The event kicked off Thursday night with the Annual Opening Cocktail Reception held in the Imperial Ballroom of the Pfister Hotel. Attendees socialized and networked with Tekla staff, sponsors, as well as other Tekla Structures Users.

The technical sessions and workshops began Friday morning with an enthusiastic and motivational keynote speech from Lee Evey, President of DBIA. This set the pace for the rest of the meeting with a variety of jam packed breakout sessions covering steel, engineering, and precast topics. Attendees enjoyed breaks and lunch sessions with sponsor presentations and several sponsor raffles.

Friday evening guests enjoyed a night at the Discovery World Museum at Pier Wisconsin right on Lake Michigan. The museum opened all of their exhibits to the Tekla User Meeting group and guests were able to interact and experience the fascinating exhibits Discovery World had to offer such as the technology hive, the aquarium, and the Great Lakes exhibit.

Breakout Sessions continued Saturday throughout the day with the announcement of the 2008 North American Model Competition wrapping up the event. Overall the event was an enjoyable educational experience for all that attended.

Download UM08 Presentations

• Opening Keynote Address, Lee Evey (5.6 MB)
• General Session: Flexnet & INI (1.9 MB)
• Steel Breakout Sessions

  • Miscellaneous (1.8 MB)
  • Modeling (2.5 MB)
  • Drawings (900k)
  • Custom Components (4.6 MB)
• Precast Breakout Sessions

  • Drawings (2.2 MB)
  • BIM Collaboration for Precast (20.8 MB)
  • Custom Components for Concrete (835k)
  • Intelligent Drawings (2MB)
  • Templates (2.8MB)
  • Setting Up Your Company (2.6MB)

Walker Lee Evey, 2008 Keynote Speaker  

Mr. Evey is President of the Design-Build Institute of America, a national non-profit organization dedicated to the promotion of integrated design and construction project delivery services. 

Before joining DBIA in June, 2004, Mr. Evey served as Senior Vice President at 3D/I, and spent three months as a Senior Advisor to the Iraqi Ministry of Housing and Construction.  Before that, he was the Program Manager leading the Pentagon Renovation Program Project.  Mr. Evey was the top civilian Air Force contracting official at the Pentagon prior to taking on Pentagon renovation, and also held a variety of key positions with NASA.  He enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1967 and served in Vietnam.

Mr. Evey received a BA in Psychology and an MA in Special Education from the University of South Florida, and an MS in Management Science from the Florida Institute of Technology.