CADD Edge Northeast Tour 2010 Events in October Approaching Capacity

Reseller of SolidWorks software and Objet 3D printers attributes a surge in interest in the event series to its broad audience appeal

WESTBOROUGH, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- SolidWorks^® software reseller CADD Edge announced today that three of its five Northeast Tour 2010 educational events taking place in October are nearing capacity. Nearly 500 people have registered for the series of events to date.

The CADD Edge Northeast Tour 2010 coincides with the launch of the SolidWorks 2011 product line, the newest release of the popular 3D CAD, simulation, sustainable design, product data management, and documentation software.

A member of the company’s event team indicated that based on previous years, CADD Edge expects a flurry of last-minute registrants. They are urging those interested in attending one of the events to register as soon as possible, and to please notify CADD Edge immediately of any cancellations by calling 1-888-223-3334, Ext. 2960. The morning session for the event to be held in Burlington, MA is already full, the morning session in Windsor, CT is nearly full, and both morning and afternoon sessions are nearly full in New York City.

The event series will kick off both morning and afternoon sessions in New York City on October 7 with a keynote by Ben Kaufman, the 23-year-old founder of Quirky, a social product development company that has been celebrated in mainstream media, including “CNBC News” and the New York Times. A video of Kaufman’s live appearance will be featured during October at Northeast Tour 2010 events taking place in Windsor, CT; Burlington, MA; Pittsburgh, PA; and Philadelphia, PA.

In his presentation Kaufman will share insights about the market trends that inspired him to create Quirky. Since its inception in June 2009, Quirky has brought 50 products through development stages and manufactured 16 products. Several of these products have been featured on “The Today Show.” Said Kaufman, “CADD Edge is integral to our rapid product development cycle here at Quirky and I am pumped to be part of the conference.” He added that “CADD Edge’s awesome support and technology make it all possible. They helped us get up and running quickly with SolidWorks software, which lets us build product prototypes on our Objet^® 3D printer in hours.”

CADD Edge CEO Tim Preston speculated that Kaufman’s appearance may account for some of the unprecedented interest in the event, which has a theme this year of “Design Cool Stuff Way Faster.” “Quirky epitomizes a movement we’ve seen among our clients across all industries toward compressed product design and development cycles. They are gaining an advantage in their markets with the use of tools such as SolidWorks, Objet 3D printers, and InspectionXpert™ to meet their design and prototyping requirements, as well as their business objectives.”

Preston added, “In the past, the sessions highlighting the latest release of SolidWorks have tended to be of more interest to advanced users than others. As part of our objective of broadening the appeal of the events beyond a core audience of advanced SolidWorks users who typically attend new release launch events, we made the ‘what’s new’ sessions optional and created a separate educational track specifically for managers and designers who are new to SolidWorks.”

According to CADD Edge Technical Manager Leon Austin, for those attendees who are interested in exploring what’s new in SolidWorks 2011 in detail, there are compelling reasons to migrate to the latest release sooner rather than later. Among the improvements he cited was increased speed and reliability due to more efficient use of memory when working with large designs or during prolonged work sessions. He noted that the CADD Edge “what’s new” sessions will feature live demos of SolidWorks 2011, not canned ones. “Showing live demos keeps us on our toes. I think it makes our ‘what’s new’ presentations more interesting for attendees too.”

When asked how else the Northeast Tour 2010 events will differ from other SolidWorks 2011 launch events that will be held around the US in October, Austin commented, “We will also offer sessions geared toward CAD administrators and others who are responsible for planning and implementing software updates for their organizations. We’ll share best practices and hassle-free ways to install multiple seats of SolidWorks software. I’m not aware of any other launch events that currently devote an entire session to migration challenges and solutions.”

About CADD Edge

CADD Edge is a software and services provider offering all the tools, know-how, and technical staffing needed by manufacturers to better meet the changing needs of their customers. The largest reseller of SolidWorks software in the Northeast region of the US, CADD Edge helps product design professionals and manufacturers speed production, increase the quality of their products, and achieve a leadership edge in their industries.

About Quirky

Quirky is a social product development company founded in June 2009. Each week, Quirky engages its online community of more than 20,000 individuals from around the world to collaborate in every aspect of a product’s creation—from ideation, design, naming and marketing, right on through to sales. Anyone can participate in this process, either by submitting their own ideas, or by evaluating and contributing to others' ideas. The final product becomes available for presale in Quirky’s online store (http://quirky.com/products), and if it reaches a certain sales threshold, it goes into production and becomes available worldwide. Quirky then shares its product-based revenue with all the community members that positively influenced the product.

Where applicable, attendance is free for the first 100 people who register for the CADD Edge Northeast Tour 2010 at each location where the event is being held. To register or get details, visit www.caddedge.com/gototour.

SolidWorks is a registered trademark of Dassault Systèmes SolidWorks Corporation or its subsidiaries in the US and/or other countries. Objet is a registered trademark of Objet Geometries Ltd. and may be registered in certain jurisdictions. InspectionXpert is a trademark of Extensible CAD Technologies, LLC. Other brand and product names are trademarks of their respective owners. Copyright 2010 CADD Edge Incorporated