2006 North American Tekla User Meeting

Ah Vegas … the sights, the lights, the clubs, the permeable feeling to party, the tourists, the lush hotels- not to mention the uncanny urge to take your wallet out of your pocket… the surreal-ness of Vegas is breathtaking!

This year, Tekla held its 2006 North American User Meeting at the renowned AAA Five Diamond Bellagio on the strip, from August 16th to the 20th. This year’s conference broke the record as being the most attended, with more than 250 registrants – proof in itself of the growing popularity of the Structural BIM software.

Dowco Consultants sponsored the first night Welcome Reception with cocktails and hors d'oeuvres. It was a fine night of casual fun as people from the industry gathered and mingled together. I had the opportunity to meet and toast glasses with some of our Canadian users, and had a great time exchanging ideas with several Tekla staff.

It was a busy morning the succeeding day, with group sessions being held morning till noon. Stacy Scopano gave a presentation on ‘Beyond Product Modeling’, with emphasis on current and future trends, preceding a panel discussion on project delivery and interoperability. After lunch and a presentation by FICEP and Schuff Steel, users chose their workshops of preference for the afternoon – with some presentations needing duplication, as there were several sessions to choose from. There were three detailing workshops on modeling, drawing, with one session focusing on the advanced capabilities of Tekla Structures. There were also engineering workshops highlighting analysis and design integration and one on engineering drawings. To cap off the meetings, FICEP held a presentation on NC Tools while Mike Gustafson and Mike Wetzer made presentations on ‘Advanced Shop Drawing Review’ and ‘The Destiny Project’ respectively. A 2 hour break followed the last sessions, and finally I had my only chance to visit the strip.

After dinner, Tekla set up tables for all to play some mock blackjack and craps (roulette) wherein two individuals would win prizes for having the most winnings by the end of the night. It was supposedly a dinner-dance-dice event but the gambling proved so popular, the dance floor saw only a few spinning bodies.

Group sessions were held all day Saturday, starting with Omer Kiciman’s intro on Descon followed by an excellent showing from Chris Keyack, who unveiled ‘Excel and Tekla Structures’. Jarrad Michna bestowed upon users one of the highlights of the conference on the ‘Top 10’, which users described as ‘the most productive session’ of all. Dowco’s own Sanjay Prasad joined forces with Tekla staff during the open forum to help individual users solve problems and address specific issues.

From left: Terry Vachon (Vachon Drafting), Sanjay Prasad, Chris Fischer (Schuff Steel), Mark McGruder and Angela Dalmas (Tekla Inc), Bob Hingley & Chris Silver (Redpoint, LLC) and Ashley L'Heureux (RL Drafting)

We would like to thank all those who participated in this year’s event most especially our friends from Alberta for having the most number of regional attendees in Canada. Lastly, we would like to congratulate Tekla Inc. for the success of this event. Rumor has it that next year’s North American User Meeting will be held in Miami, Florida so see you there!