I was shocked the other day when my boss approached me about going to SolidWorks World this go round. Times have been hard at our company for quite a while so I more or less thought when I sent him the 'boss justification' email that I would never hear anything about it. I had forgotten about even sending the email to him since it was over 3 months and I hadn't heard a word from him. But anyway it looks like I might finally be going this year (actually next year), the question concerns my co-worker. He would be going also if he wishes but he is concerned that he wouldn't be able to absorb much knowledge by just listening to the presentations but on the other hand he has a hard time following the presentation if he's trying to take notes. I was wondering if the presenter give out handouts of the material or not. I think this would be beneficial to all.
What are everyone's general impressions of SWW? Have you seen the productivity increases? How has the 'networking' actually help your company?
I know this has been discussed before but it is always good for us newbies to hear from the gurus again.
I think it's well worth the time. If you pick up one or two tips each day (plenty reasonable) that make you more productive, you are ahead. If you meet one or two people that you can call to answer a question some day in the heat of the battle, you are way ahead.
One of the main things is to plan ahead. Look at the schedule now and figure out how the two of you can go to the maximum number of sessions that you are interested in. It makes some sense for both of you to hear the same stuff, but it also makes sense to hear more variety and share notes.
If you want to try to meet with a SW employee, arrange it ahead of time. Make a list of everything you want to cover, make several copies so you can give them one, get your ducks in a row, and plan a time.
In each of the sessions, make sure you find out at the beginning whether or not the presentation will be available for download right away. In mine, I try to remember to tell people that if they see it on the screen, they don't need to write it down - the presentation is already available to download from our user group site. If you hear me say it, and you think it's important, write it down. Most presenters would probably be happy to send you a copy right away if you give them a business card with that request written on it. I get bunches of cards each year and I have to write on each one what's the reason for this card or I won't remember.
Take plenty of business cards. Then take some more. :-)
Take several writing utensils in case you have a failure.
Plan to arrive no later than Sunday afternoon to arrive in time for the Pavilion opening. It's the first time to see everything and it's a fun evening.
Once the Pavilion is open, you don't have to worry about food - there's always more than you can eat.
Attend the Tuesday evening event - it's a memorable occasion.
Wear comfortable shoes - lots of walking.
Take a camera - you will want to show others at home what it was like.
I haven't ever found a need to have a car. Take a cab or shuttle to & from the airport, and then walk from the hotel to the site. The off-site events will have transportation provided.
I'm sure I'll think of more as the time draws near, but these are the main points.
It depends upon the presenter. Most of the ones I've gone to don't, but many of them make presentations available later, often in PowerPoint. Your friend might try taking a digital voice recorder. One of my colleague's tried that in 2006.
I've been to two, in 2000 and 2006. I'm going again this year. In 2000, I had been using SW for a little over a year and felt that SWW was like a really good training class where I got to choose just what I wanted to learn about. By 2006, you would think I didn't have a whole lot left to learn, but three of us went and spread ourselves out so we only saw one or two presentations in common and still couldn't catch all of what we wanted to see.
Follow Wayne's advice, it's good!
I don't have any hard numbers, but I believe so. If not, I wouldn't waste the company's money. Just one or two important things learned can pay for the trip and the time away from the job. One thing we are not good at is taking what we learn back and spreading it amongst those who couldn't go.
I don't think the networking has done much for my company in particular, but I'm sure there are other people who will say that it has done a lot for theirs.
I indeed want to come, but I am a bit recalcitrant or reluctant, because I've been burned out on bugs in times past (not only with SolidWorks), so I don't load up SWks until SP4 or 5 anymore.
I am only now considering putting SWks 2007 on for daily use, and I suspect that the SolidWorks World may concentrate on SWks 2008 issues. I would suspect most presenters prepared their presentations in SWks 2007.
Jerry, can you give "the rest of us" who lag behind on upgrades an idea of how relevant the presentations are to those of us who are on SWks 2006 or 2007?
How do you see these issues in light of your prior years of visits?
Not a bad attitude at all! We usually wait for at least a couple of service packs.
That has been my experience. Although I think that a larger percentage of presentations at SWW2006 were based on earlier software than at SWW2000. Back then, the software pretty much worked at release.
There will be things you see that you can only look forward to, perhaps some that will even seduce you into changing earlier than you planned, but there will also be things you see that are old as the hills to some people but astonishingly new to you. In my experience those are often the most valuable insights. I believe that Paul Kellner is running on year old code, but he still finds it worth going. I think you will to.
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