First off, this meeting saw our greatest attendance in several years – 62! Thank you all that attended! If you have attended one of our meetings in the past, thank you for returning – this shows us that we are doing something right. If this was your first meeting – welcome! We hope that you saw something that interested you and hopefully held some value with you. We look forward to seeing you again!

Special thanks goes to Stephanie Wagg and Diane Munoz of Siemens PLM Software for all of their help behind the scenes with getting this meeting set-up at the Cypress, CA Siemens offices.

John Baker started us of with his ever popular “John Baker Show” otherwise known as “What’s New in NX7.0”. He was also given special permission to give us a sneak-peek at NX7.5! Very exciting stuff!

After a short break, Michael Coleman informed us as to “What’s New in Teamcenter 8.0”.

Following Lunch, we had 2 rounds of breakout sessions covering the following topics:
* NX CAE Update
* NX7.0 Preview
* Managing Electronics MCAD, ECAD & Software
* Ovierview of Siemens Controllers
* Part Assembly/Planning & Simulation
* PMI – The shift from paper to electronic

We are hoping to increase the frequency of meetings to one in the Spring and one in the Fall. Part of this depends upon whether or not we can find another place to hold the meetings. As it stands now, we are bursting the seams of the Siemens Cypress office.

Again, we thank all of you that attended! Hope to see you in the Spring of 2010!

Follow these easy steps to create a post yourself! It’s quick and easy:

- Click the above link “Log in here to start a blog”

- Create a user name and fill in your email address to receive your Word Press password

-Check your email in-box for an email from webguy@plmworld.org

-Follow the link in your email to activate your Word Press account

-You will be taken to a PLM World page with your user name/password (make sure to save these)

-Select the link to log in

-Enter your log in information and password

-You should now see your PLM World Blog Dashboard (if you are having problems here please email me at kkenyon@plmworld.org)

-On the right you will see a box labeled “Quick Press” this is where you can enter your post!

-Fill in a catchy title and use the content box to share your ideas/thoughts with PLM World members

-When finished you can save as a draft if you would like to finish it at a later date, or you can submit for review.

-Once you submit your post for review it will be sent to PLM World for review and posted to PLM World’s Blog site immediately

-From there all members will be able to view your blog!!

Looking for a more advanced post?

-Once logged into word press, rather than entering in your post in the “Quick Press” take a look to the left and click on “Posts”—“Add New”

-This will bring you to a more advanced content box

-The top tool bar is for your Title, whereas the second large box is for your main post

-As you can see you have a visual tab, as well as an html tab if you prefer

-Here you will find a large tool bar filled with text options, graphic uploads, charts/ect. Take a look at this tips & tricks page for a better understanding of all the available options! http://wpmama.com/tips-tricks/series-wordpress-visual-editor-tool-bar-introduction/

-Take a look at http://codex.wordpress.org/Writing_Posts for descriptions of Post Fields

-Continue to complete your post, and as in the earlier steps either save draft, or submit for Review!

Good Luck and I look forward to seeing your posts soon!!

Last Wednesday PLM Europe came to an end in Paris, France. Three days filled with Training sessions, Technical sessions, and networking opportunities at any of the several evening events.

While in Europe, I was able to meet new users from around the globe and spent a lot of time speaking with Partners of PLM World. Feedback is always key in planning future events, so it is nice to hear what is working for users/partners and what is not.

Tuesday’s Evening event was filled with fun for everyone! Live music, great food, along with other small activities going on throughout the night Wednesday afternoons general session held in the afternoon was a great way to close the conference. PLM Europe’s chairman Maarten Romers, and Karla Kluth took the stage to say thank you to all presenters, users, and partners and announce a number of winners of great prizes donated by the partners.

Overall the week was great and filled with lots of networking and sharing of ideas… I am now back in the US and it’s time to get started on Siemens PLM Connection 2010! To keep up to date with news on this years conference stay logged in to plmworld.org.

You may not have been able to make it out to Paris for Siemens PLM Connection Europe this year, but if you are interested in the exciting stuff going on, take a look at the Siemens Blog page for videos taken throughout the conference by Dora Smith, Director, Global Social Media at Siemens PLM Software –> http://siemens.pmhclients.com/index.php/site/comments/plm-connection-extending-teamcenter-capabilities-to-service-document/

It was a long journey from North Carolina, but I, Kati Kenyon, Meeting Planner at PLM World finally have arrived at Siemens PLM Connection Europe 2009. For the second year in a row, held at Disney Resort Paris, the conference started off Sunday evening with a Welcome reception very similar to the Industry Night Reception held at our conference in the US. Though PLM Europe is quite a bit smaller with roughly 450 attendees, Sunday night began with Networking opportunities in the exhibit hall along with great food and drinks. Though on the outside it may seem very much the same as PLM World’s conference, there are a variety of attendees speaking several different languages which quickly changes the atmosphere. Sunday night concluded after 4 hours of getting to know one another, and taking an opportunity to dig into the agenda and plan for the coming days.

Monday morning started of a bit later for those of us with a bit of jet lag! Just as at PLM World, it begun with several key executives of Siemens and of course the Chairman of PLM Europe. The Keynote speaker was European Astronaut, Hans Schlegel. Schlegel spent a majority of his time taking us through a trip to space! Using pictures and videos, he started at the beginning, and showed us what it takes to take a trip around the world. It was clear that there is a lot of teamwork necessary for a successful trip, and just like in most businesses without teamwork, the project would not have been successful. All in all making the morning a great way to start off the week.

Just like PLM World, PLM Europe is set up with a couple training rooms, several breakout technical session rooms, a general session and the exhibit hall. Located in the New York Convention Center, it is very easy to find your way around and transfer from one session to another with ease. After a long day of classes PLM Europe held the Monday Night Reception which included a delicious dinner with all sorts of food, but best of all dessert! This reception was all in all the same type of reception you would see at PLM World, and gave attendees the opportunity to network with colleagues, and discus new practices and ideas with people in the field.

As many of the Monday morning General Session speakers pointed out, this conference is all about the users, and find a way to improve Siemens PLM Software to give them the highest return in investment. I believe that everything that I have seen thus far is working towards doing exactly that, and that the coming days will bring each user a step ahead.

Stay tuned for other updates from PLM Europe – Siemens PLM Connection Europe 2009.

As I was a first time attendee at the PLM World Conference this year in Nashville, TN I didn’t know exactly what to expect.  I had spoken to many that have been going for years, and it was all about how much information there was to try to digest over the course of 4 days.

Over the course of the week, I was continually impressed with everything that was offered.  Hands on training by Siemens PLM instructors, people from all walks of industry giving presentations on things they were very knowledgeable in, and the receptions that were held in the evenings, just to name very few.

Of course, there was one small thing on everyone’s mind — the economy.  As I mentioned, there were about half the attendees this year as were in years previous.  Many companies cutting back on travel and conference costs and some people that simply don’t have jobs now that had attended in years past.  Fortunately for all the attendees this year, you never would have guessed there were economic hardships right now.

Now, I must give all the credit due to the organizers of the conference, and I’m sure there are many more, but to name a few, Kati Kenyon, Bonnie Berry, Carin Pierce, Beth Ewing.  They were amazing.  Every time you turned around they were running, doing something.  The undertaking of an event like this is sometimes overwhelming, but they handled every day with poise and composure (at least in public).  They were always helpful, ready to answer any question, and from an attendee standpoint, it looked like everything was flawless. No event goes on without a small hitch here and there, but you never would have guessed if there were any at all.

In summary, with a down economy and an attendance rate of about 50%, if these folks are involved next year, as I did this year, I will again pay for my own way down and plan on being there!  They did an amazing job, and should be very happy. From my view, the conference was an absolutely 100% success and Congratulations to all the organizers, presenters, and supporters.  I am looking forward to May of 2010!!

Branden Loock

Check out PLM Worlds Twitter account at http://twitter.com/PLMWorld.

Follow the PLM World “tweets” to stay updated with PLM World and what we are doing to prepare for Siemens Connection 2010.

We’re you unable to attend Siemens PLM Connection this year, but still interested in hearing what your peers have to say?  Throughout the conference Dora Smith, Director, Global Social Media at Siemens PLM Software spent a lot of time interacting with attendees and listening to what they had to say. Take a look at what attendees had to say about the following topics:

- What’s Happening in Engineering Education Today?

- Key Modeling Capabilities in Solid Edge

- Solid Edge in the PLM World Community

- Patrick Turcotte,’s Thoughts on PLM World

- David Ewing on NX Knowledge Fusion

- NX 6 in Mechatronics

- CAD/PLM in the Classroom

- Migration into Teamcenter

- NASCAR Analysis, RP & PLM at Hendrick Motorsports

- Lockheed Martin Keynote on PPLM Strategy

- Chat With Chuck

- IBM and Teamcenter 8

To also view several presentations given at Siemens PLM Connection and see what else Siemens PLM Software users have to say, check out the Siemens PLM Connection corporate blog at http://siemens.pmhclients.com/index.php/tags/tag/plmconx .

If you have something to say or would like to comment on any of the interviews above, please post your comments here on our blog, and get the conversation started between you and other users!

Yes, its finally over.  Those of us in the PLM World office and on the board are very happy that it went off without any large complications.  As you may have guessed, the economy bug bit us.  We had about 50% of the usual attendees, but what a great group it was.  We actually heard it said many times that the attendees found this to be the best conference ever.  They loved the smaller size, and thought that it was much easier to find people and start discussions.   Well, either way, we are always most happy when our attendees and members are happy.

In the coming weeks, we plan to update our event website with details and recaps from the week long event.  And of course,  start pushing folks to think about the 2010 event.  I know its early, but its good to keep in mind when looking toward the future for budgets. 

Stay tuned…

The Siemens PLM Conference Agenda is really starting to take shape.   Over 450 abstracts were submitted, and 350 have been accepted.   Like other years the agenda is a 50/50 mix of User and Siemens PLM presentations.   Check out the latest agenda here: http://event.plmworld.org/schedule-agenda/

The conference is once again broken down into Connections consisting of::
- NX Connection
- Teamcenter Connection
- Developers Connection
- Management Connection
 - Velocity Connection

If you are a Siemens Product End User, Administrator, PLM Architect,   IT Manager,  or Engineering/Design/Development Manger, there is definately a track of topics that you can identify with that may offer real business solutions that can be implemented within your company.    But wait, most likely you would have to clone yourself to see everything you would want to see.  On Tuesday Night Barack Obama said cloning was not ethical, so please be ethical, and bring a colleague, not a clone.   Register today http://event.plmworld.org/registration/