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Heather’s SWUGN Tour of the Pacific Northwest

“On Tuesday 14th June 2016, I once again hit the road for an exciting SWUGN tour – this time my destination was the Pacific Northwest.  While some of you have already heard of my attendance at SWUGN meetings in Detroit, Boston and the Midwest, this was my first time on the road where I alone would be presenting as well as providing a brief demonstration of DriveWorksXpress – and I was excited to take on this task!”

“As I stepped off the plane in Portland, Oregon, I was immediately greeted with the fresh and crisp air known to this part of the country.  My first stop was Clark College where I met up with Cory Derico at the Portland Area SOLIDWORKS User Group Meeting (PASWUG).

The meeting was attended by around a dozen people and I found this group to be very familiar with each other and were able to freely share their comments, questions and also ideas for future meetings.

After we dined on sandwiches and cookies (which were delicious after a long day of travelling) it was time to share with the group information about both DriveWorks and DriveWorksXpress.  As I had mentioned that this was my first time on the road on my own presenting as well as showing the software, it was a true testament to the ease and simplicity of the product that I was able to load up a part and successfully demonstrate the simple steps in how to create a project in DriveWorksXpress.

That evening we raffled off many prizes and the main prize of the Amazon Fire TV stick was awarded to a local attendee Baldur Steingrimsson.”

“Next up on my route was Yakima, Washington to visit with Chris Scarlett and the Yakima SOLIDWORKS User Group.  The road trip from Portland to Yakima was nothing less of breathtaking as I navigated the 100+ miles and travelled through Columbia Gorge.

Once in Yakima, I made my way over to the Yakima Maker Space where the user group meeting was held.  After dining on pizza and pop with a small and more intimate user group, Chris conducted a very informative meeting which included presentations by Holly Cheek, Technical Marketing Engineer at Hawk Ridge Engineering who demonstrated Master Modelling.

Once again I was able to give a very informative presentation on DriveWorks and DriveWorksXpress.  Miguel Chavarria was the lucky winner of the Amazon Fire Tablet that was raffled off at the end of the meeting.”

“Meeting up with Jeff Mirisola was great and we hit the Seattle area to attend the Seattle Area SOLIDWORKS Power User Group meeting held at the Lake Washington Institute of Technology.

After enjoying a great lunch at the Red Hook Brewery with both Jeff and his co-leader Phil Mello, we had some time to meet up with Mark Driscoll of 3Dconnexion at the waterfront for a brief visit (and Gelato) ahead of the evening’s meeting.

While the expectation for this meeting was to present DriveWorks to a smaller group of about 12 or so, people continued to walk in the door and I lost count at around 30 attendees.   What a great meeting turnout!  Not only were the attendees engaging with each other ahead of the meeting but also continued to talk with each other through the different presentations;  if there was a question that an attendee had, it was not uncommon to have another attendee with more knowledge or experience to chime in to help.

Banter between the presenters and the crowd added a ‘fun’ layer to this meeting that made leaving at the end of the night bittersweet.   At the end of the meeting we raffled another Amazon Fire Tablet and the winner was no other than Eric Beatty (who was the founder of this user group!)”

“What a great week presenting about DriveWorks and having the chance to meet so many SOLIDWORKS and DriveWorks users – I’m looking forward to where my next trip takes me!”