PLM Conferences Go Digital. What To Expect From Your Next Virtual Event?

Just a few months ago, I wrote the article – Are PLM conferences dead? Sad enough, the recent pandemic turned all live CAD and PLM conferences this year into virtual events. Looking at my calendar, I can see a huge increase in online activities and online conferences. Most of them are turned into free events. Here is just a very short list of the events that caught my attention (no specific order of preference).

Recent and Future CAD/PLM Virtual Events

Here is a short list of the events I attended and plan to attend in the future.

1-Aras ACE. Aras ACE Community 2020 is now Aras Virtual.  Here is the link. The presentations and videos are available on demand.

What’s the latest from Aras? Check out a comprehensive update on all Aras products, including what’s been delivered in the past year and what’s planned in the next year or two.

2- Technia PLMIF 2020. The Technia Digitalization event also went virtual. You can register for free and watch videos on demand. Here is the link.

Focusing on Digitalization for Sustainable Product Development and Manufacture, the PLMIF VE 2020 is an entirely Virtual Conference and Online Exhibition. Streamed live on 28th & 29th April, the invaluable content is now available on demand until 31st May, 2020! Attendees benefit from over 70 industry seminars, 3 interactive exhibition halls with over 30 virtual booths. So, what are you waiting for?

3- Dassault 3DEXPERIENCE Forum North America. Another forum announced that it will be a completely virtual event.

3DEXPERIENCE FORUM 2020 dives into today’s industry challenges, and how digital transformation and a platform approach power innovation, new business models and growth. Stay tuned for more details about our virtual event.

4- PTC LiveWorx 2020. PTC LiveWorx turned into a complimentary virtual event on June 9th, 2020. Check this out here.

With Digital Transformation in mind, LiveWorx is one of these events that brings multiple perspective on design, PLM and industry.

Push forward with LiveWorx. A game-changing, complimentary virtual event for the industrial enterprise that helps technologists innovate at scale with the real goal in mind: a transformation that helps drive outcomes.

5- Autodesk University (AU) 2020 goes digital. According to Autodesk all AU conferences this year will be fully digital. Check out more, but this is what I captured at the AU website.

As we continue to monitor and respond to the challenges caused by COVID-19, we have decided to host all Autodesk University conferences as digital experiences this year. This includes our flagship Autodesk University conference in Las Vegas scheduled for November, as well as our international AU events in the UK, India, Japan, China, and Germany. We are also evaluating ways to digitize our preconference events, including the Leadership Forum, Connect & Construct Summit, and Forge DevCon.

6- Siemens Realize 2020. Siemens Industry Software also turning the event Siemens Realize digital.

Realize LIVE is offering a digital space for change, human-centered approaches, creativity and innovation, and ultimately, digital transformation. Connect with your community for two days of engaging content, networking and conversations, all delivered online and absolutely free. Let’s learn from each other, spark innovation, collaborate and problem-solve to drive digital transformation to help succeed in the face of disruption.

Virtual Events – The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

What to expect from a virtual event? The obvious good thing is online information. Companies these days put much more resources online in organizing virtual events, infrastructure, presentations, videos, demos and many other things.

At a physical event, you can meet a few people and hang around with them during the entire event. At virtual even, you have an opportunity to meet more people.  It’s easier to follow up with them after the even as you have them all on the list. Think more like speed dating.

What is very hard to replace is evening beer parties. The absence of a live connection is a very bad thing because nothing can replace seeing a person and sitting next to this person in the bar in the evening having conversation. This experience cannot be replaced and for last years, the main reason I was looking for live events was actually meeting people’s live.

The ugly part of virtual conferences is the amount of information, materials, videos, and everything else that pushed through the digital channels. While I completely understand the sense of urgency and the wiliness of the companies to do so, it will create even bigger challenges to the community of people looking at how to learn and communicate online. I can see a huge demand for technologies that can support virtual conferences. Tell me more about your virtual conference experience.

What is my conclusion?

We are in the uncharted territory of new conference reality. The biggest push into remote and digital environments that ever happened to people in the last century created a huge amount of challenges and opportunities. I’m very curious about what the PLM community will learn after the year of digital events and where we will be heading next. Just my thoughts…

Best, Oleg

Disclaimer: I’m co-founder and CEO of OpenBOM developing cloud based bill of materials and inventory management tool for manufacturing companies, hardware startups, and supply chain. My opinion can be unintentionally biased.