LD Ben Hagen was this year's winner of the Wally Russell Most Promising Newcomer Award, which was presented at the LDI2008 Awards Ceremony on Saturday evening, October 25, in Las Vegas. Here are a few comments from Ben about his experience at the show:
“I have had a chance to return home and collect my reactions to this year's LDI in Las Vegas. This year's conference was particularly exciting for me, having been honored as the Wally Russell Foundation's Most Promising Newcomer. It was a distinct honor to be recognized by such a seminal group of industry leaders. I also had the pleasure of spending some time with Richard Pilbrow, who was this year's Lifetime Achievement Honoree. We had a brief but inspiring conversation about building a career in the industry. I was also given the opportunity to upgrade to Vectorworks 2009. It has a lot of new features, which are really an improvement on my student version of Vectorworks 11. I particularly enjoy the powerful new selection tools and indicators. I'm also working with translucent objects to help give my drafting some visual interest and additional clarity.
“I also really enjoyed seeing all of the environmentally conscious steps vendors are starting to take. I am particularly impressed with Apollo advancing to laser processing for their templates. I applaud the environmentally aware manufacturing process we are seeing from them.
“I had a great experience, and the pleasure of meeting several people who help shape the industry. I also enjoyed finding time to visit with old friends. It's the contact with all these folks that really make you recognize, it's the people in the industry that make this business so interesting."
Ben Hagen (center) with Nicole Kelly, marketing communications director (left), and Jeremy Powell, product marketing manager (right), from Nemetschek North America, who presented Ben with a copy of Vectorworks 2009 with Renderworks.
photo: Oscar Enzig Photography