Walking into Autodesk University for the first time, I expected the kind of spectacle you get at Adobe Max; glossy lights, hype, and more whooping than a Sabrina Carpenter gig. Instead, AU is, well… quieter. More thoughtful. The kind of place where a single “Woo!” from the back row behind me gets swallowed by polite silence and the occasional awkward cough. This isn’t a design rave; it’s a gathering of engineers, architects, and creators who take their craft seriously and who all want to learn a little more about the best CAD software.
But don’t mistake thoughtful for boring. The Nashville conference has its share of LED glitz and blue-pink spotlight strobes and flashes. Andrew Anagnost, president and chief executive officer at Autodesk, delivered a keynote that still offered plenty of “wow” moments and demos, but it just did so with the kind of measured calm you’d expect from a company that creates the tools shaping skyscrapers, building cities, and making blockbuster films.
