Autodesk University 2026: Nine Pavilions, 12,000 Attendees, One Floor

Autodesk drew more than 12,000 design and make professionals to a single open-concept floor of nine industry pavilions at Autodesk University 2026, held Sept. 15-17 in Las Vegas. The refreshed footprint marks a deliberate shift in what the event is for: no longer primarily a classroom, but a place where customers shape product futures together.

The company made the change because the learning function has moved online. Historically, Autodesk University offered technical classes and instruction on product updates. With the spread of online learning communities and platforms like YouTube, the event's value proposition has evolved from a learning resource into a space for attendees to connect through shared experiences on-site.

"We have this brain trust of all these innovators and mechanical engineers and architecture firms, so we've thought about how we bring them together in a room so that they're benefiting from being at the conference together," says Jesse Harrington, director-experience design at Autodesk. "It's not just about hearing from Autodesk. It's about hearing from each other and building a community of support."

What does the new floor design change for attendees?

The nine pavilions represented a range of industry groups — architecture, engineering, construction, manufacturing, product design, and media and entertainment among them — plus internal groups at Autodesk. Curved paths invited attendees to wander into industries outside their own. An architect might arrive interested only in Revit, but the layout encouraged curiosity about the rest of the portfolio. Every experience offered a peek into what the product can do, pitched at a level anyone could walk in and understand.

"It's not overly intimidating. You don't feel like you're in the 'wrong' neighborhood," Harrington says.

Each pavilion team was tasked with creating "a recipe" of engagement around its product area: designing a featured activation and identifying the single key takeaway for the attendee.

Which activations carried the floor?

The standouts included:

• The Factory, where attendees collected tools and parts and assembled their own swag — lamps, air-quality sensors or a custom keyboard. Harrington notes architects came through "that just want to get their hands dirty again, because it feels so good to actually make stuff."
• Walk-around demo spaces. Waterfall counters were removed from demo desks and replaced with Apple Genius Bar-style stations.
• A "Preserving Fallingwater" walkthrough. Tied to the exclusive screening of Autodesk's feature film about Frank Lloyd Wright's Pennsylvania home, the floor moment used floor-to-ceiling graphics and projection, a soundscape, fog and a scent specific to the region's forest.

How did persona mapping shape the journey?

Pre-event persona quizzes helped Autodesk avoid the trap of every attendee defaulting to a single topic like AI. The team then mapped each persona's journey down to the emotional state it wanted visitors in at each point of the day: inspired, energized or educated. Even the expo hall music ran at specific beats per minute at different hours.

Three of the nine personas are deep engineers, whom Harrington describes as "kind of introverted," so the team built experiences that give them something to talk about together. The new AU Clubhouse let attendees pick a persona, personalize a badge and join group activities. "You never make more friends than when you're in a ball pit with them," Harrington says.

Themed lounges offered quieter or more playful connection points: a design library stocked with architecture books, a Backyard Barbecue with picnic tables and cornhole, a vinyl lounge where attendees could play records, and a "Take a Pause" dog park with dogs from a local agency.

Every lounge also carried "little easter eggs" tied to Autodesk's State of Design & Make Report — in the vinyl lounge, custom albums bore the report's cover and a QR code linking to it.

"Everything led back to a business objective, but it did so in a really interactive way that helped our audience, who are really hands-on, nerdy people, dive in," Harrington says.

Sparks served as creative lead and show production agency, with Alford, Freeman, Color Gamut and BaAM handling activations and builds. For B2B event marketers, the model is transferable: map personas to emotional states, engineer cross-industry serendipity into the floor plan, and route every playful moment back to a measurable business asset.