East Meets East

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Combined SOLIDWORKS User Group Meetings are fairly uncommon, but they do happen. Often it’s due to a special guest or presenter that’s in the area, but the groups are usually in close proximity to each other.  Calgary and Edmonton, Chicago and Chicago West, and Toronto and Kitchener have all had combined meetings, but nobody had to get on a plane to attend.

Lots of Happy Faces
Lots of Happy Faces

Not so for the recent meeting that combined members of the SOLIDWORKS User Group (Club) of Nagano, and the SOLIDWORKS User Group of Saigon.  At roughly 2,650 miles, that would be like the Phoenix Metro SOLIDWORKS User Group and the Western Mass SOLIDWORKS User Group getting together for a meeting.

The meeting was full of information, guest speakers, and fun, starting off with a presentation from the engineers at Haier who challenged the group to come up with solutions for the problem presented.  Turns out it could easily be solved using SOLIDWORKS Electrical 3D.

The second part of the meeting was another challenge, and we’ve seen this before.  The “Pasta Bridge Project” was originally cooked up by our good friend in Corporal Willy (Richard Williams) from Las Vegas, and the attendees ate it up (sorry for the bad puns).  The winning team came up with a design that withstood 4.7kg.

Yoshihiro Dobashi and Quang Duc Le
Yoshihiro Dobashi and Quang Duc Le

This was also the first time that the group leaders – Yoshihiro Dobashi and Quang Duc Le – had a chance to meet in person.  Many of our SOLIDWORKS User Group Leaders have become friends over the years after meeting at SOLIDWORKS World, but for our international leaders, this isn’t always an option.  It makes me very happy to see it when it happens.

I received a lot of emails regarding this meeting, and from what I read, it was one of the best in Asia in a long time.  Our SOLIDWORKS User Groups in the AP are still relatively new, but they are growing stronger every day.

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