More than 50 years ago, Elvis Presley sang the song that became Sin City’s unofficial anthem, Viva Las Vegas:
Bright light city gonna set my soul
Gonna set my soul on fire
Did we set some souls on fire today? Perhaps … with a bevy of impressive keynote speakers – some 70% more customer presentations than last year – at our 3DEXPERIENCE Customer Forum, being held this year at the beautiful ARIA Resort and Casino in Las Vegas.
Today’s event kicked off with an opening presentation by Bruno Latchague, Managing Director for North America, followed by a company overview given by SIMULIA CEO Scott Berkey.
Bruno Latchague opens up Day 1
Scott Berkey, SIMULIA CEO
Next on stage was noted industrialist Lynn Tilton, who has made a habit of buying distressed businesses and turning them around. In fact, she was featured in last week’s Wall Street Journal Tip of the Week video. In her inspiring speech, the Yale-trained poet stated: “I feel like I stand at the nexus of dream, reality, history and the future,” and that future hearkens to America’s past—manufacturing. “America missed a generation of manufacturing” and she’s dedicated to working hard—and innovating—to make sure that the country makes up for lost time.
Keynote speaker Lynn Tilton
Following some executive comments on her speech from Latchague and CEO and President Bernard Charlès—and a discussion of the company’s 3DEXPERIENCE platform from Monica Menghini, Executive Vice President, in charge of Industry, Marketing and Corporate Communications, Tilton’s inspiring speech naturally transitioned to Dassault Systèmes’ customers and some of their amazing innovations.
Latchague, joining Tilton and Dassault Systèmes CEO and President Bernard Charlès
Bernard Charlès
Monica Menghini
The showcased customer innovations included:
- A virtual test drive of a new Tesla vehicle, designed on-the-spot from the stage;
Olivier Sappin, Vice President, Transportation and Mobility Industry, Dassault Systèmes; and Paul Lomangino Director of Engineering, Tesla Motors
- A fascinating presentation from SHoP, developers of Brooklyn’s unique Barclays Center, the nation’s highest-grossing sports and concert venue last year and a lynchpin for re-development of a previously underserved Brooklyn neighborhood. SHoP also showed a pre-fab, “Post-Sandy” 3-family home it is developing in Red Hook, Brooklyn;
Jonathan Mallie of SHoP, showing off a recent project in New York’s Meat Packing District
- Pratt & Whitney discussing the ongoing innovation in its venerable, 50 year-old PT6 airplane engine;
Pratt & Whitney Canada’s John Wyzykowski
- A sure-crowd pleaser: MWV leading off its presentation by saying, “I’m mostly going to talk about beer,” and talking about the future of beverage packaging, including the company’s use of innovative 3D tools such as CATIA Natural Sketch to dramatically cut down the time it takes for them to bring packaging ideas to reality;
- Andrew Gaynor of the America’s Cup-winning Oracle Team USA talking about their amazing comeback victory and use of Dassault Systèmes solutions to make that happen.
Andrew Gaynor of the America’s Cup Winning Team Oracle, with Latchague
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGOpoPt-5GU
The audience watched a video highlighting the greatest come back in sailing history
The afternoon was spent with a series of six industry-focused breakouts featuring numerous customers discussing the value of the 3DEXPERIENCE to their business. The day ended with a networking reception for employees, customers and partners.
Like The King, we’d need more than “24 hours in a day” to talk about all the great things being done by Dassault Systèmes’ customers – and we will have a second day tomorrow that will be equally exciting, highlighted by presentations from entertainer will.i.am (addressing the audience via Skype) and Enrique Legaspi, the chief of staff for his i.am.angel foundation.
To follow the event in real-time on Twitter, search for hashtag #3DXforum, or visit our 3DXforum live dashboard. It continues through Wednesday evening.
