This year the main-stage was "in the round". A huge room with centre stage, giant screens facing in all directions, and seating (it seemed to me) for all. Mighty impressive when all is said to be about 10,000! On the outside wall a huge 360º continuous screen surrounded the room.
The presentations ranged from detail product design, recent Kiwi based acquisition MudBox featured, to Architectural Design with everything from Maya to Revit. Of real interest were conceptual applications for viewing a building in-context, at high quality, through to a complex complete city model.
The theme was green with the emphasis on design being a part of the solution to the challenges facing humanity. On that theme, the keynote from Yves Behar presented real world examples of design making a difference. This ranged from better products reducing energy consumption or, in the case of the $100 laptop, allowing more people to learn and participate in a digital world.
Thats a two three paragraph summary, tapped out between sessions, which really doesn't do justice to a stunning presentation.
