Since nobody else posted yet:
I think Aras already has a good plan for the event - news about new features, demos, community updates, etc.
Here are a few suggestions for the open discussion forum:
What’s the most unusual/unexpected (or even most ridiculous) customization you’ve ever made in Innovator? I have an app with a ninja animation that shoots [emoticon:553c544a8fd541dc98cb5beb6a3756f7]lasers[emoticon:553c544a8fd541dc98cb5beb6a3756f7]!
Who wants to join the “Upgrade Standardization Group”? See: link
And of course I’m very interested in any news about the future of the open release - even if it means I risk getting kicked out of the event in the first minute, since I know Aras is super tired of me asking repeatedly. [emoticon:d6dd260102fd406884fc96b8bc59760b]
I’m really looking forward to the event and seeing a few familiar faces there!
Lol I'll work with you on the upgrade standardization Group!
I'm also interested in training, how are people training their teams on their specific customizations?
Is Aras willing to set up a certification program? Sometimes it helps get users get involved when they can get certified
I've spent a lot of time working with the Solidworks User Group Network, they are really effective at building a user community, constant trainings, distributing swag / promotional stuff... I could see Aras doing well to set up something similar
Hi Bryan, thanks for joining the event today and chiming in on the discussions at the end! For a second there it looked like it was just going to be a 1-on-1 chat between me and Angela. [emoticon:752f32bcc91d4a448db162742a877a4a]
By the way, I totally forgot to answer this question in my community update presentation today:
Is Aras willing to set up a certification program? Sometimes it helps get users get involved when they can get certified
This is actually one of the goals of the new LMS and eLearning content that will roll out in a future phase of Build with Aras' community experience project. Stay tuned for more details, but the team is hard at work creating learning paths that subscribers can use to train up (and someday certify) their teams.
On another note, I'd love to learn more about your experience with the Solidworks group or other networking groups you've participated in. I'm always on the lookout for new ideas to engage the Aras community. We're also starting to think about 2026 strategy and budget ('tis the season!), so the timing is perfect if you or anyone else has suggestions.
SWUGN would give us a monthly allowance to provide food for a lunch and learn and had a nice bank of experts who had signed up to present on various topics, usually standard things like large assembly performance or some module of the software (ex sheetmetal or drawings).
We could request a box of branding materials (Tshits, hats pens, USB drives, etc) once per month to hand out at the meetings. They also gave us a $25 gift card once per month for us to have a random drawing or a quiz or something to give away as a prize. They recently sorta chained it to Solidprofessor for follow up activities (like hands on exercises or videos) that could be tracked.
