SolidWorks World - What Would "Make" you Attend?

Malcom,

Oops, that's right, six or seven years ago when there wasn't much to really
talk about.

It's closer to 100 miles.


Mark

 

I am not going to try to convince anyone to go. I will just share my story.



The immediate tangible benefit of going to SWx World for me was not picking
up a few 'tricks' or improving my 'productivity' a percent or two, though
those might be enough if you use Richards math. At each of the first three
SWx Worlds I went to, I got insight into how to overcome things that were
absolute show stoppers - modeling or file management challenges that would
have simply killed jobs or forced TONS of rework if I had not been
introduced to how to work through them.



It also was an introduction to a larger world then I knew before. When I
first went, I was considered to be a 'power user' (a term I hate) which was
why I got to go. When I got to SWx World I learned just how much of a
neophyte I was (and still am, to be honest). There is so much you can do
with this software, the tools that are sold to supplement it, and the access
you have to write your own tools, that its both exciting and intimidating
when you get introduced to them.



Going to SWx world changed the way I think about SWx, and the way I use SWx.
I saw lots of stuff, some of it immediately useful to me, some of it not,
some of it even bad advice, but all of it contributed to changing the entire
way that I approach using this software to create my designs, and the way I
interact with other folks who I have to collaborate with.



Finally, I learned never to be dumb enough to get caught saying that 'you
can't do that in SWx'. I learned from SWx World that 80% of the time the
person who says 'SWx can't do something' is flat out wrong, and another
15-18% of the time there is a way to get around the limitation.



Is it worth the money? Since I treated it like I was at work from 8 AM to
10 PM and not getting a few days off to screw off at Disney, I made sure it
was worth the money.

I learned that if you are an active attendee, if you sit near the front and
take notes at the breakout sessions, if you try to meet people and learn
about their businesses and how they work, and if you share what you learn
with the other folks in the office when you get back, the investment is
readily recaptured. Those first few trips have easily paid for themselves
many, many times over. I would only have trouble justifying the expense to
someone who has been to a couple, because there is a point of diminishing
returns on the breakout sessions if there is a lot of repetition from year
to year (which is one of the reasons why when I give breakout sessions I try
to keep adding material instead of giving the same old show)



-Ed

 

It would be nice if there was a way to attend through some
sort of live virtual cyberspace setup (like webex or whatever).

SolidWorks could charge a small fee, and I could choose
what presentation I'd like to watch. They could be repeated
at certain times (like a pay per view channel on cable).

You could have chat rooms, avatars and all that geeky stuff
so that we can talk and interact with each other.

An employer could even reserve one of their conference
rooms, with the big LCD projector, so that employees can
kick-back and watch the show.

Failing that, SolidWorks can create regional 'hot spots'
at local hotel conference rooms around the world with
multiple kiosks for people to attend and plug into the matrix.

Are there any companies out there that specialize in setting
that sort of thing up? If not, hey I just invented a niche market
company!

That's my idea of a no-brainer.

Mike Wilson

 

Face it. If you're a regular poster (or lurker) here, you're well on
your way to being a bit of a geek anyway, and probably more than a mite
"touched" into the bargain. Geeks have some advantages normal mortals
don't have, such as the allowance to be a bit eccentric and for that to
be a "good thing".

For us real geeks, there is no end of benefit you can draw from SW
World. There are certainly all of the tips and new techniques that you
pick up. One of my favorites was Ed E's stuff. Ed has a remarkable
combination of knowledge of the subject matter and the ability to
communicate it. People usually have one or the other, rarely both.

I also found the roundtables to be possibly the most valuable thing I
did. This put you in touch with other high level users and folks from
SW who have influence over (or at least knowledge of) the direction the
software is taking.

I find the "productivity" argument for a trip to SW Workd kind of
interesting in light of the tendency of some employers to use a trip to
Disney as a reward for "strollers" (politically connected casual non-
geek users with more interest in Pleasure Island than the partner
pavilion, and who look at Model Mania as being "for geeks"). They get
no more productivity benefit from the trip than a bag of free pens.

There's a lot to be said for the connections you gain while there. I
still draw on some of the people I've met at SW World. All companies
get some value from that which is very hard to measure in dollars and
cents. Being immersed in "SolidWorks geekdom", seeing the inspiring
heights of what some people are capable of, new ideas and techniques,
new products to download and try, new sources of information and
assistance, new customers, and new drinking buddies.

At one SW World, I was standing around trying to decide how I was going
to get to two simultaneous events which were must-see. I turned around
to walk away, and ran into a wall of white linen. "Are you the guy from
the internet?" Jon Hirschtick is probably 6'4", I am 5'8" and was
looking square into the middle of his shirt. I had never given "the
internet" as an address before. He probably saw the shadow of a
sarcastic response flit across my face, so he quickly introduced himself
and correctly guessed my name. You can imagine, I was feeling more than
a bit paranoid. In days gone by I used to be pretty ruthless railing
against the software here in the newsgroup. I've moderated a bit in my
old age. Anyway, Mr. H had a couple other folks with him, I think the
head of development at the time and the quality director. It was a
meeting that couldn't have happened anywhere but SW World.

John McEleney is probably 5'6" and not nearly as imposing as Hirschtick.

Anyway, all of this to say that I'm probably not going to be there again
this year, even though as leader of a user group, I get a free ticket.


matt

 

Bummer, Matt. Buying you (and Ed, Paul, Mark, Mark, and a few others) a
beverage of choice would be one of my biggest personal reasons for going.
Not that it matters a lot, since I'm probably not going either!

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

 

Hey, Craig, she already knows I'm an idiot! I'll help write the
justification. If we convince her to send two of us, we can share a room and
save $121 a night.

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

 

Combining your thoughts with those of Ed Eaton, there's probably a 90%
chance that someone who works at the sessions can pick up 1 to 5 % on their
productivity. For the kind of work we do, I might have a 30% chance of
learning something that will have a big impact on my productivity, say
5-20%. Then there's perhaps a 10% chance that I can learn something that
will pick up 20-50% on our productivity. Taking the midpoints and adding it
all up, I end up with a likely increase in productivity of 10%. Figuring
that only half or our time is spent working on SW, I've still got almost a
5% likely increase in productivity. That should more than pay for the costs.

Also don't forget that the person who learns all these nice tricks is going
to share them with the stay-at-homes. The little stuff tends to get lost
more easily, but the big stuff will get transferred nicely. Maybe a 3%
increase in their productivity, multiplied by the number of stay-at-homes.
More payoff.

Finally, the more people who go, the more chance that we will find something
that pays off big, less losses in translation, but at added cost and with
less stay-at-homes to pick up productivity.

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

 

I went last year...

I had high hopes for the conference, but on the whole didn't find it worth
the (time & money) cost. There were some excellent presentations, but I
didn't see anything like the productivity increase I'd need to justify going
again.

I'm sure the conference is a wonderful tool for the SW developers, and helps
them identify the directions they need to go in. As a user, however, I
found the benefits to be marginal.