General Session #1 started off with a bang this morning. Big crowd pushing to get into the theater, rock music blaring and lights blazing all over. Attendance is in excess of 5000, over the 4300 last year. Not bad. The vibe is high energy, as usual with this lot.
Jeff Ray got up and introduced Bernard Charles, CEO of Dassault Systemes. This, apparently, was the first time that Mr. Charles has attended a SWW. He gave a good insightful presentation on who Dassault Systemes are, gave a bit of history and referred to them as an investor in SolidWorks. He spoke about the six “lovemarks” in DS – specifically, SolidWorks, Catia, Simulia, Enovia, Delmia and 3dvia. Lovemarks still makes me giggle, probably sounds better in French 
At the end of it all, I think it went over fairly well. But, can’t help feeling like big brother was up there about to drop a bomb on something. Here is an image of the “brands”.
He then did a demo of 3dvia on an iphone. I am getting a much better idea of what 3dvia is all about. I met Cliff Medling last night and over a few Fat Tire’s he schooled me on some of the coolness that is 3dvia. Check out 3DVIA TV.
At the end of the day. I think Dassault Systemes has had a very positive effect on the SolidWorks product and organization. They may come across as this large corporation, but its clear in my next post that their input in “cloud” technologies is huge for SolidWorks.
