Google SketchUp 3D Basecamp 2010 and SketchUpArtists

basecamp

The Third Google SketchUp Basecamp was held 1-3 of September 2010, in the heart of SketchUp country, the city of Boulder in Colorado. I was really honored to be representing SketchUpArtists there and to be among 250 of the most creative and talented SketchUp users from all over the world. Above all It was a great  opportunity to catch up with some old friends and make many new ones.

The conference itself  began with an introduction by Aidan Chopra (Author and SketchUp Evangelist) which was then followed with the ‘Keynote Presentation’ by John Bacus (Product Manager for Google SketchUp). To the delight of those present, John took the opportunity to announce the surprise launch of Google SketchUp version 8. There was then a presentation on some of the new features in this release by Scott and Bryce. We then had a little celebration afterwards to celebrate the 10th birthday of SketchUp, with cake and champagne.

On day two we had the ‘Unconference’ sessions, this meant that the format itself was an informal one, so instead of having a pre-determined schedule of session discussions the ‘Unconference’ approach relied on attendees to set the agenda or how Google put it “We get together, people suggest topics for sessions, we make a list, everyone votes to decide which topics are the most popular, and the ‘Unconference’ begins!“

There was some dismay to start with in the crowd “how is this going to work?“ I overheard someone say. When people started coming out with their ideas, a three week  conference wouldn’t have been enough to accommodate all the ideas that were being suggested!  Topics ranged from application of Google SketchUp in the film industry, architecture, stage design, various techniques, visualizing possibilities, technical aspects of SketchUp, Ruby Scripts and new creative ways to make money with SketchUp…

Here is the full list of the eventual Unconference  Sessions that took place at Basecamp.  Some have a few very useful key notes.

The third day at Basecamp was devoted to presentations from Friends of SketchUp – partners and developers of great SketchUp add-ons and plugins software . Companies that had traveled to Boulder included Reallusion (iClone), Materialise (3D Printing Plugin), Abvent  (Render-IN), ArtVPS (Shaderlight) and many others.  Here You can see the complete list of the companies that took part. Once again there were more sessions going on simultaneously and it was really quite impossible to follow it all. A video of each session would have been a good idea, for people to look back on, as much valuable information was exchanged and shared, but you never know how these things are going to pan out;  maybe next time!

Finally we would like to take this opportunity to thank John Bacus and all the folks from Google for inviting me and for organizing and making this such a wonderful event. We at SketchUpArtists are already looking forward to the next Basecamp, maybe in 2012, and hope it will be held in Boulder again, a great place in a beautiful part of the world. In the meantime we would like to share some of the  images from the trip there.

The entrance to the Dairy Center – day one

Google SketchUp 3D Basecamp 2010 and SketchUpArtists

Google SketchUp 3D Basecamp 2010 and SketchUpArtists

Mateo Soletic from SketchUpArtists

Google SketchUp 3D Basecamp 2010 and SketchUpArtists

Google SketchUp 3D Basecamp 2010 and SketchUpArtists

Lively atmosphere at the Dairy Center

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Google SketchUp 3D Basecamp 2010 and SketchUpArtists

Aidan Chopra opens the conference – day one

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Google SketchUp 3D Basecamp 2010 and SketchUpArtists

The ‘Unconference Sessions’ start , with attendees coming forward and suggesting topics

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Google SketchUp 3D Basecamp 2010 and SketchUpArtists

The list of ‘Unconference Sessions’ are displayed on the notice board – the difficult thing was to choose which one to attend, with about  ten – twelve sessions planned to go on at the same time

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Google SketchUp 3D Basecamp 2010 and SketchUpArtists

‘Unconference Session’ – day two

Google SketchUp 3D Basecamp 2010 and SketchUpArtists

Google SketchUp 3D Basecamp 2010 and SketchUpArtists

‘Unconference Session’ – day two

Google SketchUp 3D Basecamp 2010 and SketchUpArtists

Google SketchUp 3D Basecamp 2010 and SketchUpArtists

‘Unconference Session’ – day two – Kemper Smith demonstrates his technique

Google SketchUp 3D Basecamp 2010 and SketchUpArtists

Google SketchUp 3D Basecamp 2010 and SketchUpArtists

The ‘Visualist’ group – left to right : Scott Baumberger, Steve Oles, Kemper Smith, Susan Sorger, Jim Leggitt and Ray Brown – day two

Google SketchUp 3D Basecamp 2010 and SketchUpArtists

Google SketchUp 3D Basecamp 2010 and SketchUpArtists

The ‘Visualist’ group – left to right : Kemper Smith, Scott Baumberger, Susan Sorger, Mateo Soletic,  Ray Brown and Jim Leggitt – day two

Google SketchUp 3D Basecamp 2010 and SketchUpArtists

Google SketchUp 3D Basecamp 2010 and SketchUpArtists

Friends of SketchUp Session Description Board – day three

Google SketchUp 3D Basecamp 2010 and SketchUpArtists

Google SketchUp 3D Basecamp 2010 and SketchUpArtists

Friends of SketchUp Session – Presentation of  Render Software Shaderlight – day three

Google SketchUp 3D Basecamp 2010 and SketchUpArtists

Google SketchUp 3D Basecamp 2010 and SketchUpArtists

The Google building roof party – day two

Google SketchUp 3D Basecamp 2010 and SketchUpArtists

Google SketchUp 3D Basecamp 2010 and SketchUpArtists

The Google building roof party – day two

Google SketchUp 3D Basecamp 2010 and SketchUpArtists

Google SketchUp 3D Basecamp 2010 and SketchUpArtists

The Google building roof party – Andrew Carter begin_of_the_skype_highlighting     end_of_the_skype_highlighting, Eric Lay and Mateo Soletic – day two

Google SketchUp 3D Basecamp 2010 and SketchUpArtists

Google SketchUp 3D Basecamp 2010 and SketchUpArtists

The Google SketchUp office

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Google SketchUp 3D Basecamp 2010 and SketchUpArtists

Daniel Tal, Pete Stoppel (Solo) and Roel Bogaerts

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Google SketchUp 3D Basecamp 2010 and SketchUpArtists

The final day – we would have stayed much longer, but we had to had to empty the Arts Center and make way for some young ballerinas…..

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Google SketchUp 3D Basecamp 2010 and SketchUpArtists

You can find additional info on the conference  here:

Thanks for reading

Mateo

3D Google Basecamp Home
Unconference Sessions
Basecamp photos by Google
Basecamp Videos
Basecamp photos by Sketchucation
Basecamp blog by Jim Leggit
Susan Sorgers Album

4 Responses to “Google SketchUp 3D Basecamp 2010 and SketchUpArtists”

  1. Marco Aurélio O M on March 25th, 2011 2:02 pm

    Hello, I liked the posts in Basecamp, but I had a little curiosity, wondering when you were invited to the event, Google paid all the expenses such as lodging, travel, and more … but it’s just a question …

  2. admin on March 25th, 2011 5:14 pm

    Hi Marco
    I’am afraid not, but it was certainly worth going too!

  3. Liam Keating on June 28th, 2011 11:20 pm

    Ahh good memories, hopefully they will decide to have another one in 2012 back in Boulder rather than California.

  4. admin on June 29th, 2011 12:27 pm

    Nice to hear from you Liam, hope the job in London is going well!… Yes, hopefully there will be one in 2011 and we will be there!

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