Rob Jensen’s Blog » Uncategorized
You can see the general session video here.
If you’re like my boss, you’ll play it over…and over….and over..!! Good stuff.
It’s been another busy day at SWW09. I’m not going to go into all the details because there are bloggers that come to this even as members of the press and they do a outstanding job of covering whats going on. You can check it out here
What I’m going to talk about is the 10th annual SWUGN Summit. My very first SWW was in 2005 here in Orlando and for whatever reason I went to the SWUGN Summit to see what the user group’s were all about. After getting back from Orlando I contacted Richard Doyle and said I want to start a group. Richard was all for it (this isn’t a big shock if you know Richard). Starting the Southern MN User Group was one of the best things I’ve ever done! I have gotten to meet some of the greatest people in the SolidWorks Community.
Every year at the SWUGN Summit they give out awards…kind of. There are nominees for SWUGN reseller of the year, Partner or the year, User group of the year and User group leader of the year. This year one of the VAR’s from Minnesota got the Reseller of the year award. Congratulations to Alignex!! Also, there were 2 SWUGN user group leader of the year nominees from MN. Anne Yust who runs one of the only Simulations User Groups and yours truly. I don’t know about the others, but this made my conference!! What a honor!!!
I’m not going to go into details about the meeting. If you were there, you know the commitment Richard Doyle brings to this group. And I didn’t get a chance to tell him, but it’s been a pleasure working for…..I should say, with him these last 4 years. And I just want to say “Thanks Richard”.
Today was another busy day for me. I had 3 round tables in the morning and the CAD boot camp at 1. The round tables were absolutely amazing..!!! The round tables are for users like you and me to voice our frustrations and/or problems to SolidWorks. Another cool experience for me and I hope to be part of it again next year.
Next it was the CAD boot camp. This was a 4 hour session about anything and everything you need to know if you are a CAD admin. Greg Jankowski does a great job with this every year.
Wrapping up the day was the welcome reception. I got there and went to the product showcase where a couple of our products we design were. It was pretty cool to see our stuff next to all the other cool stuff. After that, I headed to the SWUGN booth to meet the rest of the user group leaders. It was nice to finally meet these folks face to face. The user group leaders are a great bunch of folks.
Well, I need to get ready for the day. Can’t wait for the general session to start..!! Should be pretty awesome!
Stay tuned..
It sure has been a busy couple of days for me at SolidWorks World. I arrived Friday night. As I was walking the halls at the Dolphin I ran into Avelino and Jeremy from the certification team for SolidWorks. (Sorry if I misspelled your name) These were some of the nicest guys I’ve ever meet. Avelino gave a sheet metal presentation at one of my user group meetings so it was nice to see him again.
As the night went on, I also had the chance to meet Mike Puckett, Jeff Mirisola, and Kerri Dune as well as a few other SolidWorks employees. It was a GREAT night to say the least..!!
Saturday morning came pretty early for me. I was up at 5:30am and couldn’t get back to sleep. I was scheduled for Alpha testing so I got ready and went searching for the room. This was my first time Alpha testing so I wasn’t really sure what to expect. Now, I can’t tell you what I tested, but I sure hope some of the functionality I tested makes it to 2010..!!! And next year, I’ll be more prepared if I get picked for Alpha testing. I would encourage everyone to sign up for it. It’s a great way to talk face to face with the people that develop the software!
Well, I’m off to some round table discussions, than the CAD boot camp and finally the Welcome Reception. Another busy day.