ArchiCAD Encounter: 2004: feedback

Facilitator: Chris Phillips
The encounter groups are a good idea. Our group started well with the introductions, but then a few (regular) negative types hi-jacked the session to have a bit of a whinge! Some of the new attendees stared blankly at the old guard pessimists - probably wondering why they are getting involved with such a problematic program!
I wanted to say 'open your minds, apply a bit of creativity, GET SOME TRAINING'. But I didn't. Maybe next year we put all the usual suspects (and there are only a few, but they seem to wrangle a lot of air time) into one group and instead of an Encounter session, we pay someone to show them how to do the things they (annually) claim are impossible!!
The session did, however, help put names to faces and covered several topics that were of interest to the majority. Benefitted from having a few expert users and one Graphisoft representative. (Karl Eckermann)

Facilitator: Steve Major
A wide variety of participants from students to practitioners to resellers. There was a resistance in some offices to the Virtual Building concept (mostly dyed in the wool autocadders) Niggles by less experienced users perceiving that ArchiCAD is weak in some areas particularly 2D. The cry of 'theres no offset' went up from the ex autocadders. This was strongly resisted by experienced users who claimed ArchiCAD to be faster, a joy to use and generally superior in every conceivable way. It was agreed to settle the issue with a fist fight in the bar later! (Richard Swann)

Good way of introducing people. Some interesting discussions, but got bogged down in argument over whether Archicad is good for 2D work. (Derek Davis)

Useful as an ice-breaker... not sure of value as a tool for feedback... people put on the spot, therefore not much thinking time... could be better if delegates have say three topics prepared before the event eg) 3 best features or 3 gripes or 3 wishes.... or.... (Alan Wahlers)

Our discussion included the merits of ArchiCAD as a production drafting tool compared to other CAD packages. The opinions ranged from "ArchiCAD is terrible, and we use something else in our office for drafting" to "It's great, wouldn't use anything else". (Rowan Murray)

Facilitator: David Emery
I was happy to see David. I met him last year and we spoke a lot in the bar. Its always nice to have the chance to listen about the experience of delegates and to express all our aims for the next days. (Til Breton)

I was the facilitator for this group, and felt that the members of my group who had not attended ACUE before found it beneficial as both an ice-breaker and a way of gauging the broad range of experience amongst the delegates – it’s far less intimidating for first-timers to know that not everyone else is an expert! (David Emery)

After general intro’s discussion got into getting staff obviously one of David’s hobby horses! But it was useful to have a more focussed discussion. (Chris Johnstone)

Facilitator: James Murray
Excellent moderator for this discussion group. well prepared, he went smoothly from one topic to the other. The encounter is a brilliant idea as a warming up for the ACUE with a enjoyable discussion on the pro's and counts of our AC! (Dirk Van Hecke).

James, freshly landed from the US, held court over a large and diverse group of people and practices from several different countries. Our focus began with the 'ideal' of the virtual building and the need to bring the 'reality' closer to achieve a more efficient and better documentation output. This led to talk of GDL and the importance it has to play in this regard, but the lack of knowledge in this field, and the lack of real life objects and commitment from manufacturers (or graphisoft to promote GDL) that makes this difficult.
In summing up the findings and discussions of all Encounter groups this seemed to be a recurring theme! (Ben Frost)

Facilitator: Ben Wallbank
Being an ACUE virgin, I was pretty nervous when I turned up Thursday afternoon! David's introduction followed by the ArchiCAD Encounters broke the ice immediately though, and I made friends right away. I was suprised by the diversity of people attending, and by how open and friendly everyone was. I was also surprised that I was the only illustrator at ACUE. (Mike Johnson)

Having worked for a publishing company in the past, where I used Archicad to do my illustrations for building products, it was refreshing to have an illustrator in our group (Mike Johnson) and to find out how he uses ArchiCAD to do the modelling for developers brochures. The majority of the group was changing over from 2D apps to ArchiCAD, whereas I was the only one who has gone the other way. I have still got my 2 licences, just do not use them for work any longer. Might give it another bash, now that Archicad has a proper renderer included. Still waiting for the UK localised windows, and so was the rest of the group. (Mathilde Kaplan)

Facilitator : unspecified
Very good introduction and discussion. As a relatively new user it is good to hear different perspectives from more advanced users. (Marie Sofie Larsen)

This introductory session is a good way to get the event going, a lot of new faces this year. (Peter Bennison)

This was a brilliant "ice-breaker"and the only drawback was the lack of interaction with each of the groups. The facilitator-led groups helped to get "warmed up" to but thereafter reliance on the badges failed a little because the background image made names less readable. Could names be larger and/or font bolder? Congratulations to those who accepted the mentor role in each group. (Ed Sharpe)
[OK, OK, the badges next year should just be plain font! DNC]