I Missed The SolidWorks Boston Summit

Yesterday my first flight from Carlsbad, CA to LAX was over an hour late; do
to a "mechanical". Therefore, I missed my connecting direct flight to
Boston. The next flight was full, no seats available. The next alternative
meant that I would arrive at Boston (Logan) at 6:30am the next day. Then I
was to rent a car and drive to the hotel in Lowell, MA. The bottom line was
that I would not get any sleep and I would be camped out at 3 airports for a
total of 16 hours. I just could not do this.



Please accept my apologies, but this was beyond my control. I look forward
to seeing you all some other time.



Best Regards,

Devon T. Sowell

www.3-ddesignsolutions.com

 

What was the SW Boston Summit?

 

http://www.swugn.org./pages/summit/SWUGN_Technical_Summit.html

Let me take this opportunity to tell EVERYONE here that the SWUGN committee
is sponsoring several Summits around the country this year with the purpose
of providing top-notch learning in a regional event setting. I am finding
that people in this area had not heard anything about them, and so therefore
this message. Pass the word.

WT

 

The one-day events are using a dual track schedule - one track for core
functionality sessions (drawings, sheet metal, assemblies) and one for
"specialty" subjects like PhotoWorks, Animator, and PDMWorks. Many
companies are sending two or more users to cover the whole day.

www.swugn.org - click on the SWUGN Special Events tab.

Did you find it then?

The official policy is no refunds once you register. It's okay to wait
until the last minute if you aren't sure. Registration for each event
ends about 12 hours before it begins.

Might have been me, I can spot a good user group leader from a mile
away. Where exaclty are you? If you're in the Charlotte area, there
is a user group there:

http://www.swugn.org/pages/calendar/UGdetails.html?id=204

The listing on the SWUGN site is complete, and is updated regularly.
We had 27 new groups added in 2005, and we''re on our way to passing
that mark this year.

For more informaion, you can contact your regional SWUGN rep, or email
me directly. Contact information for the SWUGN committee is on the
website.

Richard Doyle
User Community Coordinator

 

Richard,
Was this summit in place of the Eastern Region User Conferance tha was
held at MassBay last year? Unfortunately I did not hear about it, or
receive any notification that this summit was taking place. I probably
would have attended.

Thanks,
Steve

 

Steve,

The one-day events are replacing the regional conferences we did last
year (with the exception of the Midwest Regional). Notices went out
via SolidWorks and two of the three resellers in this region. I'm
sorry you didn't get the message.

The best way to keep up on user groups is the SWUGN website
(www.swugn.org). You can also sign up for email notices directly from
SolidWorks.

Good news for Boston area users - several of the summit attendees have
expressed an interest in getting the local user group running again.
We also had someone from Rhode Island ask for information about
starting a group in/around Cranston. Looks like very soon users in New
England will have a couple more groups to choose from.

Richard

 

Seth,

It was me that tried to talk you into taking over a group in
Greensboro. There was supposed to be a Greensboro meeting tonight
(Thursday), as I remember. I was going to go, but like you, I'm a bit
swamped right now, and it's a 4 hour drive. Sorry I'm late and lack
details. My email is elsewhere at the moment.

It might be a drive, but the Charlotte group is meeting again, and the
Lynchburg group is one of my favorites, but they are only once every
3rd month. There's a group in Asheville which is doing very well (run
by a mold designer, and attended by Hasco employees!), and then there's
the Greenville group which is starting meetings again.

The Charlotte One-Day event should be well worth the time and money.
Of course everyone wishes that "TBD" for location would get pinned
down. I've got folks who want to book hotels, but aren't sure which
end of town to go to. (Richard?)

Anyway, there's a lot going on in user groups in North Carolina.

Matt

 

Looking at the information on the SWUGN website, I'm surprised you were
willing to fly across the country to go to the Boston Technical Summit. It
looks more like a Technical Valley, or a Technical Foothill at the best. I
don't think it would be worth our time to drive up to Seattle for the
closest one. Am I all wet?

The good news is that one will be coming to you in October.

Jerry Steiger
Tripod Data Systems
"take the garbage out, dear"

 

Tonight's meeting turned out to be in Research Triangle, a bit of a
drive again for you.

If you have someone you would like to volunteer for a leader in the
Greensboro area plus or minus I'll help them get it started.

Matt

 

Hello Jerry-

1. I've made more friends thru SolidWorks than any other business I've ever
been involved with.

2. 8 hours of top level training for $35.00, breakfast and lunch included.

3. I was really looking forward to it, United Airlines had other ideas. Many
passengers had troubles that day. Planes were delayed and arriving at
different gates from what was shown on the screens. It was a real scene at
LAX.

4. Hey, it's a good investment and a business write off too.

Cheers,
Devon T. Sowell
www.3-ddesignsolutions.com

 

Having attended the west coast(LA) and Texas(Austin) regional
conferences, I'm sad to see them go. But I am proud that we are keeping
it up in the midwest!
The conferences are a nice mini-solidworks world, and quite an
economical alternative for folks who want a taste of a lot of good info
without the huge investement in travel, lodging, and lost work-time
that a SWX world requires. Not to say that SWx world isn't worth it -
one nugget of info can pay for the trip (it happened to me several
times- seriously!). But these regional conferences are just a lot
easier to justify to the bean-counters, many whom can't get their minds
around the ROI on three days of expense versus a day with these
regional dealies.
If you can make it, please give it a try. And for those in the
midwest, tell your managers that you will be treating yourselves (and
your companies bottom line) to the best one in the hemisphere
-Ed

 

Absolutely! There is something a little magic about the SolidWorks community

I was a bit disappointed because the material seemed to be aimed more to
beginners than to advanced users. It was unfair of me to make the crack I
did, when I know that there are good people at SolidWorks who are working
hard to help the user community. I was just hoping for presentations more
like SW World or the regional conferences. I would have gone to the regional
conference last year without even thinking about it except that the timing
was very bad for us (our workload was crushing).


Jerry Steiger
Tripod Data Systems
"take the garbage out, dear"

 

Great idea, I'll check it out.

Thanks,
Devon

 

Can't stop myself here.....

The KC summit coming up in July should be a good one. We will have the
PhotoWorks expert Rob R. himself here to drive that session. I'll be doing
one on Sheet Metal with the focus on why you should use one method vs.
another, etc. And we will have one on PDMWorks in which we will (hopefully)
run through the features of the current product and also compare it to the
new PDMWorks (Conisio).

That's just a sampling, so you see, it should be worth almost anyone's time
to make it to this one!

Ok, advertising off.

WT