ARCHICAD by the Beach is arguably the greatest ARCHICAD focused event on the planet. Seriously. The event, now in its second year, is hosted by Link Ellis and Chris Clark of BIM6x. Let’s dissect a still image from the video which shows off the highlights from last year’s event:

What do we see? In the foreground we see a bunch of ARCHICAD users socializing and having a good time. I’m sure they are making new friends and business connections. There’s a circle around that guy with a nametag. I bet they are talking about the latest features they just learned about.

In the background we see ARCHICAD users talking one on one with trainers, getting personalized help. The tall guy standing next to the table on the left is James Murray of Onland.info. James is a GDL genius and all around wonderful human being. In this photo he’s coaching someone on GDL. To the right of James at the next table is Link Ellis. Link has been teaching people ARCHICAD, and helping them improve their workflows, for decades. Spend a little time with Link and you’ll be drawn in by his generosity and depth of knowledge regarding ARCHICAD. Behind James and Link are more trainers I can’t quite ID.

Past all those ARCHICAD users is that beach. And that ocean. And that sky. Now I hate the sun. And if the temperature never rose about 75, I’d be okay with that. My wife and I are discussing a big family trip next year for our 40th birthdays. All we’re talking about is visiting points north of Seattle-maybe Alaska and northwestern Canada, maybe Iceland and some Scandinavian countries, or perhaps Ireland and Scotland. We’ve got time to figure it out. You know what’s not on that list? Anything warm and sunny. AND yet. AND yet. Even my cold heart swoons when I see that vista and the other locations in the video above. How does a beach like that even exist?

That all sounds pretty great, right? Well it gets better. Look one last time at that photo. All those people? Having a good time and learning about ARCHICAD? You know what I really see? Business expenses and write offs. Nine days in a beautiful location, nine days of relaxing and learning about ARCHICAD, nine days of getting energized about how to improve the way we work. All a business trip.

School and fun for you.
Work and fun for me.

My blog post and video output has been miniscule over the past couple of years. There are plenty of ARCHICAD users out there that probably see my blog as something that was prolific before they started using the program. Other than local user groups and some ARCHIPlus webinars for GRAPHISOFT, I haven’t done much speaking either. That’s all been intentional. My architecture work has picked up (you might have noticed that on Instagram); this summer I’ll have four projects under construction within a half mile of my house (which we just remodeled last year). I’ve got two more projects to permit before my kids get out of school (in add to the other nine or so I’ve already permitted since the start of 2019) and then I’m hoping to have a quiet Summer and September…partially to recover from a busy year of work and partially to prep for ARCHICAD by the Beach.

I am super excited to be one of the trainers this year. I’m perhaps even more excited about the two topics I’ll be lecturing on (in addition to all the one on one concierge sessions I get to provide):

Automatically Beautiful Drawings

Over the years I have become obsessed with increasing automation and improving the beauty of my documentation. While I lament the lack of time I’ve had recently to write and share my ARCHICAD knowledge, I have been practicing what I spent years preaching. At ARCHICAD by the Beach, I’ll be sharing my latest workflows, techniques, and examples of how I continue to automate beautiful documentation and thus spend more time designing (or doing projects faster so I can spend time doing other things, like make dinner for my wife and daughters).

Work Environment Optimization

Early on in the history of the blog, I did a long series on Work Environments. It eventually (years later) culminated in me releasing my Work Environment for free, much like I share my Shoegnome Open Template. Over the past two years of architecting more than writing, I have come to appreciate just how important a streamlined Work Environment is: how space is wasted on the screen, how keyboard shortcuts can both support and hinder your flow, how a well designed Work Environment makes ARCHICAD more enjoyable to use. At ARCHICAD by the Beach, I get to share the details of Work Environment optimization and hopefully convince everyone there that they are probably doing things wrong.

It’s about Money. Always Money.

You should attend ARCHICAD by the Beach. I could continue to list all the reasons. And you’ll agree with them all. You’ll learn so much, have a great time, and enjoy an incredible location. But you’re probably also thinking about the cost. Airfare, the event cost, time off from work, should you bring your significant other… It’s not going to be cheap. But you’re wrong. Every time I talked with Link about what I’d present, he reinforced that the content needs to be realworld, usable, and inspiring. This event isn’t fluff or theory. It’s hands on, in the trenches, get shit done topics.

My two topics could (should?) be described as:

“increase the quality of your drawings while decreasing the internal cost of production”

and

“optimize your Work Environment in ARCHICAD to increase your productivity levels“.

The goal of the event should be obvious: to provide so much value that all the attendees leave able to recoup their costs through improved ARCHICAD ability. Look over the agenda. Read about the sessions and trainers. Think about everyone you want to sit down with for a half an hour and/or chat with during downtime. Identify how you’d like to revamp your business and workflow in 2020. Then register and prepare to spend the end of October 2019 improving your ARCHICAD usage while building a strategy for business growth in 2020.

Seriously. I can’t stress this enough. Join us in Cabo at ARCHICAD by the Beach. Commit to investing in yourself and your business. Whether there’s another boomtime around the corner or a bust. You can’t afford not to strengthen how your practice operates.

See you in Cabo!

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