2014 BE Conference

Will there be a conference this year?

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  • Unfortunately if you are an owner operator or ELS client that are using multiple disciplines, you need to spend several weeks traveling around the country to get the same access to information and quality peer networking.  The big question is why can Autodesk and ESRI successfully hold yearly conferences attracting tens of thousands in the same general location year after year?  

  • Those were concerns discussed with the group but like Tom confirms, minds were already made up. I think the reason Autodesk and ESRI are successful is that they are customer focused and not focused on preparations for sale by trimming staff and support to maximize what the bottom line for sale.

    What a better example is that a "Civil" focused conference is only about 35% Civil information. 65% other Bentley stuff. Being that Bentley SELECT revenue is 50% or more from Civil, it remains a mystery. Knowing your audience is something conference planners need to figure out.

  • Just a little clarification:    I attended the AU two years ago.  there were only 3500 attendees, not 10s of thousands. And, that included media/entertainment, machine design and AEC.   RE: "minds made up", it was only that one issue,  the idea of one big event in Phil was going to go away. Everything else was on the table. The goal again was to double attendance, ie make it better for more people. (not to save money.) If they add workshops like AECOsim Building designer for example at the civil themed conference, won't that go towards meeting the need for cross discipline?  I know it is more fun to knock what they are doing, but, since the events now are in concrete, wouldn't it be better to see how it works out?  Then we can send comments based on what actually happens.  See you in Phoenix :-)

  • Tom, this is anything but fun for me to "knock: what they are doing. I am asking reasoned questions about why decisions were made because it makes no practical sense. When an arm of Bentley generates over half of their income, it would seem that getting those users as much data as they can about that discipline, would be helpful. Informed users are better users. But only 35% of the Civil conference on Civil and these classes will be taught by Institute folks who may be excellent trainers but when questioned about specifics, they just don't have the knowledge. If everything was indeed on the table as you profess, how could this type of thing be missed? I want the person training my class to be a user and know the struggles we endure while working with the product, not someone who can read a training manual and regurgitate the data.

    Bentley software and my ability to support it has raised 3 kids and put them through college. When Bentley does good things, I am always quick to point those things out. Their software is the best out there for doing any type of road design or infrastructure work. One of the best features I have found is you can do road sections longer than a mile without having to break it up.  

    I have watched and attended Bentley conferences as they have gone from as many people as AU to what they are now. My concern is and always has been that Bentley software users are getting the best information they can from informed sources so they can complete their jobs. I often reference the old Geopak conferences where you would walk away knowing more about the product and couldn't wait to use the new features to increase your productivity. We have heard about OpenRoads technology, lets learn the finer points of common issues that come up.

    Like you said, we will have to see, it's just a large investment to go to something that already seems destine for failure. See you in Phoenix. I am already planning to go to Bill Johnson's Big Apple at least one night. It was good when I lived there in '84

  • I am not "knocking" it for the sake of knocking it.  I only have a limited budget to attend conferences and I will not be able to attend all of the sessions that I would normally attend if it were centrally located.  I was just stating my reality.

    I attended AU last year they had 9,800 so it wasn't quite 10's but it was much larger than 1,000.  My point was not the numbers, it was addressing the comment that it was too expensive for 1,000 attendees.  The reason those numbers are down is because Bentley keeps changing it and you never know what it will be.  Often times the change is not known far enough in advance to let people budget and prepare for them.  If this year does not provide the results they expect, what will next year hold?

    Again the numbers not as important as the reason they have a conference.  IMHO, the key is to understand who attends and why.  The concept of regional conference are good if Bentley wants to address the lack of local user support but it fails to address the needs from decision makers and CAD/Technology Managers.  These are the people that need to make the decisions for their firms and need to gain insight of a wide range of technologies and trends.  I was also trying to point out that this format still has flaws, if the conference is not in my local city it does not help my users because it will still require travel.  So it may increase the numbers but still fail to address the needs.  Another issue I see is that the numbers need to take into consideration that some of us will be attending more than one.

Reply
  • I am not "knocking" it for the sake of knocking it.  I only have a limited budget to attend conferences and I will not be able to attend all of the sessions that I would normally attend if it were centrally located.  I was just stating my reality.

    I attended AU last year they had 9,800 so it wasn't quite 10's but it was much larger than 1,000.  My point was not the numbers, it was addressing the comment that it was too expensive for 1,000 attendees.  The reason those numbers are down is because Bentley keeps changing it and you never know what it will be.  Often times the change is not known far enough in advance to let people budget and prepare for them.  If this year does not provide the results they expect, what will next year hold?

    Again the numbers not as important as the reason they have a conference.  IMHO, the key is to understand who attends and why.  The concept of regional conference are good if Bentley wants to address the lack of local user support but it fails to address the needs from decision makers and CAD/Technology Managers.  These are the people that need to make the decisions for their firms and need to gain insight of a wide range of technologies and trends.  I was also trying to point out that this format still has flaws, if the conference is not in my local city it does not help my users because it will still require travel.  So it may increase the numbers but still fail to address the needs.  Another issue I see is that the numbers need to take into consideration that some of us will be attending more than one.

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