Autodesk University 2026, Day -1 and 0
Writing this pretty jet lag, excuse the mess.
On Sunday I left home (London) for the pilgrimage to Vegas. My flight started eventfully when the girl sitting next to me said she had a severe allergy to nuts, BA crew announced not to consume peanuts due to an airborne allergy, and consequently the couple in my row decided to open a bag of mixed nuts… you can imagine the panic, but the outcome of the drama was: I got the economy row for myself and was able to nap for 2 solid hours.
When landing I was in the passport line for 90 minutes or more. USA delightful experience. Has anyone recently landed in Singapore? That is a proper system. Anyway! And I got to meet Elliot Crossley from BDP in person! There are so many folks whose careers I have followed but never actually met and had a chat with. We had an ok taxi to the hotel, then check-in, then for me, crash to bed.
Elliot speaks at this AU on Thursday! Go and see his talk. Thursday, titlle: "From Office Data to Smarter Decisions: Digital Twins for Workplace Optimization"
Then day 0 was already conference day for me. I had a very productive morning at the aviation summit. Productive for me is to listen to customers, check the pulse of where the built environment is at and see where Tandem can help. Also, as an obsessive techie bimie from the built environment, I love to talk shop.
I had a moment after that aviation summit in the middle of my jet lag. I was washing my hands at the ladies’ and all of a sudden I heard Spanish from Spain: “Hola Iria, ¿qué tal?” For a moment my brain could not compute the context, until it started to work again. I looked at the badge and saw Victoria Villanua, who, over a decade ago, how time goes, worked with me on the Spanish BIM government mandate, but reporting what was going on in the UK. I am talking 2014 or 2015 timeline? Time flies when you are fighting the good fight of improving this industry.
The afternoon was a bunch of errands in preparation for the week, including the rehearsal of my Thursday presentation with my colleague Karina. It will be live-streamed (“hi mum”) but we hope those 30 minutes are fun and have good lessons for everyone.
Evening, I don't know how I survived. It was first catching up with my colleagues who live on different continents and I don't get to see. Then meeting more customers at the owners reception, where it is always good to catch up in a more relaxed context and get to connect more. It is always nice to see recurrent faces and new ones. Looking forward to official day 1. I will try to keep these stories coming if jet lag wakies 3.00am allows me.
