Oh,
what the hell. This is my opinion, and my opinion alone, on the PTC/User
conference compared to past AUGIs.
I have
been to AUGI every year since and including 2000. If this year were an
actual AUGI, it would have been my 7th.
That's
the problem, in my opinion. It wasn't an AUGI.
First
off, was the size. The largest AUGI ever was last year at Disney World,
with @600 attendees. The PTC/Use conference was @2000. The first
thing I noticed was that during the reception on Sunday night, I recognized 3
people. 3 people out of 2000. This was outside of the usual
former-Arbortext executives like John Dreystadt and PG Bartlett, etc.
The
number of vendors was tremendously greater than any AUGI. Most of them,
outside of the Arbortext partner area, were engineering vendors (eCAD, CADAM,
etc.) and had little interest in me and I had little interest in them. It
was hard to get good SWAG (like a T-shirt) from them, unless you could talk
engineering with them.
There
were no T-shirts given out for the conference. I had to leave early
Wednesday, so maybe they gave out something later, like what Lori Nakon used to
do to give you an incentive to fill out your conference evaluation, but I doubt
it. They were selling PTC ball caps behind the registration booths for a nominal
fee. I don't remember how much. I think that presenters got a crappy
glass cowboy boot from PTC. We always used to get some kind of bag or
backpack from AUGI registration. The only SWAG of this nature given out at
registration was a zip-up vinyl (or maybe it was leather) valise/folder. The
Arbortext introductory presentation had better gifts afterward that the PTC
conferencedid as a whole.
There
were no gifts sneaked into your room while you were gone during the latter days
of the conference, as there were in previous AUGIs. No geographical area
representative took everyone from yourarea out to dinner at a local restaurant, as happened on
previous AUGIs.
The
breakfasts had no warm food. It was all Continental breakfast. The
first breakfast was in a lobby with no chairs or tables, and people were
wandering around carrying plates with fruit and pastry in one hand and a glass
of juice or a cup of coffee in the other hand. Some people were sitting on
the floor leaning against the wall. Others were standing at windows using
the window sill as a table. This was a bad idea, whether it was Gaylord's
or PTC's idea.
The
lunches were good. They were all held adjacent to the vendor display area,
with multiple buffet tables.
The
facility was great. The Gaylord Texan is a very nice and very big place.
The prices of food there were prohibitively expensive. Menus had prices on
them like, "26.", "32.", "18." etc. Forget 25.99, 31.99 and
17.99. That was just for a small, medium and large coke! Just
kidding. But not much. There were shuttles available to got a nearby
mall if you wanted more affordable food, but it was somewhat inconvenient to
catch one, as they only went there about onceevery
otherhour.
In
summary, I would say that I was overwhelmed with the size of the conference,
underwhelmed with the SWAG and disappointed at the number of people I
knew.
Others
may have had completely different experiences. Maybe if I had stayed later
I could have gotten some last-minute-lets-hurry-up-and-get-rid-of-these SWAG
items. Or maybe if I was more outgoing or aggressive I could have met more
people and wangled more free stuff from the vendors.
The
technical part of the conference was good. The Arbortext presentations
were about the same as usual. Nothing bad there.
class=213494417-09062006>This is just my opinion. That's all. Mostly about
the non-technical experience. I'm not trying to be petty or pout about
things. I'm just saying that the overall conference experience *for
me* was not as good as what AUGI used to be.
