SolidWorks World is less than a week away and the plans are coming together nicely. With this being my 1st time attending the event I am having a hard time controlling my excitement as the days tick away toward Saturday when I fly out to San Diego. As Mike Puckett reported yesterday in his blog post titled “Don’t Forget Your Umbrella” the weather for next week at SolidWorks World looks wet but after the snow that fell in West Michigan last night I will take the high 50′s and rain. My schedule is starting to take shape also as I have scheduled one on one interviews with some of the brightest minds in the CAD industry. They are:

Greg Jankowski – Author of “SolidWorks for Dummies” (1st & 2nd Edition), Author of SolidWorks for AutoCAD users and a very visible member in the SolidWorks Discussion Forum

Jon Hirschtick – Currently a Group Executive @ SolidWorks, former CEO @ SolidWorks & Premise, Inc. and he was a Co-Founder of SolidWorks

Jeff Ray – Current CEO @ SolidWorks, former Chief Operating Officer @ SolidWorks

I am planning on bringing these interviews to you through my blog but I am not sure if they will be available during the conference or not until after I get back home, so please be patient with me. There are so many things that I am looking forward to experiencing in San Diego, a sneak peak at SolidWorks 2009, all of the fantastic breakout sessions that are available this year by some of the best presenters the CAD industry has to offer, the Stump the Chump (with the guys on the right) session, the Partner Pavilion, and these are just a few of the highlights that will be happening this year. The ability to finally put some faces to names that I have been communicating with over the past year is one of the biggest things I am anticipating. So as you can tell I am excited!

For those that are still interested in attending but have not signed up yet you have until today to register online. SolidWorks 2008 Online Registration ends today so don’t delay. If you are looking to come and just check out the Exhibit Hall and General Sessions register and use this code (SWEX08119) to receive a free pass – $199.00 value.

For those of you that haven’t purchased a SolidWorks 2007 Bible yet and would like to (and I HIGHLY recommend getting yourself one) Matt Lombard will be taking some along with him next week. You can get a signed copy for $40 if you can catch up with Matt at the conference and he has one with him. Be sure to catch him early because this is a deal that you won’t want to miss. I just paged through mine again this weekend and realized what a wonderful resource I had at my fingertips.

So get your bags packed, have a safe trip and hopefully I will see you there. Be sure to introduce yourself!

Knee high socks, shorts up to the armpits, camera around the neck, fanny pack around the waist, big sunglasses, a strip of sun tan lotion on the nose, these are all sure fire signs that you might be in the midst of a tourist. Well if you are going to SolidWorks World next week and you aren’t careful you might be showing some of these signs to native Californians, so Devon Sowell has given us some pointers so that we don’t look like the people in this picture. Head over to Devon’s blog entry titled “Important SolidWorks World Attendees Information”. So make sure you memorize all of this stuff in the next week so that you can fit in like a true Californian.

Well if you are, here is your chance to experience the exhibit hall and general sessions for free. Go register now (online registration closes on Tuesday, January 15, 2008) and use the code SWEX08119 to get yourself a free Exhibit Hall Only pass. So do it now, join myself and attend what could be the largest 3D CAD event of the year!

As most of you know SolidWorks World is right around the corner (13 days to be exact) and details are coming out about this years event. One detail that is usually kept top secret is who the surprise guest speaker is going to be. That is until this year! This year Randall over at 3D CAD NEWS seems to have an inside source somewhere that is leaking some classified details about who this years surprise guest is going to be. Now they have a contest going on for you to guess who it is going to be. Every other day or so from now until the beginning of SolidWorks World they will be releasing 1 clue about the guest keynote speakers identity. If you think you know who it is you can email your guess to editor@cadcamnet.com. If you can’t figure it out from the contest you better sign up right now to attend SolidWorks World and find out for yourself who it is. I do have 1 request for Randall at 3D CAD NEWS, PLEASE don’t post who the speaker is once it has been guessed, let everyone else be surprised the day of the event.

Time continues to edge closer and closer towards the beginning of SolidWorks World 2008 in San Diego, CA, however, you are still able to sign up to attend the largest user group meeting of the year! Earlier this year I did a series of posts concerning my process of trying to convince the management at the company I work at to send me to SolidWorks World for the first time. During these posts I received a letter from Bob Jordan (through Jeff Mirisola) titled Why a manager should send staff to SolidWorks World. Bob Jordan is VP, R & D at the Insight Group and he recently did a podcast similar to the letter on why he feels that it is so very important to send his employees to SolidWorks World. Check it out and be sure to make your management listen to it also, it could be the difference of a trip to San Diego or not!

P.S. ONLY 16 MORE DAYS UNTIL SWW 08!