Bloggers bring an excitement that has been been missing in the coverage of the CAD industry.

I am reminded of this as a room of journalists sit silently and impassively during a demo of Autodesk’s MCAD software at World Press Days 2008. I have arrived late so I am sitting in the back row and I have to look over several rows of heads, many of them bald or gray. Several are diligently taking notes — quite a few on special reporters notepads they must require at journalism school.  I see a digital recorder has been turned on. Some of the demo jockeys giving the presentations are are visibly bursting with excitement. So much to show and so little time. I’m sure they are dying to know if the audience likes what it sees. But it looks like they are going to have to wait for the articles to appear to know.

It’s a far cry from the recently completed SolidWorks World, where bloggers were invited to all press events. When new software was introduced, I could tell immediately if a new feature was going to be a hit or a miss by their the bloggers’ reaction. "Cool," or "sweet" was heard more than once. A lack of reaction was significant — a polite indifference if not a condemnation.

By contrast, bloggers — or should I say pure bloggers — were not invited to Autodesk World Press Days, despite the incredible number of blogs devoted to Autodesk software as well the support Autodesk has shown bloggers in the past. A number of us journalists had blogs, to be sure, but those that only had blogs had to stay home.

If Autodesk does not see bloggers as real press, they are not alone. The Society of Manufacturing Engineers, which hosts a number of trade shows including WESTEC, makes it pretty clear that bloggers need not apply for press status (needed to get free admission) by requiring "proper press credentials" such as position on a masthead. I suspect many bloggers don’t even know what a masthead is.

But what bloggers do know is how to apply CAD software. Almost all of them are full time users. How many journalists can say that? It may surprise readers to learn some journalists and editors never use CAD software. Some of the journalists I’ve met at CAD press events write for technology publications but may only have a fleeting knowledge of what CAD does. I wonder if they can make any sense of some of the stuff they are being shown — or why they are not bored out of their minds! However, more than a few pure bloggers can write well and write often. At its best, blogger coverage of press events can be detailed, thorough, even insightful, and by its nature, fast.

It seems obvious a good CAD blogger would be worth inviting to a CAD press event. Am I missing something here?