I am in my final week of holiday vacation (all of Autodesk is) as well as the last Monday of the year 2008. What better time to reflect on the year. There were many highs and lows for 2008 in my life I thought I would mention a few.

The year was filled with travel to visit friends, Autodesk product user groups, and customers around the world including the countries of Brazil, China, Kuwait, Turkey, Kuwait, and UAE in addition to all over the North America. I now have a full passport and need to get new pages added or I will be left unable to travel Internationally. I really enjoy speaking with users of Autodesk software around the world and learning how they use the software and what they design.

Other highlights in no particular order:

• Getting milk and cookies in my room from the AU2008 Team.
• Meeting  celebrity Autodesk customers Jay Leno and Eddie Paul.
• Attended and presented at 3 Autodesk Universities this year China, Japan, and Las Vegas. This makes the total AU events I have attended 14.
• The First Blogger Social at AU2008 was a success and will be even bigger and better next year.
• Traveled with the Matt Murphy Clay Head Sculpture for a year including a visit with entertainer Jay Leno and then gave it to the real Matt Murphy at AU2008.
• Made so many new friends around the world.
• Presented at FOCUS Kuwait, and over 500 people attended. Thank you Binu!
• Presented in Istanbul, and while in Turkey I visited Cappadocia and experienced the wonderful food, people, and scenery. Thank you to my 3 Turkish friends Can, Orhan, and Erhan of the Daily AutoCAD Blog!
• Had a great time with members of AUGI Japan in Yokohama Japan and a spectacular trip to Kamakura with a traditional Japanese lunch included.
• Meeting the Techsmith Team who develop the two software tools I have used almost daily for 12 years.
• I continue to work with some of the smartest and most creative people in the design and visualization industry. This is not a suck up, it is absolutely true. My success is directly related to those that design, develop, test Autodesk software as well as the awesome customers that design amazing things using our software.
• 2008 was the 10th year anniversary of me working for Autodesk and since I left a mechanical design seat out there in the design world. I received my gold badge.
• Received the top hit count and visitors of any Autodesk blog, and many Autodesk web sites. This blog celebrated 5 years and had 312 posts this year and millions of readers by both web and RSS. Thank You!
• Got the additional Autodesk title of Platform Technology Evangelist which is a fancy title for a geek.
• There are so many design related blogs and the number of Autodesk product blogs continues to climb.
• My oldest son started college.

Lows of the year:

• In November I had a blast, literally when my gas fireplace malfunctioned and blew up with me in front of it.
• Rough personal start to 2008 but after many trips hiking in the deserts of Arizona and Utah got things all worked out. The desert and hiking is one of the most therapeutic environments to get a clear head and to think.
• I still have many photos to process and publish.

As I spend the remaining few days of 2008 on holiday, I am spending that priceless time relaxing with my family as well as some fun with the kids sledding on the large amount of snow we received here in Northern Utah.

Have a very happy and safe New Years,
Shaan