Some of you might have heard about the Dassault Systemes Developer Conference,

in short DEVCON-2007. I had an opportunity to attend DevCon this time around. My

counterparts in Suresnes, CAA L2 Maintenance team have the responsibility to
arrange the DevCon. During two weeks of my stay I saw the enormous amount of
efforts that goes into organizing this global event. Since I have seen this from very
close quarters, I would like to share my experiences with you all.
DevCon provides a huge platform not only for DS but also for the partners
and the customers. Bernard CHARLES, Dominique FLORACK, Stephane DECLEE, and
Florence HU-AUBIGNY were the keynote speakers for the plenary session. This gives
an idea as to how significant this conference is. During these two days the latest
technological innovations and developments were presented by Dassault Systemes.
In techspace area the technology partners of DS showcased their latest innovations.
Some of the demos presented in the techspace area were very interesting.
DevCon is attended by wide spectrum of people. It includes the CAA
developers, the technology partners, customers and the DS partners. The
preparation for DevCon starts at least three months before the D-day. The CAA L2
maintenance team in Suresnes is the core group to organize and arrange this
conference. The activities involve coordinating with various subject matter experts to
prepare appealing presentations, interesting hands-on sessions, facilitating the “Meet
the Expert” sessions for customers, partners and CAA developers and last but by no
means least to manage the CAA Tech-Desk among other things.
Almost all of my counterparts were presenting a technical topic and/or a
hands-on session. My responsibility was to review the technical presentations
submitted by various CAA leaders and give my feedback on it. This gave me a
chance to go through almost all the presentations. The feedback provided was taken
well and the presentations were modified accordingly. The first day of DevCon was
devoted for the plenary session, which included Bernard CHARLES, Dominique
FLORACK, Stephane DECLEE, and Florence HU-AUBIGNY as keynote speakers,
customer testimony by P&G and Paxonix and later strategic break out sessions. The
second day of DevCon had four tracks running in parallel. Two tracks for “PLM
fundamentals and technological sessions” and one track each for “Methodology
sessions” and “Hands-On” sessions.
DevCon also provided an excellent opportunity for attendees to get answers
to their specific queries from the DS subject experts. These meetings happen on
one-to-one basis. One of the customers had some queries regarding Enovia LCA
customization and the designated DS expert was not reachable at that point of time.
I decided to volunteer for this session and it was very interesting to understand the
customer’s way of working on the DS products and answering the queries.
The technical sessions lead to many “Meet the Expert” sessions clearly
indicating the attendees’ interest in the new developments presented by CAA leaders
and DS Partners. The “Hands-On” sessions were booked to the capacity. The
subjects chosen for these sessions were quite interesting and many attendees
agreed to stand through the session.
So all in all the DevCon-2007 was an enriching experience and I hope to see
some presentations from 3DPLM in DevCon-2008. 

[Photo Place holder]

Front row: Philippe COCATRIX, Aurélien BLAHA, Christophe THEILLAUD, Vivek KAKDE, Nejib BEN DAALI,
Alan CHRISTIE
Back row : Grégoire ROUSSELLE,Luc DAUMAS