Two years ago on this day there was an solar eclipse, this year just me saying thank you sincerely for reading between the lines and Autodesk who gave me the freedom to speak freely with support and encouragement in speaking to our awesome customers. I started blogging 16 years ago this day after two Autodesk employees Eric Wright and Bill Johnson suggested it in response to me being the top answer poster in the Autodesk discussion groups and answering the same questions over and over and looking for a way to provide links or have them appear in search engines. I also had this crazy idea or helping put a face on Autodesk after Robert Scoble’s Channel 9 blog had done that for Microsoft way back when.  I had no idea this would end up being part of my identity and I would write and post from all corners of the earth and meet so many amazing people. The blog voice has always been mine and casual as I would talk to you over a beverage in a lounge at AU. This blog ended up in the press several times as well as as featured in a college English book on writing styles and voices of authenticity although I’m not winning any award of punctuation.There were times I thought about possibly retiring the blog, but a group of people would always say such nice encouraging words on how this blog inspired or helped them and so I kept it going and truly grateful for each reader regardless if they read a solution once or read every post.

The numbers:
Over 15 million visitors by web and many other not counted via RSS or email subscription or aggregators.
3905 Posts – enough text to print several hardcover books.
5218 Comments

I hope to see you at AU, run with you, and buy you a beverage!
The annual Blogger and Social Media event at Autodesk University will be happening again this year so look for that invite post soon and it will be held in the Venetian this year with some fun surprises and some excellent partner sponsors like LinkedIn Learning and The Wild – and looking for more. What began 6 years ago as a way for me to prevent myself staying out late at Autodesk University and instead run at 6am and get healthier and some fresh air resulted in readers joining me and has become a real big deal and the AU5K and is happening Tuesday morning at AU with our CEO joining us again along with several hundred of old and new friends. Everyone whether signed up or not is invited to join us regardless of ability to run as you can also just walk, crawl, roll or cheer others and meet new people and get fresh air.

So much over the course of the 16 years has changed in my life, but I have always been here to throw some words and images up even when it was tough going through a divorce, moving, or on sabbaticals.  As always, I am open to suggestions on what you would like to see here, what I can improve, guest posts on Autodesk product tips and tricks, and questions I can answer for you and other readers about Autodesk Email Me. While I’m not sure I will be doing this in another 16 years, I am for now humbly here doing this blog thing all because of you.

Thank you,
Shaan