3D Insider’s Summit 2010 – Day 1

Today is the first day of the 3D Insider’s Summit in Westminster, Colarado and I’m trying to see if I can live blog this event using the iPad I bought yesterday. I wasn’t too happy with the test post I wrote yesterday and have spent the most of last night trying to install iPad apps that will help me. So let’s see how this goes.

Keith Mountain, CEO

“Yes, the rumors that I will be retiring from Spatial and Dassault Systemes by the end of the year are true.”

“One of the main criteria when selecting a new leader for Spatial was that he should be able to help navigate through Dassault Systemes. Jean-Marc Guillard is the perfect person for the job.”

Jean-Marc Guillard, COO

“Spatial’s extended portfolio based in V6 technologies is designed to provide you with new opportunities.”

“80% of end user sales in 2009 for Dassault Systemes were in Automotive, Industrial Equipment and Aerospace.”

Jean-Marc was asked whether CGM would be available on Linux. He replied that the decision wasn’t made yet.

Mike Payne, SpaceClaim’s Chairman of the Board – Keynote Speech

Mike’s keynote speech was about his view on component technology. He gave a brief history of component technologies starting with Parasolid. He said, “I don’t understand why some people still want to develop their technologies all by themselves. Its too expensive and comes with its own set of problems”. Mike noted that component vendors absolutely must adapt their components for new applications. He highlighted this with the example of how Spatial adapted ACIS to help SpaceClaim implement direct modeling.

Mike also gave a brief history of Spatial. Apparently after the IPO in 1996 Spatial lost a total of $11.2 million in the first five years until it was rescued by Dassault Systemes.

Mike advised Spatial that they need to able to differentiate which companies should use ACIS and which should use CGM. Simply getting companies to move from ACIS to CGM may not be a wise thing.

Someone asked Mike what he was doing these days. He admitted that he did not have a definitive answer apart from saying that he was trying to stay out of trouble. He said, “I came to the conclusion that retirement was not an option for me”.