Where was everyone?

This year,  SOLIDWORKS World sessions were divided into one of the following tracks: CAD Administration, Customer Success/Designing Better Products, Data Management, Design Automation, Design Communication, Design Validation, Education, Modeling Essentials & Productivity Tools.

I decided to do something different, I followed the Data Management track for all of the sessions I attended. I am glad I did, there were some great sessions given by top notch presenters: Jerry Winters, Dan Burmenko, Joy Garon, Randy Simmons, Jeff Sweeney, … [though my name got left off of the program…what’s up with that?! That’s the real question we should be asking Kerri Dunne.]

Here is what I thought was interesting. The session Randy and I gave had 40 attendees – which was the most attended session I saw. One session had six attendees, the average was twenty. Where was everyone? Attendance was announced at 5,000, there were 20 sessions per time slot, taking into account people playing hookie or spending time in the Partner Pavilion, you’d still expect a hundred or so in these sessions wouldn’t you?

I learned several sessions had over 200 attendees, so people were going to the sessions, the presenters and topics were good, why is interest so low for this track?

Does this mean the average attendee takes data management for granted? Perhaps they are not in a position within their company to make decisions at this level? Did I screw up and all of the other tracks were that much better? Does the average attendee work for companies that have data management all figured out?

All questions no answers, just giving you something to ponder.