Molly's blog

Our 3rd annual User Conference is now behind us (wow - that went fast!), but I find myself reflecting on this one a lot more than I did the others. I think it's because this conference really seemed like a reunion - lots of familiar faces from the past two conferences, plus friendships forged on Twitter and solidified on Facebook; lots of things now in common to talk about. It wasn't just the usual shaking of hands - people were hugging each other hello and, three days later, hugging goodbye (and calling to each other, "See you next year!").

It felt great. Energy and excitement were in the air - intangible but, just the same, you could sense them. Like we were - are - on the cusp of something big. 

Are you ready to be a part of it? 

About 100 attendees joined in this year's conference. There are many more users who weren't able to attend because of other business obligations or the economy's continuing challenges. We hope the spirit of this year's conference is contagious and encourages even more people to become part of this wonderful experience. 

With Haworth, Mepal, Spacefile, Steelcase, Teknion and now KI and Inscape on board, it's only going to grow! 

If you guessed a Twitter post is 140 characters long, you're right ... but Twitter really just a pipeline - a tool to get your message out there and to engage in conversations with others - our User Conference keynote speaker Peter Shankman said (http://petershankman.com and www.twitter.com/petershankman).

But 140 characters is also the maximum length of a text message on a cell phone. Short, sweet and capable of holding the attention of the typical person for the typical 2 seconds. 

So, in honor of short messages, this blog post today will also be short! ... And also because I need to dart down to our Day 2 Luncheon at which the winners of our Awards Program will be announced.

Still working on the videos - lots of good stuff, but it needs to be synthesized into smaller nuggets - because, you know, that 2-second attention span thing! :-)

More photos are up on our Flickr account: http://www.flickr.com/configura - awesome day-into-night, it was! What happens in Vegas ... it's all good.

Welcome to a few blog posts, Live from Las Vegas - site of our 3rd annual North American CET Designer User Conference! Once again, Configura welcomes CET Designer users and dealers from across the USA and Canada for several days of learning, networking and having fun. If you're joining us here in sunny City-in-the-West-that-Never-Sleeps, welcome! You're in for a great conference. If you weren't able to attend this year, you can still follow the events on our Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/cetdesigner), on Twitter (http://www.twitter.com/cetdesigner) and on Flickr http://www.flickr.com/configura) ... we hope to be uploading some video soon too! Stay tuned for more!

Joey Shimoda:

1. The technical skill, fluency, or style exhibited by a virtuoso (a person who has a special knowledge or skill in a field) or a composition.
2. An appreciation for or interest in fine objects of art.

1. Ridicule - they're laughed at or ignored for changing
2. Opposition - they encounter outright opposition to their change (most "average" people give up on change at this point)
3. Acceptance - the "non-average" bust through to acceptance - self-acceptance of change, and gaining the acceptance of others

... So we last left off with me writing a bit about yesterday's morning sessions ... so much has happened since then.

First, check out some of the conference photos on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/configura/sets/72157622364473551/ ... stay tuned because I'll be posting photos from last night's dinner (yes, pics of Swedish Punsch Toast! - should I post the video as well?!  ) and "social pages" shots of our esteemed attendees!

So, yesterday Brian Bosley gave this incredible talk at the conference. It was late in the afternoon and everyone needed a serious sugar snack, but Brian's talk practically yanked me out of my seat. I went into note-taking over-drive.

 If you don't know Brian, he's this fantastic Grand Rapids, Mich.-based speaker and trainer - but he travels all over North America and probably beyond for his work. Companies ask Brian to speak because he is so good at talking about change - how to embrace it, not fear it. Some pearls from his presentation:

"Your biggest obstacle to greatness is what you did yesterday."

"Embrace 'creative destruction' - destroy what you created yesterday to build something better tomorrow."

"The modes of change:

1. Shock - it's a way to change, but it's reactive. You're not in control. That's not good.
2. Evolution - it's still reactive but you're getting on board. The problem is, you might be trying to hop a train that's already left the station. That's not the greatest.
3. Anticipation - true creators and leaders anticipate change - indeed, they themselves may be the catalyst for change. This is where we want to be.

... which one do YOU most identify with?"

There's more - lots more. Good stuff. Wanted to give you a taste of it - more in a bit.

Live from Las Vegas,

Molly

So, CET Designer folks across North America beyond ...

Configura's 2nd annual User Conference in sunny, blue-sky-beautiful Las Vegas is off to a running start at The Venetian/Palazzo - wow - unbelievably lux  and the room rate was way less than those teeny-tiny hotel rooms in Manhattan. :-) ... wish I had decided to stay through the weekend. Check out the link to this pic of the hotel http://tweetphoto.com/evbafpd0 - and we'll be posting conference pics soon on our Flickr site.

This week's MMQB had a big story about Configura (yes, reprints are tucked in our conference goody bags and the article also is at www.mmqb.com). Rob Kirkbride traveled to Sweden and around Europe, reporting back to North America about what's going on "across the pond." More stories and video of Rob's European Tour are also at www.mmqb.com and you can also see the video he took of Configura:

We had more than half of our registrants show up for the "Early Bird Power Peer" sessions - fantastic turnout. Everyone else arrives this afternoon for the official conference kickoff with CEO Johan Lyreborn welcoming all and sharing Configura's plans for some pretty cool things ... like, a user portal based on the best that social media technologies have to offer ... and, drumroll ... RevLink, the new CET Designer Revit Extension. ... See  http://www.configura.com/cet/revLink and http://www.configura.com/cet/revLink/revit for details.

So much more that I hope to blog about ... like our rendering winners ... our dinner this evening complete with the Swedish Punsch Toast (it's now a conference tradition) ... and our keynote speaker Joey Shimoda, an LA-based architect and designer of Steelcase showrooms in Santa Monica and Chicago's Merchandise Mart. He did some work for Frank Gehry. Designed the Rolex Building in Beverly Hills. High-rises in Japan. ... Yep, we'll be hearing a lot more about Joey Shimoda and his amazing work around the world. 

And you'll be hearing more from me.

Live from Las Vegas,

Molly*

*Configura's PR person/professional cheerleader! Go Configura!  (Had to add the shades b/c it is so sunny here! ;-)