Home at Last….

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Well, I’ve been back all week, I’ve just neglected the blog a bit.

The user group road trip was a huge success, with stops in Omaha, Detroit, and Racine (Milwaukee). 

The Nebraska group meeting was attended by more than 70 users, and we had a great time at the venue.  The Strategic Air and Space Museum was a terrific place to hold a meeting, thanks go out to group leader Todd Blacksher, and Dick Longoria of Tridaq for making it happen.

The Eastern Michigan group meeting was huge!!  A little over 100 attendees, 8 vendor booths, and some great presentations.  Robert Meitzler has done a wonderful job with this group and it just keeps growing.  I got to see a few people that I’ve met over the years through my association with SolidWorks.  Deb Dowding, whom I first met at SolidWorks World, has been a long-time friend of the SolidWorks Community.  Deb is in the initial stages of setting up a user group in the Jackson/Battle Creek area of Michigan – look for an announcement soon.  I also got a chance to visit briefly with Dan Bovinich of SWCAD fame.  Dan has been a very active in the community for many years, and his "Working with Solids" website is very cool.

Off I went to Racine, Wisconsin for my first Midwest Region SolidWorks User Conference.  Now in its fourth year, the show brought nearly 250 people together for two days of technical sessions, a vendor fair, food, and lots of great people.  I met plenty of SolidWorks users, most notably Lenny Kikstra, who asked me to pass along the news of his new website – lennyworks.com – check it out, the macro and "tips and tricks" sections alone are worth the visit.  The Midwest conference will extend its run to five years next October, and I hope to make a return trip.

I wasn’t able to wrangle a visit to the Colorado User Group meeting the same week, but group leader Gerald Davis has a nice write-up on the COSUG website.

I’m staying home for a couple of weeks before heading out the the next SWUGN Summit in San Diego.  If you’re in the area, I hope you’ll join us.

Richard Doyle

Richard Doyle

My official title is Senior User Advocacy & SolidWorks User Groups - but most people just call me "The User Group Guy". I've been a SolidWorks user since 1997, and was one of the founding members of the SWUGN Committee. Since starting the Central Texas SolidWorks User Group in 1999, my career path has led me to DS SolidWorks and a dream job supporting the SolidWorks User Group Network worldwide.
Richard Doyle

@https://twitter.com/swugn

Richard Doyle