Blog DriveWorks World 2013
DriveWorks World 2013 is over.
Traditionally, DriveWorks World’s first day is the day after SOLIDWORKS World. Though it makes for a long week, the benefits of having the two conferences back to back are a good time/money saver.
All good things must come to an end. Given:
- As attendance for DriveWorks World has grown; the requested topics have also grown and as such there are too many things to accomplish in one day.
- A [or as I say: “The”] highlight of DriveWorks World is the introduction of the next major release of the DriveWorks. SOLIDWORKS World was early this year –only eleven months between SOLIDWORKS World 2012 & 2013. Eleven months is a tight development cycle for a product as big as DriveWorks.
…it was logical to hold DriveWorks World in March. In Chicago. During one of the worst winter storms over the past two winters. Thankfully, none of the seminars were held outside.
This was a fantastic two day event. The first day was kicked off by Glen Smith, our keynote speaker giving us a “state of the application” speech. Glen is an entertaining speaker and crazy smart guy. He certainly conveyed his message that the future of design automation is bright and that DriveWorks is investing in the technologies necessary to keep it [and its customers] one step ahead of it competition. “Customers are beginning to expect their suppliers to customize their products to meet their exact specifications.”
The rest of the day was devoted to the new release – DriveWorks 10. DriveWorks 9 introduced several new tools that had a huge “WOW” factor and felt like a show pony. DriveWorks 10 is a workhorse release. Not as flashy, but many great tools to help you get your job done. I love the enhancements they have done on the administrator side. Many of them leading to good productivity, form design and data manipulation. Look for the What’s New on the documentation site [http://docs.driveworkspro.com]
The second day started off with Maria Sarkar showing several customer case studies. I always enjoy these, it is fun to see the number of different ways people use SOLIDWORKS and DriveWorks together to solve their design issues. The rest of the day, attendees were able to attend several breakout sessions.
I do enjoy the programs on the agenda, but where I get the most value from attending DriveWorks World, is the one-on-one time you get to spend with the DriveWorks team. No other time do you get to be in the same room with the owners, lead developers, programmers, marketing and support staff. If you have a question about anything DriveWorks related, you can go straight to THE person who would know. [Though don’t bother asking what is going to be in DriveWorks 11 -a topic on which they act like you are asking for the secrets to the Manhattan project]
I have to question the logic of choosing Chicago over Orlando, but it was a great educational experience. Maybe we can talk them into someplace warmer next year?