What's Good About The SPB16.3 Virtual Conference? The Doors are Still Open!

What a terrific event last Wednesday! The SPB16.3 Virtual Conference was attended by more than 600 customers.

If you could not attend the live session, the web based event is still open for the next 4 months (until April 2, 2010) - so please open your browser, step into the virtual conference from the convenience of your desktop and explore all of the rich content you may have missed or would like to see again.

I attended the live event on 12/2/09 and found it to be very informative, easy to navigate, and in several ways - better than DAC! I could quickly see demonstrations (at my convenience), review the SPB16.3 new feature presentations, chat with marketing individuals and technical application engineers, add product collateral to my briefcase (so I could review it anytime in the future), and chat with customers. All this on my own schedule at my desktop.

Here are some of the highlights (with screenshots I took during the live event) -

This is the Main Hall - what you see when you first enter:

From here you can access all the content - the Exhbition area (where you learn about each product), Networking Lounge (where you can chat as a group, find colleagues, and enter 1-on-1 chats), the Conference Hall (where the keynote speakers deliver their presentations), and the Resource Center (where you can watch product videos and collect product collateral). In addition, you can select any of the companies on the bottom scrollbar for more information. There's a site map collapsible ribbon on the left, and your briefcase, announcements, and networking tabs at the top. A very elegant dashboard to easily navigate to where you'd like to visit.

Here's the Conference Hall:

This is the main auditorium where you listen to speakers. After the presentations, you can ask questions and follow-up later in chat sessions. There were dynamic announcements (reminders) telling you when a speaker would be presenting or a partner or customer expert was available in a product chat area. No need to remind yourself.

This was the Kick-Off Session:

The Exhibition Hall:

Simply select a product area and you're placed in suite where you can watch demos, read (and collect for later in your briefcase) product details, and chat with Cadence experts and customers. Here's the Allegro PCB Implementation suite:

And ... here's a demonstration from one of our Technical Expert Application Engineers:

Here are a couple more product suites:

This is the Network Lounge:

I
t's the place to meet and network with fellow customers. I had the opportunity to chat with a few customers and conducted a 1-on-1 chat with one customer where we discussed some Part Table File best practices. It was a great vehicle which allowed us to expand on product capabilities!

Finally, a few screenshots of the Resource Center and some of the collateral I collected during the event (in My Briefcase). I was able to download the contents of all the information in My Briefcase with a simple button click.

As always, I welcome your perspective of the event!

Jerry "GenPart" Grzenia