Feather Lunch)