This week I had the pleasure of traveling here to San Francisco to attend a special Autodesk event. Autodesk invited several AutoCAD 2010 (codenamed “Gator”) beta testers who were also AutoCAD bloggers to attend the AutoCAD 2010 webcast backstage and also meet with members of the AutoCAD Team for an action packed day. There were many meetings to discuss their feedback on what they liked, did not like, and what they would like to see in the future. There were some great presentations from Guri Stark, Eric Stover, Guillermo Melantoni on Autodesk and the future of AutoCAD. The webcast kicked off at noon with Amar Hanspal, Eric Stover and a live AutoCAD 2010 product demonstration of some of the key new features by Heidi Hewett. It was a great experience but I sure don't feel comfortable seeing myself on camera or photos.

The webcast broadcast live is now archived for the next 30 days at: this link

Who attended:

• Brian Benton, CAD-a-Blog http://cadablog.blogspot.com/
• Donnie Gladfelter, The CAD Geek http://www.thecadgeek.com/blog/
• Mark Douglas, In the Dynamic Interface http://mdouglas.blogs.com/
• Randall McSwain, CAD Panacea http://cadpanacea.com/
• Steve Johnson, blog nauseam http://www.blog.cadnauseam.com/
• David Cohn, CADman-Do http://cadman-do.blogspot.com/
• Ellen Finkelstein, EllenFinkelStein.com http://www.ellenfinkelstein.com/autocad_tips_blog.html
• Melanie Perry, Mistress of the Dorkness http://mistressofthedorkness.blogspot.com/
• Robin Capper, RobiNZ CAD Blog http://rcd.typepad.com/rcd/
• Todd Shackelford, CAD Shack & The Lazy Drafter http://cadshack.blogspot.com/

Autodesk bloggers
Lynn Allen
Heidi Hewett
Me ;-)

Here are some of the posts on the blogger event and AutoCAD 2010 related blog posts I noticed this morning:

• Kate Morrical AutoCAD LT 2010 is here! (Well, almost.)
• Lynn Allen Let the AutoCAD 2010 Blogging Begin!
• Heidi Hewett 
  Live from San Francisco,
  it's AutoCAD! AutoCAD 2010… WOW!!
  Attention AutoCAD 2010 Beta Participants
  AutoCAD 2010 Demonstrations!
• Robin Capper, RobiNZ CAD Blog
  Watching the AutoCAD 2010 Webcast, without the web
  What do you call a group of AutoCAD Bloggers?
  Meeting other AutoCAD Bloggers at an AutoCAD Event
• Randall McSwain, CAD Panacea
  AutoCAD 2010 in 3 minutes
• Steve Johnson, blog nauseam
  Look out for AutoCAD 2010 news
  Autodesk not listening? The response, part 1.
• David Cohn, CADman-Do
  AutoCAD 2010 Rollout - Behind the Scenes
  AutoCAD 2010 Revealed
  The Show is About to Start
  AutoCAD 2010 Backstage Pass
• Melanie Perry, Mistress of the Dorkness AutoCAD 2010 Launch – Quickie
• Heidi Hewett's Blog: AutoCAD 2010… WOW!!
• Develop3D - Technology for the Product Lifecycle: AutoCAD 2010 ...
• Civil to Inventor AutoCAD 2010 preview guide
• David Harrington Autodesk ANNOUNCEMENT & AutoCAD 2010 is coming
• U2 AutoCAD 2010
• Jimmy Bergmark of JTB World AutoCAD 2010 soon on your desk , No VBA installed with AutoCAD 2010, SmartPurger now works with AutoCAD 2010 and Windows 7
• Civil3D Rocks Want to See AutoCAD 2010? Watch the recording of yesterday's press conference!
• AutoCADder AutoCAD 2010 is coming

AutoCAD 2010 Demo Videos on YouTube

Cheers,
Shaan