The SolidWorks Blog

Ask Richard Branson a question

By now everyone knows that Sir Richard Branson will be the guest speaker at SolidWorks World 2009. But ssshhhh, here's a secret news item that ONLY you will know—we won’t be asking Sir Richard (“please call me Richard”) to stand up and give the traditional canned speech, even though we already know that he'll be fascinating.

It turns out he’s much more comfortable sitting down and having a chat on any topic we may want to discuss. So he and I will sit together onstage and have a conversation. I'm ironing my smoking jacket and already have a pretty good list going; from his earliest days as a ”start-up”, to his adventures battling BA and American Airlines, to his forays into everything from colas to music stores, to his many charitable efforts, and, of course, to his current initiative with rocket scientist and SolidWorks World 2005 speaker/SolidWorks customer Burt Rutan and the imminent launching of Virgin Galactic. That’s a lot! But we thought it would be great to get the community of SolidWorks users involved, too. After all, why should I have all the fun?

So, here’s the offer – if YOU could sit down with Richard and ask him anything (keep it clean; I know how some of you think), what would it be? And, something deeper than “…if you were a tree, what would you be?” It doesn’t  have to be serious; after all he only pursues interests that he and his employees can genuinely have fun doing. 

So here’s your chance to be the next Larry King/David Frost/Oprah—leave your questions for Sir Richard in the comments section. If I ask your question on stage, I’ll mention your name and company, and the same will appear behind me on-screen.

Doesn’t this sound better than the same old predictable stand-up speech and death by PowerPoint?

Vote for SolidWorks enhancements online

This year we want to add a new level of accessibility and transparency to the way top ten enhancements are gathered and ranked. To that effect, Bill Taylor and the SolidWorks web gurus have built a new tool that allows you to submit, view, vote and discuss enhancements that you would like to see in a future release of SolidWorks.   

We're going to leave the site up until SolidWorks World where we will then announced the top ten enhancements submitted and voted on by all of you. The only caveat is that you have to  use your customer portal log-in, and you have to be on subscription.

Start submitting your ideas!

What do you want to know about SolidWorks World?

Tomorrow I'll be sitting down with Jeff Ray and Jon Hirschtick to record a joint interview for our SolidWorks World podcast series. I have a list of my own questions, but I want to know what you want to hear about. If you could sit down and ask Jeff and Jon one question related to SolidWorks World, what would it be?

I'm also going to be talking to Kerri Dunne and her team, who are responsible for making the event happen. I know you have questions for these ladies, so send them in.

Leave your questions in the comments section. I can't promise I'll get to all of them, but if I use yours, I'll give you a shout out.

<<<<Update>>>>

I had to cancel the recording sessions due to the coming snowstorm, but I'll be rescheduling them for later. So if you haven't already submitted your questions, go ahead and send them in.

Here’s a social networking success story

There once was a massive, monolithic company called “C” that had repeatedly clobbered its competition. It had turned customer loyalty and revenue generation into a mighty machine that no one could beat. They became a global brand unto themselves. They were clued into the power on the East and West Coasts. Then an unknown company called “O” popped up from one of those nondescript “flyover” states in the Midwest.

They had no money, no experience of real success, and their name just didn’t roll off the tongues of their customers. But they did have a dream, and were driven by a strong passion to listen to what their customers wanted, and actually try to give it to them. They tapped into social networks. In no time they were outflanking “C” in every corner of the country, and overnight started generating amazing amounts of revenue, all from little customers. And they put “C” in the rear view mirror, never to be seen again.

Of course you know what I’m talking about–the Obama social community of over a million members, donating less than $60 each and driving the greatest voter engagement in a generation. All the while the Clinton machine relied on its legacy model of the 90’s–tap into the rich and powerful on the coasts, each of which quickly maxed out their donations at the $2,300 limit, but whose numbers were only in the thousands. As “C” ran out of money, the money from the “O” social community members just kept rolling in as the numbers of volunteers skyrocketed.

So, the legacy monolith lost to the agile netroots. And the social networking has only begun–check out this site http://change.gov/.

Does this have any applicability in our business world?

Something funny happened on the way to SolidWorks World...

We've been hearing stories from some of you about how you're having to get...creative...in order to get to SolidWorks World 2009. But so far, it's mostly second-hand information. So we want to hear it directly from you.

Did you have to promise to wash the boss' car for a year or pick up her dry cleaning? Are you driving to Orlando with your entire user group in a Winnebago to save on gas? Are you camping out at the Kissimmee KOA? Leave a comment with your story. If it's good, someone from SolidWorks may even get up on stage in Orlando and tell the crowd what you had to do.

And while we're on the subject, the deadline for early bird registration is coming up quick, so if you haven't already registered, do so by January 9 and save yourself a hundred bucks.

And one last thing--Kerri told me that there's going to be another surprise in the general session (besides Richard Branson), but she's keeping this one to herself. I'm personally hoping she's going to be like Oprah and give everyone a car. But I have a feeling I won't know until you do this time around.