SolidWorks:HEARD! - Episode 466 - SWW14: General Sessions

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SWW14: General Sessions:

This podcast covers the general sessions from SolidWorks World Conference 2014 from this past week.  The general sessions tend to be the major outlets for SolidWorks to announce to the world what they have been up to.  Topics covered:

General Session Day 1:
- 5600 Attendees
- 2.3M+ users world wide (largest engineering community ~Bertrand Sicot 2014)
- PRODUCT ANNOUNCEMENT: SolidWorks Inspection 
- PRODUCT ANNOUNCEMENT: SolidWorks Mechanical Conceptual (April 2nd, $250/mo)
- 3DVIA - HomeByMe (Free home layout - selling to home improvement centers)
- 3DVIA - 3DByMe (similar concept to HBM)
- PRODUCT ANNOUNCEMENT: SolidWorks Industrial Conceptual
- SPEAKER: Hugh Herr - MIT Lab Biometronics Director (Awesome!)

General Session Day 2:
- EatArt (Maker of the Spider and Alpha Leg)
- SolidWorks 2014 Beta Winners
- User Group Awards (Congrats to the San Diego User Group on their 200th meeting)
- MarkForge3D and Gian Paolo Bassi - VP or DS R&D
- Bertrand and bobsledding in Utah
- SPEAKER: Bo-Dyn Bobsled Project 
- Special Event at the Embarcadero

General Session Day 3:
- Model Mania Winners (15th year... wow!)
- New Certifications (100, 000 user certifications)
- Eduction - Mt. San Antonio Community College use of CSWA and now CSWP
- Top 10 List (Delivered and this year's request list)
- SolidWorks 2015 Revealed (blog post with more details)

SolidWorks World 2014 was another huge event, registering more than 6800 users by the end of the conference.  I guess it is fair to say this is not the same as my first SolidWorks World back in 2002.  This year's speakers were not in the same league as previous years but I have to say, Hugh Herr on day one had many of us in jaw-dropping amazement with his prosthetic legs that he designed.... and used on both of his legs.  Amazing and inspiring.

Day two was full of customer interviews and contest winners from Beta 2014 and another great speaker in Bo-Dyn, the bobsled project behind the US Olympic team who race the Night Train 2.  Bo-Dyn was started by a Nascar racer and 1984 winner of the Daytona 500 Geoff Bodine.  His pit engineer, Bob Cuneo is the brains behind the designs and has produced some of the best sleds the sport has ever seen.

Day three, also known as the "REVEAL" started off with this year's Model Mania winners and certification and then finished off with a Batman parody called  "CADMAN".  This skit allows the Product Marketing team to show off the long list of early reveal features coming in next year's version of SolidWorks 2015. ~Lou

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