3DEXPERIENCE World 2023 Highlights

Our Time at 3DEXPERIENCE World 2023

It’s been 3 years since the last in-person 3DEXPERIENCE World so we were excited to head to Nashville, TN for this year’s event.

This year 13 members of the DriveWorks team headed to Nashville to attend 3DEXPERIENCE World 2023.

As a silver sponsor of the event and a SOLIDWORKS Gold Partner, we were proud to be exhibiting, presenting, learning, and networking.

The three-day event was filled with inspiring keynote presentations, educational breakout sessions, and lots of catching up with our resellers, customers, partners and the SOLIDWORKS community.

The live part of the event was packed with more than 250 technical breakouts, more than 50 hands-on sessions, and various networking opportunities to get involved in.

Here’s what we got up to during this year’s event.

The 3DEXPERIENCE Playground & DriveWorks Booth

The 3DEXPERIENCE Playground created an area where attendees could learn more about the 3DEXPERIENCE Platform and SOLIDWORKS’ innovative partner products and services.

Located on the DriveWorks booth in the 3DEXPEREINCE Playground, our team were busy chatting with attendees, showcasing our award-winning software and the power of design automation and CPQ for manufacturing.

We had a brand new booth and welcomed resellers, customers, and the wider community to catch up with our team. After 3 years we all made the most of being back in-person.

We also had the DriveWorks Experts and CSWP’s on our virtual booth chatting, answering questions, and giving on-demand demos of our software to anyone around the world.

Thank you to everyone who visited both the DriveWorks in-person and virtual booths.

If you missed it, there’s still time to register and access all the great DriveWorks resources that are available there!

General Sessions

General sessions are where we hear from the people and businesses who are part of the 3DEXPERIENCE community

Day One

Impact, Innovation, Imagination

General Session day one opened the event and set the stage for three days packed with inspiration and learning.

Gian Paolo Bassi, Executive VP of 3DEXPERIENCE Works, kicked things off by talking about the importance of working from anywhere, staying connected and always being up to date. He talked about the power of the 3DEXPERIENCE Platform and how its mission is to create a successful design ecosystem.

Gian Paolo also made the announcement that starting July 1st, every seat of SOLIDWORKS will include 3DEXPERIENCE cloud solutions.

Next up, Bernard Charles, Dassault Systèmes CEO, and Vice Chairman gave an update on the Living Heart program and how it’s evolved from 2014 into real-world use by doctors today.

Manish Kumar, SOLIDWORKS CEO and Vice President of R&D, then took to the stage reminding us of the importance of working together. Manish told the crowd that he has spent the last year traveling the country and talking to SOLIDWORKS users, listening to users and then brought ideas back to his R&D team to help users face the problems of today and the future.

Suchit Jain, Vice President of Strategy & Community then shared that we are a community of 7 million and counting.

We heard from inspiring Keynote Speaker, Jamie Siminoff, Founder of R ing, who shared how he invented the doorbell for his own use using SOLIDWORKS. He gave a great perspective on how it’s never the product, but it’s what it does. What the Ring doorbell did was changed home security.

We also heard from Ilya Mirman from startup Verve Motion, Titan Gilroy of the Titans of CNC, and Dr. David Hoganson, assistant in the Department of Cardiac Surgery and Director of the Computational 3D Visualization Program at Boston Children’s Hospital.

Following the General Session, attendees could attend a variety of technical sessions and breakout sessions, or check out the 3DEXPERIENCE Playground. For anyone joining virtually, there were lots of on-demand sessions and the SOLIDWORKS Live stream, a dedicated feed running across the event.

Day Two

Products, Experiences, Success

Day two’s General Session had a huge focus on technology.

The session focused on three key areas: Design, Simulation, and Manufacturing.

Matt Shedlov, Senior R&D Manager, Boston Scientific, a medical device producer and biomedical firm, shared details of his company’s emotional paycheck: improving and saving the lives of 30M patients each year. Shedlov discussed one patient case in which a patient at risk of cardiac arrest was implanted with a VIGILANT X4 cardiac resynchronization therapy defibrillator. The patient suffered a cardiac event and the device brought him back to life.

Ryan Okelberry, Co-Founder, House of Design, explained his company’s efforts in addressing the housing crisis by bringing automation in manufacturing building components in modular housing.

Next up, Brandon Foster, Sr. CAD Administrator at Sealed Air took to the stage to share Sealed Air’s aim to solve critical packaging solutions and create sustainable solutions. Sealed Air uses DraftSight 2D to document and manage production lines and factory layout as well as in production drawings to manufacturing partners. Foster explained that DraftSight made sense as it’s a powerful and cost-effective 2D solution.

We then heard from the Director of Engineering at Storyteller Overland, Michael Austell who explained that they are focused on equipping those who are pursuing meaningful experiences and living a life of discovery out on the open road. Austell walked through the company’s design process, which uses connected product development tools on the 3DEXPERIENCE platform, to bring its experiences to life.

Next up, Amy Hamilton, Technology & Engineering Teacher at Sleepy Hill Middle School joined Manish on the stage to discuss the importance of Education and Certifications. She shared the story of students Elif and Kemal, their youngest certified SOLIDWORKS 3DCreator users.

Followed by Kirby Downey, designer, maker, and Core Podcast host shared his love of modeling 3D props.

Following the session, there were even more technical break out sessions to join with tons more content on SOLIDWORKS Live.

Day Three

Conversation, Collaboration, Community

General Session day three saw a spotlight on community celebration.

Suchit introduced to the stage Erin Winick Anthony, who the SOLIDWORKS community will know as we have seen her evolve from a college student studying Mechanical Engineering to an entrepreneur, launching her first business, Sci Chic in 2015, while still in college.

Suchit then welcomed Vicky Wu Davis, Founder of Creating Impact Through Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Sustainability (yCITIES), a nonprofit that prepares the next generation of innovators by educating and nurturing middle and high school students. The program runs boot camps with lots of hands-on activities to encourage students to get involved with STEM.

Dan Wagner and Matthew Clegg joined the main stage to share updates to the SOLIDWORKS User Group Network (SWUGN) and the SOLIDWORKS Champions Program.

We heard how in 2022, SWUGN added 71 new groups, sponsored 524 in-person meetups, and now includes groups in 48 countries! The Champions program has expanded to 813 members in 59 countries. During this session, we heard how SOLIDWORKS is everywhere.

The SWUGN and Champions segment concluded with three very important rewards. These awards include: The Wayne Tiffany User Groups Leader of the Year Award, The Michelle Pillers Community Award, and the 2022 Champion of the Year. Congratulations to our winners!

Next up Suchit presented Christine Getman, Executive Director of Magic Wheelchair, a non-profit that builds customized costumes for children in wheelchairs, a check for $30,000. “This money will go towards the creation of many more epic costumes and empower more makers with disabilities.”

The 3DEXPERIENCE World 2023 closing keynote speaker Liv Boeree took the General Session stage to share life lessons learned from poker. Boeree has an astrophysics degree, is a philanthropist with Raising for Effective Giving, YouTuber, and former number-one female poker player. Boeree strives to inspire people through rational thinking techniques she learned over the course of her career. She shared that life, much like poker, is all about navigating uncertainty.

Highlights from 3DEXPERIENCE World 2023

With so much going on at this year’s conference, check out the highlights of each day on the SOLIDWORKS YouTube channel and see what you may have missed.