Caroline Simcock – DYSON
The Develop3D Live event was both dynamic and informative.
My slot presenting in the Product Design and Engineering stream enabled me to meet a host of interesting folk; no one could have predicted such a variety of subject matter and presentation styles in one forum!
The keynote presented by Daniel Simon was simply stunning; a real eye-opener causing me to question the boundary between reality and graphics. His concepts seem to transport the viewer to another world – real exciting stuff.
Highs: Lovely friendly people everywhere – the D3D crew were very welcoming and looked after us extremely well.
Lows: Missing out on Daniel Simon’s books – they had sold out!
Most surreal moment: Wandering around Warwick University campus and residences; really took me back to my days at Birmingham.
Patrick Thorn – Roland DG/Patrick Thorn & Co.
From Monday afternoon until the car boot shut at 6pm on Tuesday, it was full on.
Yet unlike some of those 10 till 4 events in the likes of the NEC, this is the most accessible, enjoyable and informative event in this marketplace. Everybody: organisers, exhibitors, speakers and visitors alike had time for everyone else, a perfect balance.
From those days when I started with that old NC paper punch tape to the present day, technology has moved on in leaps and bounds. You could spend all your life reading, testing, playing, exploring and worrying what’s right for you.
DEVELOP3D and its supplements like 3D Printing and CADCAM are keeping most of our feet on the ground, with just the right amount to digest in a month. Then the cream on the cake is DEVELOP3DLive.
Highs: Being back at DEVELOP3D Live again, with keen visitors queueing to get in before 8am. Working with the passionate friends and folk at the X3D Media team. Waiting for 2015…
Lows: Only seeing Daniel Simon pass by and missing his talk, roll on the videos. Having to clear up after a great day, plus aching feet.
Most surreal moment: Being amongst so many talented people with energy and stamina to keep talking sense, and at the networking event on the Monday evening drinking far beyond closing time. So a lot of you told me the next morning!
Paul Magee – Coventry University – Health Design & Technology Institute
Although I’ve been trying to attend for the last couple of years, this was in fact my first actual, real life, visit to DEVELOP3D Live.
It’s an amazingly casual event; venue is very good. It’s clearly well organised to be able to look this way, despite rubbish signage and from what I could gather, widely enjoyed.
There is much to see, so maybe should be spread over two days.
Highs:
• Hearing about Red Bull culture not just technology.
• Daniel Simon’s inspirational take on a concept world (that has already affected our young studio).
• Swifty Scooters are fab; Jason Iftakhar very modest and despite his reluctance, surely is a proper designer-entrepreneur.
• Catching up with former team mates, spreading out into the industry.
Lows:
• Needed a clone to be able to see all of the presentations I really wanted to see.
• That Swifty Scooters are no longer hand-made in the UK.
Most surreal moment: Asking a superstar concept designer to sign his latest book, addressed to my three year old daughter; that one day she might have her own exhibition of paintings. Oh, and one for me too. What a good sport. Thanks Daniel!
Rob Jamieson – AMD FirePro
This year I had every intention of watching more presentations but it didn’t start too well when I realised that Greg Corke had borrowed one of the high spec laptops and put badge printing software on it, which meant we needed to rustle up a another one for the mainstage presentations. And Greg wasn’t around because he was having a baby, excuses!
So as usual I was playing with hardware and missing presentations. This carried on when a video player went missing and, in fixing it, I became trapped at the front of the product design theatre where I saw some great presentations. I must purchase a Dyson vacuum cleaner – need I say more.
The idea for the event has always been to keep it cheap so we can get the maximum amount of exhibitors. But this year the stands got bigger (even our joint stand with Dell was a bit big) and I hate to think that people are not there because it’s too expensive.
This year Dassault Systèmes came along. It’s great that a major ISV is supporting the show. Where else are you going to have Bertrand from Dassault shaking hands with Buzz from Autodesk?
Highs: Getting home in one piece after two weeks away and knowing it all went well. Sleep was so good.
Lows: Calling Bertrand Sicot the SolidWorks Guy and again missing my son’s birthday.
Most surreal moment: Waking up in my room and wondering if I had handed in my essay.
Mar Dixon – MuseomixUK
Having never been to this conference, my daughter Charlotte (see image) and I had no idea what to expect but even so, we were pleasantly surprised at the volume of people there.
Seeing so many people interested in 3D and fab technology was inspirational. We started with the exhibitions, especially Fuel 3D as we wanted to get our faces scanned! This was a favourite with Charlotte especially as the exhibitors took the time to explain the technology.
Talking to the exhibitors was educational and had me thinking of how some of this technology could and should be used in museums and galleries and how some of it was best suited for medical or other sectors.
The beauty was there was absolutely something for everyone and every sector. Keynote Speaker Daniel Simon talked incredible sense when it came to design. ‘Don’t design a product, design an experience’ was one of his many statements.
We had a great fun speaking to the vendors and seeing what new technology is being developed.
Develop3D Live conference has an excellent balance for experts to novice, there truly was something for everyone. Including this brilliant Albert Einstein bust. Can’t wait for next year!
Highs: Face scan by Fuel 3D.
Lows: Struggling with this.
Most surreal moment: Running into a few people from MuseomixUK and getting an Albert Einstein bust with a tongue sticking out.
Rachel Berry – HDX Graphics, Citrix
For the best part of a decade I worked on geometric modelling kernels and applications before leaping to cloud at Citrix to work on engineering roadmaps to facilitate rich graphics and CAD in private datacenters, public cloud and mobile CAD.
Now working on the platforms to facilitate CAD this was the most wonderful opportunity to hear what users want and need from Cloud and Mobility.
Mobile CAD and performance is being drive by the hardware and user experience so seeing the buzz around the AMD W9100 (six monitor action!), Dell R7610 as well as the mobile and wyse tablet devices was exciting.
It was great seeing hardware vendors actually talking to the software guys and users about how and where they worked and what their expectations were for responsiveness. But most of all it was great to see so many people who love the products they make and users who actually agree!
Highs: Multiple demos showing advanced and usable direct editing now is. Hearing Autodesk, Siemens and even Dassault execs enthuse about mobile CAD.
Lows: That we were too late to get on the exhibitors list this year! And that I had to choose between hardware and rendering sessions which are very interdependent.
Most surreal moment: Chatting to Buzz Kross and finding out he knew personally the names of the Autodesk ShapeManager developers.
Luke Guttery – Zero360
This was my first year at DEVELOP3D Live and what a first time it was!
Everyone was very welcoming and the free drinks at the networking event the night before were a massive if not dangerous bonus especially with Gary Miller of IPF as a wing man.
The show was exceptionally interesting with some seriously high level speakers, I could not have asked for better.
It’s fascinating to see the development in 3D printers and how they really are starting to produce usable products. I’m just hoping over the next few years we start to see more metal printers as I believe this is where real direct manufacturing will start to take place.
I met many interesting people and it was great to have people come to my talk and want to hear and learn more about wearables.
Highs: Telling Dell and many others about the new Connex printer and having to talk to so many cameras, none of them knowing that the night before I had attempted to cut my own hair.
Lows: Killer fly who insisted on attacking me during my talk about wearables.
Most surreal moment: Looking deeply into Al Dean’s eyes as he interviewed me on camera. He seemed to like it…
Michelle Greeff – Hobs Studio
I’m really pleased to have been invited as a last minute fill in for one of the speakers, as I would otherwise not have attended.
What a lovely crowd the people from DEVELOP3D are, they were welcoming and attentive, even though I caused a bit of a drama trying to present via Apple TV! The tech guys were great and came to my rescue.
I was impressed by the varied selection of 3D technologies on display and it made for a pleasant surprise from the usual monotonous sea of desktop 3D printers.
The line-up of speakers was impressive and I thoroughly enjoyed ‘Designing the Ridiculous’ by Mike Kelt from Artem. We made some great contacts with suppliers and our stand attracted a good selection of potential clients. We will most definitely be back next year!
Highs: Seeing the great response and feedback at the Q&A after our presentations..
Lows: Can’t think of any other than not being able to see enough of the speakers as they were running at the same time. Perhaps another day would be good?
Most surreal moment: Standing on top of a wind turbine and looking all the way down – compliments of the Virtual Reality stand by Virtalis.
How was it for you? Eight visitors share their experiences of DEVELOP3D LIVE 2014
Default
