What are Dynamaniacs and why are they coming to Edmonton and Calgary?

The Dynamaniacs of Calgary and Edmonton, or DoC & DoE for short, are Dynamo user groups that will allow people that are interested in Dynamo, at any level, a place to get together and discuss all things Dynamo.

While DoC & DoE are being called “Dynamo” user groups, the plan is to not restricted them to just Dynamo topics, but expand them over time to include related Design Technology topics like Iterative Design (ID), Generative Design (GD), Computational Design (CD), Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR), and Mixed Reality (MR) to name a few.

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Let’s go back to the beginning, and find out why Dynamaniac? The first time I heard someone use Dynamaniac was while listening to an episode of the BIMThoughts podcast, it was a term that Bill Debevc came up with for his newly formed work Dynamo user group. Near the end of that episode, Bill said that if you wanted to learn more about Dynamo you should start a “Dynamaniacs” in your area. This idea of starting a Dynamaniacs group stuck with me.

Fast forward to Autodesk University 2016, during those 3 days in November there was a tonne of Dynamo classes and even more talk and excitement about Dynamo and all that it can do. It was awesome, Dynamo had arrived! However, after getting back to the office and settling into the normal route I realised that outside of the community that regularly attends events like AU and RTC (BILT) Dynamo had not arrived, in fact, in some areas it wasn’t even in the building yet. So this got me thinking about what Bill said, and the wheels began moving towards Dynamo user groups in Calgary & Edmonton.

Over the Christmas holiday and early in the new year I started working with Bill Moore of cBIMc and Mirra Lee of eBIMc, the local BIM Communities in Calgary & Edmonton on the idea of Dynamo user groups in both cities. It was decided to have bi-monthly meetings that take place on the opposite months of bi-monthly cBIMc and eBIMc meetings. We would also use the same format of a 2-hour evening meeting, with a presentation and time for networking after. From there it didn’t take long to get things in place and scheduled for the first meeting of both Dynamaniacs groups in February 2017.

The Dynamaniacs of Edmonton inaugural meeting is scheduled for Monday, February 13th, – Register here. Details here.

The Dynamaniacs of Calgary inaugural meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, February 22nd, – Register here. Details Here.

Of course, you can’t have an inaugural Dynamo user group meeting without having a Dynamo Rock Star as your guest speaker. So we swung for the fences and hit a home run when John Pierson agreed to be the guest speaker for both DoC and DoE. We will have a Skype call with John Pierson @60secondrevit who runs the sixtysecondrevit Blog, as well as being the creator of the Dynamo Package “Rhythm”, and if that was not enough he also has an online Dynamo course with Plurasight – An Introduction to Dynamo for Daily Use Within Revit. And just for good measure, he was the winner of the first ever Dynamo Design Slam at AU 2016 in Vegas this year.

I’m looking forward to these inaugural Dynamaniacs meetings and seeing where the DoC and DoE go in the future.

If you are from Calgary or Edmonton and have an interest in Dynamo stop by and check out these free meetings. If you like the idea behind the user group and are willing to help out please leave a comment here, reach out on twitter @theBIMsider, or send an email thebimsider@gmail.com to let us know.

Dynamaniacs Unite!