Drink From the Firehose

That picture in the last blog post was allegorical, meaning that I wasn’t actually driving to Solid Edge University when the picture was taken. It was taken a couple of years ago, and I didn’t drive until this morning. Just thought some people might need that clarification. Sorry if it seemed misleading.

I had more than one person ask me why it took me so long to get to Nashville.

Don’t believe everything you read. Sometimes it’s just there for fun. Like my shoes for instance. No, they don’t keep my feet dry, although they do say “WATERPROOF”. Just don’t put too much stock in it just because it says so.

So I arrive at the convention center for Solid Edge University. In my convertible, wearing my “waterproof” shoes. And you know it rained all the way here. Gaylord Opryland Resort is a big place. And there are a lot of people here. There is a powder metal convention going on at the same time as Solid Edge University. It takes a good 10 minutes to walk from my room to the convention center.

One of the biggest things about events like this is meeting the people. I met a lot of people today. Everybody seems to have a great story, and no matter where you turn, there is something interesting to talk about with people you have never really met before.

One of the first people I ran into here was Mark Burhop. Mark looked dapper as always. “Mark, why do you always wear your sunglasses, even inside?” He says it’s just cooler that way.

Next was Luc Poulin. Luc has been a big source of great information both on this blog, and behind the scenes via email. He puts in a lot of effort and knows his stuff.

Luc is wearing shorts, so I’m gonna wear shorts tomorrow.

One of the things I really like about this event so far is that everybody is pretty accessible. Dan Staples is a big shot at Solid Edge, and he sat and talked with users. Getting to meet Matt Johnson and Bob Mileti has made the trip worth while. I know Bob has a reputation as being kind of hard on Solid Edge, but I just found him a lot of fun to talk with. Big Matt and I (and a couple others) have something cooking for later in the week. Maybe I can mention it here Thursday.

Here we have Chad Jackson and Susan Cinadr. Chad is an analyst/press guy, and Susan is the social media person for Solid Edge. Here she is a roving tweetup with her twitter sign. She handed out ribbons for Edgers with Twitter accounts.

Susan was also wearing a cool little piece of geeky Solid Edge jewelry. Someone modeled a Solid Edge steering wheel (the device from the interface), and printed it with the new 3D printer that they got. This makes a perfectly cool conversation piece at a CAD conference.  Interface graphics becoming physical objects is something that not everyone can pull off.

This picture might need some explanation. It is of course Dave Ault eating a tortilla chip dipped in what Dave called “Mileti’s Demise”. Not that that explanation helped at all.

“Mileti’s Demise” is a cheese sauce that is so insanely hot that I could only eat one chip, and the PR woman assigned to keep an eye on us visibly distanced herself from our table when Dave started offering this stuff. Of course the bar was already shut down by this time, so there was nothing to quench the fire. I like hot food, but this stuff was insane. How he got past security with this I’ll never know.

And then there’s this one. Someone was grappling with other people at the table, trying to get a chip into Dave’s killer nacho sauce. On his back I read the words “Punch Your Ears in the Face”. I only know one person who would say that, and I was pretty sure he wasn’t here. Then I saw the “Engineer v Designer” logo. “Those are SolidWorks guys” I said out loud. I think Dave’s sauce was making us all a little punchy. So the guy looked at me with this wild look in his eye, and I was like WTF? and he was like WTF? and I was like “I know one of those guys, and you’re not him. So you must be the other guy.” And sure enough, it was Adam OHearn of CADjunkie. The “other guy” that I know is of course Josh Mings of SolidSmack.

By the way, I have absolutely no idea why it looks like Adam wet himself in this picture.

And finally, I have Billy Oliver, the SolidWorks customer who converted to Solid Edge at Helena Labs. Billy has quite a story with CAD, and doesn’t get too hung up on religious dedication to any CAD product. He has used a few, and realizes that tools come and go.

Anyway, these are just a few of the people I met tonight. There were a lot more who are now thanking their stars that I didn’t turn the camera on them.

Tomorrow we get to the real meat about why we are here. The excitement is something you can feel. The users involved with this product definitely care about its future. Hearing each person’s story helps me get a better picture of where the product and company are, and where they are headed.

Tune back in tomorrow for more on what’s new in ST5.