{"id":2295,"date":"2017-09-05T11:00:52","date_gmt":"2017-09-05T18:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.autodesk.com\/autodesk-university\/?p=2295"},"modified":"2017-09-05T09:51:03","modified_gmt":"2017-09-05T16:51:03","slug":"5-questions-for-kate-morrical","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.autodesk.com\/autodesk-university\/5-questions-for-kate-morrical\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Questions for Kate Morrical"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"AU Explainers - The Need for Modeling with Kate Morrical\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/0Y0aeNbfeKs?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><em>Kate Morrical is the digital design manager for Robert Silman Associates, a structural engineering firm with offices in New York; Washington, DC; and Boston. She is also president of <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.augi.com\/\"><em>AUGI<\/em><\/a><em> (Autodesk User Group International).\u00a0<\/em><em>Here we ask her 5 questions about AU and the role it has played in her professional development.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>How would you describe your career path?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>My career path has been fairly traditional in some ways, and very nontraditional in others. I entered college as a structural engineering major, and never wavered from that. I also talked my way into some internships at design firms even before I started college, when I knew absolutely nothing about engineering&#8230;so they gave me CAD work instead. I quickly got hooked on the technology, and when I landed my first engineering job out of school I also got involved with CAD standards development and implementation, and later, with Revit. One of my earliest AU memories is Matt Murphy&#8217;s class, <a href=\"http:\/\/au.autodesk.com\/au-online\/classes-on-demand\/class-catalog\/2015\/autocad\/gen11407#chapter=0\">The Productivity Power of AutoCAD Tool Palettes\u2014Revealed<\/a>. I went home and made some for us right away!<\/p>\n<p>A few years later, I left engineering and went to work for Autodesk on the AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT marketing teams. Because I was focused on technical marketing, I was able to use my CAD and training skills while improving others like video creation and public speaking.<\/p>\n<p>In 2012, I rejoined my former engineering firm as the digital design manager. This role is a great fit for me because I&#8217;m able to research the fascinating developments in AEC technology while supporting my colleagues with their day-to-day design and documentation challenges.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Interview with Kate Morrical: AutoCAD LT Technical Marketing Manager\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Bl35Ggm1dik?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>You\u2019ve been a part of AU for several years. How have your AU experiences and the AU community impacted your work? What have you gained through them?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>AU is actually a big reason why I answered the first question the way I did! From the beginning, AU has been a resource for the professional development I needed to do my job. It&#8217;s provided technical knowledge, opportunities for &#8220;soft skill&#8221; development, writing and public speaking, and, last but not least, networking.<\/p>\n<p>Many of my professional contacts have been made or strengthened at AU and other technical conferences. It was at AU that I made the contacts that led to my joining Autodesk, and it&#8217;s where I met members of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.augi.com\/\">AUGI<\/a> (Autodesk User Group International) community in person (after chatting online for years), which laid the groundwork for my <a href=\"https:\/\/www.augi.com\/about-augi\/organization-and-bylaws\/executive-team\">AUGI Executive Team<\/a> roles. I served first on the board of directors and then as president. Even if you&#8217;re not actively looking for a new job (and I&#8217;m not!), having this extended network of colleagues who can support you\u2014or vice versa\u2014is an amazing professional resource.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-2296\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.autodesk.com\/autodesk-university\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/65\/2017\/09\/Kate-Morrical-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.autodesk.com\/autodesk-university\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/65\/2017\/09\/Kate-Morrical-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blogs.autodesk.com\/autodesk-university\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/65\/2017\/09\/Kate-Morrical-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/blogs.autodesk.com\/autodesk-university\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/65\/2017\/09\/Kate-Morrical-190x190.jpg 190w, https:\/\/blogs.autodesk.com\/autodesk-university\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/65\/2017\/09\/Kate-Morrical.jpg 450w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>Has AU helped solve professional challenges?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Earlier in my AU career, I was more likely to attend classes focused on picks-and-clicks, and would bring back tons of stuff that was immediately useful. These days, I tend to choose more &#8220;blue sky&#8221; sessions, and come home with more ideas of what <em>could<\/em>\u00a0shape our practice in the future\u2014hopefully the near future. But even if the session topics are a little more abstract, I always collect several tips and tricks just from chatting with other attendees!<\/p>\n<p>One of my favorite parts of AU is discussing some really obscure quirk of some software package or other\u2014everybody else will usually say, &#8220;Yeah, I&#8217;ve seen that too!&#8221; and at least one person will follow up with, &#8220;And here&#8217;s how we fixed it!&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.autodesk.com\/autodesk-university\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/65\/2017\/09\/spaceout.gif\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" \/><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-2297\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.autodesk.com\/autodesk-university\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/65\/2017\/09\/2073393463_e618760ae3_z-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.autodesk.com\/autodesk-university\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/65\/2017\/09\/2073393463_e618760ae3_z-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blogs.autodesk.com\/autodesk-university\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/65\/2017\/09\/2073393463_e618760ae3_z.jpg 640w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/p>\n<h6>(Photo credit: Shaan Hurley)<\/h6>\n<p><strong>How would you say that attending and\/or speaking at AU improves your competitive advantage?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The competitive advantage from AU works in 3 ways: you can see what other people are up to, you can show off what you&#8217;ve been up to, and you can see what we&#8217;re all about to have to try to keep up with.<\/p>\n<p>First, the presenters in the industry tracks are experts in their fields. Even if your firm doesn&#8217;t directly compete with theirs, it&#8217;s a chance to evaluate their business practices and see if they have any innovations that it would be worthwhile for you to adopt.<\/p>\n<p>Second, if you&#8217;re leading a session at AU, it&#8217;s a chance to promote yourself and your firm by sharing your knowledge and experience. No, you shouldn&#8217;t do a full-on sales pitch, but if you can impress people with your expertise, professionalism, and generosity in sharing your practices with others, they&#8217;ll remember you. Even if you&#8217;re not speaking, you can still network. You can brag about your firm 1-on-1 just as well as you can to a room full of people.<\/p>\n<p>Lastly, you get to hear directly from Autodesk about where they think the industry is heading. Of course, predictions aren&#8217;t always accurate, but I appreciate the opportunities to hear from people whose job it is to keep track of these things and what they think our design processes will look like in the future.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"AU Explainers - Collaboration for Success with Kate Morrical\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/lt01QP1Y3eg?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>What advice would you give tomorrow\u2019s engineers and designers?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m going to keep this advice AU-focused, because otherwise I&#8217;d be here all day. And it&#8217;s pretty simple: talk to people.<\/p>\n<p>I know a lot of us aren&#8217;t comfortable walking up to a stranger and starting a conversation. But at AU, it&#8217;s a vital skill to have. And because we all have the common ground of our experience at AU, it&#8217;s easier to do than you think.<\/p>\n<p>On your way out of class, ask someone what they thought of the topic. When you sit down next to someone at a keynote, instead of looking at your smartphone, ask your neighbors how they&#8217;re enjoying the conference. Maybe find out where they&#8217;re from. Two years ago, when I did this, it turned out the woman next to me was a friend of one of my colleagues in a different city. Yes, it&#8217;s a small world. And of course, if you see me, come say hello! I&#8217;d love to meet you.<\/p>\n<p><em>Join Kate for her AU Las Vegas 2017 class, <a href=\"https:\/\/autodeskuniversity.smarteventscloud.com\/connect\/sessionDetail.ww?SESSION_ID=121868&amp;tclass=popup\">Dewey Modelit and Howe: BIM for Existing Buildings<\/a>.\u00a0Check out all of her <a href=\"http:\/\/au.autodesk.com\/au-online\/classes-on-demand\/search?full-text=morrical\">past AU classes here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><em>Kate Morrical is the digital design manager for Robert Silman Associates, a structural engineering firm with offices in New York; Washington, DC; and Boston. She is also president of <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.augi.com\/\"><em>AUGI<\/em><\/a><em> (Autodesk User Group International).\u00a0<\/em><em>Here we ask her 5 questions about AU and the role it has played in her professional development.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4774,"featured_media":2296,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2295","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-las-vegas"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.autodesk.com\/autodesk-university\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2295","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.autodesk.com\/autodesk-university\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.autodesk.com\/autodesk-university\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.autodesk.com\/autodesk-university\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4774"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.autodesk.com\/autodesk-university\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2295"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.autodesk.com\/autodesk-university\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2295\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.autodesk.com\/autodesk-university\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2296"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.autodesk.com\/autodesk-university\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.autodesk.com\/autodesk-university\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.autodesk.com\/autodesk-university\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}