From Cathy’s Desk
 How many brains can you fit in one booth at AU? Five? Ten? This year K‑TEK showed that you could have hundreds of brains available. Indeed people were at times lined up to get access to K‑TEK’s brainpower at the show.
OK, admit it! It was a clever marketing ploy to give away “brains on a stick”. And it gave us an opportunity to meet new customers and greet old friends, and give each of them a little bit of colorful K‑TEK brainpower. Our time at AU was both fun and productive, and we had the opportunity to continue to promote the benefits of K‑TEK’s consulting services and solutions to a wide audience of Autodesk customers and partners.
 It’s hard to believe that we’ll be back in Vegas next week – this time for Autodesk’s OTC conference. We’ll be meeting with partners, with plans to further expand the K‑TEK Virtual Bench program (see article below). If you’re planning on being at OTC, please send me an e-mail or give me a call – we would love to see how we can help your business.
We’ve also further expanded our consultant roster. While the down economy has made it tough for many, it also means that there is top talent available, and we’ve been taking full advantage of it to grow our team to allow the business to expand.
K-TEK Advisory Council Update
K‑TEK held its first advisory council meeting at Autodesk University, and a second meeting is scheduled during OTC. This next meeting will be focused on improving our partnerships, and finding better ways to serve virtual bench partners and others who are teaming up with K‑TEK to deliver customer solutions. If you’re interested in becoming part of the K‑TEK Advisory Council, please contact Cathy.
K-TEK’s Expanding Consulting Roster
K‑TEK is continuing to enlist experienced consultants in AEC, Civil, and GIS disciplines. Some names new to our consulting team include:
- Will Crighton, who brings over 20 years of GIS, CAD, and database experience to K-TEK, and has in-depth experience in product development, product management, and solution delivery.
- John Stebbins, who has been a leader in transitioning the building industry toward BIM since 1989, and brings a wealth of expertise on products such as Navisworks.
Telling the Story – Vignettes by K-TEK
Over the course of the past year, K‑TEK has taken on several projects to help Autodesk resellers better explain advanced Autodesk products in ways specific to target markets. Autodesk has termed the deliverables for these projects “Vignettes”.
The definition of “vignette” is “a small illustrative sketch”, and indeed that’s what these projects entail. How does one tell the story of how Civil 3D can be applied to sustainable design? Or how Map 3D can provide solutions for rural electric cooperatives? Rather than simply list features, or talk about generic product benefits, K‑TEK’s product vignettes provide a complete package to help Autodesk resellers tell the story in their own words.
Each vignette provides:
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A series of short AVI files, each telling a short story about the product in use – for example how the map functionality in Civil 3D can help a customer the neighborhood density LEED requirement.
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A data set and set of step-by-step instructions to allow someone to provide the demonstration themselves.
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The story, written from a customer perspective using language and terms that will make sense to the customer (and avoid “pick and click” detail).
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A set of slides to introduce the subject and the vignettes.
K-TEK Solutions is now finishing up our third such project, with a fourth in the wings. If this approach sounds like something that would help your business, please give us a call!
A Busy Time at Autodesk University
 K‑TEK's booth at Autodesk University was even busier than it was the year before. In addition to handing out our popular "brains on a stick", we also had a chance to explain our service offerings and discuss recent projects with customers, prospects, and partners. AU also provided an opportunity for members of the K‑TEK team to attend a number of classes, including classes on Autodesk Utility Design (AUD), where we are seeing a growing number of projects and business opportunity.
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