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The Midwest User Group (MWRUG) had their fall conference Thursday, Sept
22, 2005 in Minneapolis, MN. Rollo Cain, MWRUG president, gave the welcome,
followed by a UGS company review from Josh Kass. Rodrick Strand from Hewlett
Packard was the keynote speaker, who gave an extremely informative talk on
the 'Evolution of Engineering'. Rodrick presented several of the many changes,
happening now and in the near future, related to Windows hardware and operating
system options. This information gave the attendees some great metric on new
capabilities and significant cost/performance improvements that can directly
impact a user's productivity. John Baker then presented a
45 minute teaser as part of the NX4 launch, using his vast knowledge of the
subject matter. In a later session, John reviewed NX4 in detail.
After the "Opening Sessions" ended, the 7 Technical Tracks(43 sessions)
and 1 Training Track (6 sessions) started. This included 8 User Presentations,
at least 1 in each technical track (except Analysis). This is up from only 2
User Presentations last year(3X). Each "User Presenter"
received a Certificate and a gift (PLM World Midwest Chapter engraved
watch)
for their participation. They and the session attendees were also informed
that their presentation could be submitted to PLM World for the 2006 Conference
in
California.
The conference last year added 1 technical Teamcenter Track(Teamcenter)
to the conference agenda and it had good attendance. This year we added
2 new
technical
tracks and a Partner/Vendor Fair. The Partner/Vendor Fair was something that
had been requested by users at past meetings, but was very hard to implement
when the conference attendance was below 125. With our user attendance exceeding
150, we decided to contact vendors to become partners in this year's conference.
The vendor response was quite positive and we had to limit it to 10, due
to the space we had allocated for the Fair. This event was very well received
and had
many positive comments by both users and vendors. Several very nice door
prizes
were also made available by the vendor/partners, for the drawing at the end
of the conference.
The 2 new Technical Tracks (Analysis, Solid Edge) were added 1)to show all
the new analysis capabilities being added to Ideas, NX from Ideas with
access to
the Nastran solver and 2)to start to show how Solid Edge fits in the over
all UGS product suite and scalable MCAD. There is no Solid Edge Users Group
in
the Minneapolis area, so this would give those SE users an opportunity
to see more
of the larger UGS picture. The Teamcenter Track we added last year grew
in attendance and was very well received.
The Analysis Track was very well attended, for being first time offering,
with some great feedback on the information the attendees received.
Even with several companies cutting back and a severe storm the night before,
keeping several from coming, we still had a 7% increase in user attendance
over the previous year, setting a new record in user registrations(157),
up 17%, with
over all registrations of 198. We had several new companies and users
participating for the first time. This was attributed to the expanded format
featuring
seven tracks, for a variety of information in several areas. Presentation
Tracks
of Teamcenter, NX, Ideas, Analysis, Solid Edge, Manufacturing, and six
training sessions were available to choose from, along with being able
to visit the
Vendor/Partner
Fair during the day.
Here are a few of the user's comments about this conference:
- "This is how a conference should be!"
- " There is so much good stuff, I am having a problem choosing what
to go to!"
- " The experience was great! The different tracks were good, sorted
by function and interest and it was good to hear (presentations) from users."
- "
I didn't learn how to drive, but did get a flavor of what is coming in the
NX software" (Ideas user) "The conference was a good overview
of what's to come, thanks."
- " I thought your group did an excellent job of organizing and presenting
the conference. At no time was there evidence of anything but complete organization.
Well done!"
- " I got more from the vendor than the sessions so far."
- "
I am very impressed in how the Vendor Fair was setup and organized. Thank
you. See you next year!" (vendor) "I think Mark Rief, in many ways,
is for CAM users, as "John Baker" is for NX/UG users."
- "Our (MWRUG) mission and goal is to help the user become more knowledgeable
of UGS products and at the very least, give them a tidbit that makes them
more productive and their job more enjoyable."
I think we accomplished our mission! For more detail on the conference Agenda
and Partners, go to our web site (mw.plmworldgroups.org).
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