COE 2004 Annual Conference & TechniFair

The COE Annual Conference & TechniFair is a little more than a month away! The COE Annual Conference & TechniFair will take place on April 25-28 at the Fontainebleau Hilton Resort in Miami Beach, Florida. This once-a-year event offers all levels of PLM education and hands-on training from key industry experts and executives from around the world. Visit the Featured Speakers section of the COE Web site for a complete list of abstracts and bios of all the industry leaders who will be in attendance.

Not only does this year’s conference offer the biggest gathering of users and experts in one place, but the TechniFair offers a sneak peak of the latest products and services. The TechniFair features hardware and software vendors showing off products that widen the scope of CATIA, ENOVIA, DELMIA, and SMARTEAM.

The Conference also features great networking events and friendly competitions like Top Gun XVII and the brand-new PLM COElympics allowing teams to use V5 in a collaborative environment. PLM COElympics will be administered by Dassault Systèmes, with equipment to be provided by IBM and will be supported by ImpactXoft technology. Significant prizes and trophy will be awarded to the highest scoring team. A limited number of teams will be able to compete. To pre-register your team, contact COE Board of Directors member, Bill Abramson, at abramson@attglobal.net or 828-692-5658.

Finally, be sure you or your manager joins us for the most comprehensive, executive-level Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) event offered. The COE 2004 Annual Conference & TechniFair's Strategic Issues Track can help enable collaboration and empower innovation in your organization. To find out more, download the brochure and see Strategic Issues Track Breakout Sessions abstracts and speaker biographies.

This cornerstone annual event promises to be bigger, better, and more exciting than any COE event. Download the Advance Program online at www.coe.org. Register now for the best rates. We look forward to seeing you in Miami Beach!

COE Insta-Poll Results and Next Topic

We want your feedback. Every month we will be asking you a different question on topics concerning your Dassault Systemes software installation, your experiences, or to help us improve COE member benefits. Next month we'll provide the results to our March poll and introduce a new question.

Results of the February online poll:

Which of the following enhancements to coe.org would you find most useful?

7.8% Shareware

7.8% Library Proceedings

58.4% Forum

7.8% Enhancement Requests

10.4% Data Exchange Tips

7.8% COE NewsNet

Please be sure to provide your input on our March poll: The number one reason I visit www.coe.org is?

Letter from the Editor

It is with mixed emotions that I must inform you that the COE 2004 Conference & TechniFair in Miami in April will be the last for our close friend ... personal and a friend of COE - both as an attendee and as the TR co-chair. Tom has decided after nearly 20 years in the CATIA business to totally go in a different direction. Following this COE he will begin a life-long dream of getting involved in the golfing industry. Tom plans to attend various golf schools with the immediate goal to become a certified golf instructor. He has taught 1000's to use CATIA; we are convinced that he will make a pretty good instructor for golf, too. It is his long-range goal to purchase or develop a Golf practice facility.

Tom Cisler has attended at least 35 COE conferences over these years. He is known by many of us in the CATIA community. We have really appreciated the help and support Tom has given us over the years, you could always count on Tom. He has probably have given over 50 presentations during the conferences and with the displayed fervor, I would bet that he enjoyed every one. We will really miss you Tom and we wish you success in your new venture.