3D CAD NEWS

A few readers have reminded me that they would like results from the recent "Name the Mystery Celebrity Keynote" contest we ran leading up to SolidWorks World 2008. Sorry for being so tardy; between the flu and unrelenting deadlines elsewhere, I let it fall through the cracks.

The mystery guest speaker at Monday's opening of SolidWorks World 2008 was Danny Forster, host of the Discovery Channel TV show Build It Bigger. Danny and I were IM'ing on an unrelated topic a few weeks before SolidWorks World, and he mentioned he would be speaking there. As soon as I told him I would be attending, he replied that his appearance was supposed to be a secret and would I please not rat him out. I obliged, but decided to have a bit of fun. And thus the contest began.



Build It Bigger host Danny Forster, left, poses for the obligatory momento with your intrepid correspondent.
Photo Courtesy of SolidWorls Blogger Brian McElyea, the CAD Fanatic.

Technically, there was no winner. I was very specific that entries had to come to me in email or as comments to this blog. But UK CAD writer Al Dean did figure it out Sunday night before the conference. "I had to wade through 18 bloody pages on Google before I put it together," he said. But telling me in person as we rode the escalator in the San Diego Convention Center does not qualify as "submitting an entry" so I wealsed out of buying him dinner at Applebee's.

Al is a fellow member of the press so he didn't need me to feed him anyway; SolidWorks takes very good care of the media at their events. Well, generally speaking; there was an unfortunate bit of ruckus early on, when some SW personnel confused the CCNtv camera with a weapon of mass disruption, but everyone has done the kiss-and-make-up thing now, so we won't get into the messy details.

As has been written elsewhere, the "news" from SolidWorks World last week can be easily summed up: 4,500 SolidWorks users had a nice party. Oh, and engineers who blog find some sort of deep mystery in the use of semi-colons. (Follow the link; I guess to one SolidWorks blogger, semi-colons are to CAD journalists what opposable thumbs are to mammals.)


Historic meeting of blogger (left) and CAD journalist at SolidWorks World. It seems bloggers have opposable thumbs; they just have not figured out how to write semi-colons with them.

But I digress. Sometimes the interesting stuff to be learned at such conferences isn't said in front of a crowd. I learned from a conversation with a Dassault Systemes employee (out on the patio of the San Diego Convention Center) that the recent acquisition of Seemage was preceeded by an ugly bidding war between Dassault and Autodesk. Not ugly, obviously, to anyone who owned a piece of Seemage. Perhaps unseemly would be the better phrase. But all's well that ends well, and now Dassault can continue to pursue its vision of proprietary 3D for all.

What's that you say? What about the contest? Oh, yes. I'll get to that in another post. I was waiting for one of those semi-colon-less bloggers to send me a photo. Moi is a writer, not a photog.

Bruno didn't make the final cut.

He put himself through an Ivy League graduate education doing stand-up comedy.

Two clues this time, actually.

Here is the next clue for those of you trying to guess the mystery celebrity keynote speaker at next week's SolidWorks World conference:

He is still wondering if being called "sweet britches" is a compliment or a put-down.

As detailed in our recent posting, 3D CAD News is sponsoring a contest to see if anyone can guess the identity of the secret celebrity keynote speaker for this year's SolidWorks World.

I narrowly missed being the victim of a random waterboarding session yesterday, adminstered by a group of thugs with strong New England accents. It seems Rainer Gawlick and his band of mad marketers will stop at nothing to prevent this contest from going forward. They were unable to carry off their plans because they couldn't melt the snow fast enough to stick my head in the bucket.



Rainer Gawlick of SolidWorks doesn't look like a man
who would order a sneak waterboarding interrogation. They never do.

Today's official clue: Craigslist changed his life.

As detailed in our previous posting, 3D CAD News is sponsoring a contest to see if anyone can guess the identity of the secret celebrity keynote speaker for this year's SolidWorks World. The entire marketing team at SW has now stopped all preparations for the event and are focusing their talents and resources on figuring out how this esteemed online journal learned this man's identity. Oops, we just gave out an unofficial clue, and eliminated 51% of the human race as suspects.

Today's official clue: He is afraid of heights.

3D CAD News is pleased to gloat that we know who will deliver the traditional secret celebrity keynote presentation at SolidWorks World later this month in San Diego.

This is a fiercely guarded secret, and let me tell you, Jeff Ray and the rest of the SolidWorks brass in Concord are turning green with apolexy, fearing we will blab.


SolidWorks has hired a private detective to find out how 3D CAD News learned the identity of the SWW secret celebrity keynote speaker.

Not wanting to bring wrath down on our heads without a darn good (generally satirical) reason, we have decided to play along, with a twist. We won't say who the speaker will be, but we will run a contest to see if anyone can guess. Every other day or so between now and SolidWorks World (opens Jan. 20 in San Diego) we will publish a clue to the speaker's identity.

If you think you know the identity of the secret celebrity keynote, send an email to editor (at) cadcamnet.com. If there is a winner, they will receive a $24 gift certificate to Applebee's. (Yes, we are cheap, and proud of it.) If the winner is attending SolidWorks World, he or she may elect to have the 3D CAD News team buy dinner in San Diego instead. We choose the place, and we promise it will have indoor seating and plumbing. We will announce the results after the mystery person's presentation.


This fine establishment is on the short list for our winner's dining pleasure.

Employees of SolidWorks or their French overlords at Dassault Systemes are not eligible to participate, and neither are employees of a certain unnamed media conglomerate that might in some way be connected to the secret celebrity keynote speaker. Let the astute reader note that we have just given an unofficial clue. Also banned from participation are employees of the speakers bureau that is chargingSolidWorks an arm and a leg for this person to appear.

Today's official clue: Clark Kent thinks he has eyeglasses to die for.


Neither of these gentlemen, seen at SolidWorks World 2006, are this year's secret celebrity keynote speaker.