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

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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.

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