May/June 2009

Another Conference Has Come and Gone

Tom Crume, COE President

Whew! Another annual conference has come and gone. I guess as President of COE, my perspective is probably a little different than the rest of you who were able to attend this year’s event, so I thought I’d share it.

Overall, I feel the event was very well received by all those who attended. Sure, there are always a few minor logistical challenges that come up during the week, the speaker for that one presentation you’re really wanted to hear cancelled at the last minute, you weren’t a winner of a TechniFair prize, or a particular DPC meeting didn’t have a Dassault Systèmes rep in it. But after talking to a great many attendees, listening to our volunteer staff summarize their thoughts, and personally receiving many e-mails, the consensus seems to be it was a very valuable conference. I continue to be impressed by the increasing support and participation from our academia community. This year, the University of Idaho, Purdue University, Georgia Tech and Ferris State University all participated in our Student Poster Session activity, as well as volunteering their time and energy to help us run the event. COE activities are a great way for students to interact with those of us in industry, and also for us to meet the next generation of PLM enthusiasts!

Another observation from the week that I came away with is that our membership is still intently focused on the conversion of V4 to V5, and with the stabilization of V5 software and processes in our companies. While it’s always interesting to see what is coming in the way of new technology and functionality with PLM tools (e.g. V6), our reality is still needing to deal with V4 and V5 so that continues to be to focus of our membership offerings.

If you were in attendance you also heard that COE continues to enhance our “year-around deliverables” for our membership. As we all are aware, our companies are always looking for us to find opportunities for process improvements in all we do. So our volunteer community continues to find ways to bring more value to our membership every day of the year. If you have thoughts on how we can do this better, be sure and let us know.

As always, COE appreciates your dedicated support and involvement in our association!

Conference Photo Slideshow

Access a conference photo slideshow via Kodak Gallery. You may also download and purchase any photos.