A Round Up of Our May SWUGN Sponsorship Tours

Recently we blogged about how Gemma and Heather, who run the SWUGN sponsorship program here at DriveWorks, were in the process of planning their May SWUGN tours of the UK and Wisconsin.

They’re back in the office after a great week on the road and we’ve caught up with them to see what they got up to at the meetings.

Gemma’s UK SWUGN Tour

The first stop on Gemma’s tour was to the SOLIDWORKS User Group London meeting which took place at the iMakr store on Monday 22nd May 2017.

“This is a new SOLIDWORKS User Group and group leader Kirby Downey hosted a fun meeting which focused on SOLIDWORKS and 3D printing.

We also met Luke Daley, a professional prop maker, who discussed how SOLIDWORKS helps him to be creative. He brought some examples of his work to show us and he spoke to us about the difficulties he faces when making props. He has to conduct research in order to help him find appropriate references from films and screen shots and this means he needs to develop prototypes and build on his designs over time.

This was a great first meeting! Well done, Kirby!”

Another New SOLIDWORKS User Group

“On Wednesday 24th May, the Midlands SOLIDWORKS User Group launched their first meeting at Worcester University.

The group leader, Luke Frost, hosted a great meeting for the new members. I travelled by train to meet Luke in Worcester and he spoke about how he spent a lot of time teaching himself to use SOLIDWORKS and learn more. He then built on his skills at university and in his day job. The focus of his meetings is to really bring people together to learn and share ideas along the way.

I presented to the group about the new DriveWorksXpress Certification and just how easy it is to become a Certified DriveWorksXpress Associate.

Well done to Luke for hosting a great first meeting!”

Returning to SWUGN NW

“On Thursday 25th May, I travelled to Liverpool to support SOLIDWORKS User Group North West leader, Adam Green, who partnered with the Liverpool John Moores University Design Show.

Liverpool John Moores University took part in the trial of the DriveWorksXpress Certification at the start of the school year and during the SWUG NW meeting, we arranged a competition for all of the Certified DriveWorksXpress Associates to take part in.

Students from the product design course took one of their own models and used it to create a DriveWorksXpress project. It was great to see a range of SOLIDWORKS models and ideas come together and we awarded prizes to the winners.

Adam Green has ran this meeting for the past three years and, as a member of the Liverpool John Moores Alumni, he takes pride in helping to bring education and Industry together. Good job, Adam!”

Tom Wormald, Applications Engineer at DriveWorks, with the winners of the competition, who are also Certified DriveWorksXpress Associates.

Well done to Richard Hatson who came in first place, Matthew Fryer who was second place and Rob Flemming who was in third place.

Heather’s SWUGN Tour of Wisconsin

“On Sunday 21st May 2017, I headed to Wisconsin for a week long SWUGN tour, This was a SWUGN record for me as I was attending 5 meetings in 4 nights. Over the past year I’ve loved presenting about DriveWorksXpress to the SOLIDWORKS user group community so I was excited to get stuck in!

On Monday 22nd May, I arrived at the SOLIDWORKS Resource Forum Sheboygan (SURF) meeting. The Vollrath Company was the host site for the meeting and it was headed by the group leader, Dan Harvey.

I spoke to the group about DriveWorksXpress and I was able to take a tour of The Vollrath Company’s training centre. I really enjoyed seeing all the products that’re being design in SOLIDWORKS and some future products currently being designed in DriveWorks!”

Northeast Wisconsin SOLIDWORKS User Group

“On Tuesday 22nd May, Northeast Wisconsin SOLIDWORKS User Group leader, Jason Kmecheck, welcomed me to present at his meeting at short notice! I was in the area and heard about his meeting so I was keen to get involved.

The meeting was hosted at the Fox Valley Technical School in Appleton, and I spoke to the group about DriveWorksXpress and the DriveWorksXpress Training and Certification program. By the end of the evening the head of Mechanical Design was on board to add the DriveWorksXpress Training and Certification to their curriculum in the fall!

John Setzer of GSC and Cami Florence of Fisher Unitech gave great SOLIDWORKS presentations. Thanks to you both for giving up some of your presentation time so I could join in!”

La Crosse, Eau Claire and Winona Area SOLIDWORKS User Group

“When I arrived in Arcadia, Wisconsin on Wednesday 23rd May to present at the LEWA SOLIDWORKS User Group Meeting, I didn’t realise that I was coming to a really small town with a population of 2,925.

Group leader, Betty Baker, and I met before the meeting for lunch and it was great to spend some time with her discussing her group.

The group came together in the afternoon and I presented to them about DriveWorks. We were then joined by Dob Glaske of CATI, who presented some SOLIDWORKS tips and tricks and recommendations on optimisation.

After the meeting, Betty and I had some time to visit the Elmaro Winery where we celebrated the success of the meeting. Thank you Betty for the warm welcome!”

SOLIDWORKS Milwaukee Area Resource Team / Kettle Moraine SWUG

“SWUGN group leaders Kim Olson and Kurt Zirtzlaff worked together to host a joint meeting of the SOLIDWORKS Milwaukee Area Resource Team (SMART) and the Kettle Moraine SOLIDWORKS User Group (KEMSUG) on my final night in Wisconsin.

What a great turnout we had!  It was great to have a meeting hosted at the Kettle Moraine Technical School and be able to share with SOLIDWORKS Users how they can start automating some of their design with DriveWorksXpress. There were also students and graduates there who were interested in becoming Certified DriveWorksXpress Associates through the new DriveWorksXpress Training and Certification Program.”

Thank You!

“Thank you to all of the SOLIDWORKS User Group leaders who welcomed us to their meetings and helped to make our latest DriveWorks SWUGN tours successful! We’re looking forward to working with you again soon.” – Gemma and Heather.

If you’re a SOLIDWORKS User Group leader and you’d like DriveWorks to sponsor your meeting, please get in touch!