Recap of Alexandria (Egypt) SOLIDWORKS User Group’s 2024 IFTAR

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The Alexandria SOLIDWORKS User Group has completed the first major SWUGN event of the 2024. Nearly 100 people took part in a full-day event that that included technical presentations, networking, and giveaways. They were even able to incorporate their culture, further connecting their members. Leader of this group, Mohamed Hussein, wrote a beautiful recap of this event with lots of great pictures. Check it out below!

Since the start of Alexandria SOLIDWORKS User Group in April 2021, we are always thinking about having quality content, meetings and connections between group members. One standout event that exemplifies this commitment to these goals is our annual IFTAR gathering. Before diving deep into the event, let’s know more about what is IFTAR?

IFTAR, derived from the Arabic word for breakfast, belongs to the holy month of Ramdan. Ramadan is the holiest month in the Islamic calendar, which is characterized by fasting, prayer, and strengthened familial and communal ties. The breaking of the fast, known as iftar, is usually when families and communities come together to share meals and strengthen bonds. one of the beautiful truths about Ramadan is that it’s observed and appreciated by a wide range of individuals, regardless of their religious or believes. This is the time we CONNECT.

We started our first Iftar events in 2022 with 15 attendees.

In 2023 we had 65 attendees. In 2024, we decided to go bigger, more organized and add some fun to the event, in trial to simulate part of the #CSWE Dinner during 3DEXPERIENCE World.

The preparation started with having very interesting content. To that goal we invited Lotfi Derbal, Senior Product Manager at Dassault Systèmes, and Dr. Ahmed Naguib, Assistant Professor at Alexandria University and Professional Engineer, presenting about Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) and Finite Element Analysis (FEA) topics. This is the time to LEARN and TEACH. 

For the giveaways, we have reached out many entities to sponsor our event and we achieved a good deal with 2B CADCAMCIM (SOLIDWORKS Egyptian Reseller), BSF Egypt (Industrial company in Egypt) and Solidarity FabLab, this is beside the support we already have from SOLIDWORKS Community and the Certification team. This is when we COLLABORATE.

The result is:

  1.  All attendees received exclusive gifts courtesy of Solidarity FabLab.
  2. BSF Egypt has sponsored 10 gifts.
  3. 2B CADCAMCIM has sponsored 5 gifts.
  4. 5 CSWP-Mechanical Design sponsored from certification team (no student status required).
  5. 5 CSWP-Flow sponsored from certification team (no student status required).
  6. $25 Visa Voucher sponsored from the SOLIDWORKS Community Manager.
  7. 3DEXPERIENCE World T-shirt.

We had many separate technical and non-technical discussions, advice from our experts, and an open mic for all attendees who wanted to share any thoughts or ideas. This is the time to EMPOWER.

 

It’s not only a technical event; we also included non-technical and fun activities as well.

This is how we planned and executed our 2024 Iftar, with 95 total attendees, and the preparation for 2025 Event has started already. Preparing and organizing this event was done by the Alexandria SOLIDWORKS User Group.

Finally, we are pleased that this event allowed us to highlight and emphasize part of the SOLIDWORKS Community Mission: to empower people who use SOLIDWORKS products to collaborate with, learn from, and teach others. Connect with us anytime, anywhere, on any device for in-depth technical conversations and face-to-face networking.

We’ll see you there!

Dan Wagner

Dan Wagner

Dan is manager of the SOLIDWORKS User Group Network (SWUGN). he has spent over 12 years in the reseller channel providing technical support to SOLIDWORKS users, teaching SOLIDWORKS classes, and delivering marketing & sales presentations to new and experienced SOLIDWORKS users. He is a Certified SOLIDWORKS Expert and is thrilled to continue serving the SOLIDWORKS community for many years to come.