Things to do in Denmark When You Don't Speak Danish

For the first two hours of today's SWERFA meeting, I heard two words I understood - "SolidWorks" and "SpaceBall".  Things got a little better when presentations by local resellers included "DriveWorksExpress", "3DVia Composer", and "PDMWorks Enterprise".  Now I was up to three words and two phrases.

Thomas Neilsen and Rie Ahm put together a terrific meeting - good venue, good food, and nearly 90 attendees.  I could see the same kind of energy I usually see at user group meetings, I just couldn't understand exactly how excited everyone was.  I was able to meet and speak with a couple of SolidWorks users, including Jacob Ilskov of Form for Alt, a local design firm.  Jacob was the first presenter, and did a great job.  While I couldn't understand the words, I could follow along while he demonstrated using the "master part" technique in SolidWorks to construct a rotary blender, and I could sense the passion in his voice for SolidWorks and design.

Fortunately for me, nearly everyone there also spoke English, and I was able to present my CAD Management session in my native tongue. The audience was very polite, and didn't seem to mind when I sped up a little after being told I was "on the clock" (What?  I flew 6,000 miles and they were going to cut me off?).

I'm off to Helsinki tomorrow for the Finnish SolidWorks User Group meeting, where I suspect I'll be subjected to a new language.  I know that at least one and one-half hours of the meeting will be in English though - I'm doing two sessions there.