2014 BE Conference

Will there be a conference this year?

  • Unknown said:

    I do love the unique Bentley worldview:

    "Best of all, registration is complimentary as a benefit of your Bentley LEARN subscription".

    "Don’t have a Bentley LEARN subscription? You can purchase one for $1,495 (USD) during registration."

    Of course we all have  $1,495 (USD) just lying around!! Barmy.

  • The sad part is that Bentley convened a group at the last BE to discuss what the users wanted. Bentley went in with their minds made up and wouldn't listen. These conferences are NOT what the users want. What we are hearing is the agenda for the Civil conferences are still 70% or so focused on MicroStation and not Civil. Plus classes will be trained by Bentley learn instructors instead of actual Civil Development employees as has been the past experience.

    I sure miss the old Geopak conferences that were customer centric and relied on input from users and not some management folks that never use the product but think they have their finger on the pulse of users....

  • Hi Steve,  I sat in on those meetings in Philadelphia (and the pre-meetings with Bentley management).  Management actually did make quite a number of changes in what they were planning based on the input from the head of users groups in Denmark, Kansas, Nor Carolina, California and Sweden.  The only thing that was in concrete going into the user meetings was that the big, central meeting in Philadelphia was going to go away as it had become way too expensive for 1000 attendees.   The goal was to reform the meetings to at least double attendance at Bentley events while not disturbing the great user sponsored events like the mid continent meeting, NC's great annual event, the California BASHes and the big events in Europe and elsewhere. It is planned that there will be BSW attendees and Bentley executives at the upcoming meetings which were both requested at the Philadelphia meetings.  Also, the input from the user heads was that there be some of all disciplines at each meeting because of the value of synergy.   That is being accommodated as well.  We have been involved in the California Bentley BASHes for 6 years.  Bentley sends top, knowledgeable instructors like: Samir Haque for MicroStation, Steve Rick from Pro services, Jerry Flynn for rendering, Civil instructors from Huntsville, Ramir Legacion for plant and AECOsim, Dr Crawley for energy simulation, Bill DiGregorio for ProjectWise etc.  I am sure these new regional, discipline flavored conferences will be even better.  Click on the link in Phil's article above.  We will be going to Phoenix since that is the closest.  It will keep our travel costs way down from going to Philly (although I do enjoy the philly cheesesteaks)  Best Regards,  Tom Lazear

  • 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.