Designfusion Launch Events in Canada Draw Big Crowds and New Prospects

About 350 prospects and customers attended launch events in Toronto, Montreal and Quebec City so far this month, driven there through the joint efforts of channel partner Designfusion and Siemens PLM Software.

The premier launch for Solid Edge with Synchronous Technology took place June 10 at the Toronto’s impressive CN Tower complex, known as tallest building in the world. About 140 attendees gathered to hear from Designfusion and Siemens about the new history-free and feature-based version of Solid Edge.

While Solid Edge was the focus of attention, Designfusion and Siemens were also able to provide key updates to the other Velocity Series products CAM Express, Femap and Teamcenter Express.

Of the 140 attendees, about one-third were new prospects. The balance was made up of existing customers, a good target for Velocity opportunities and also existing customers who were not current on maintenance. The launch event included relevant content for all.

In Montreal on June 12, Designfusion hosted about 130 attendees from the 177 registrations that came in. Montreal attracted a higher percentage of existing Solid Edge customers and the event included an afternoon of deeper dive content on the other Velocity products.

This week, Designfusion drew 77 attendees out of the 85 registrations for its launch in Quebec City. Events also are set for next week in Ottawa and Winnipeg.

Driving attendance well in advance was key to Designfusion’s success. On at least two occasions, all hands were manning the phones for full-day calling campaigns to prospects and customers. Fluent in the new technology, Designfusion hit the ground running with the launch. More than a dozen Designfusion sales and technical personnel staffed the events.

Designfusion President Kevin Johnstone opened both events last week with discussion on how local industry groups have underlined the importance of staying current on technology investment as a hedge against growing competitive pressures from overseas. With quotes from local manufacturing industry groups, the presentation set up discussion throughout the day focused on the new Solid Edge and integrated CAM, CAE and cPDM technologies.

Dan Staples, director of Solid Edge development, spent about 90 minutes discussing the new Solid Edge with Synchronous Technology. The presentation, complemented by multiple live demonstrations from Designfusion Application Engineer Rohan Bhalla, discussed sea-level changes from both the perspective of business advantages and technical advances. You can also see Dan's discussion from an earlier webinar here.

Cory Goulden, CAD administrator at National Steel Car in Ontario, discussed his beta testing experience on Solid Edge with Synchronous Technology and how it would help him follow some internal rules on what not to do in traditional history-based modeling: Thou shalt not: add rounds until final steps, model with no design intent, create a part without anticipating changes, etc. Cory told the audience that the new Solid Edge was so easy to use that his 8-year-old son can use it. He showed a video to prove it.

Event Pictures
Presentations during the launching of Solid Edge with Synchronous Technology for America in the Tower of CN of Toronto, on Tuesday, 10th June, 2008