SAN DIEGO, CA, Jan 20, 2008-Though SolidWorks has invited press to its annual user meeting for many years, this time they chose to declare an official SolidWorks Press Day, held in advance of the main stage presentations. It was a decision many SolidWorks employees may have regretted as they may have

rather been cheering their home team, the New England Patriots, who were winning a playoff game on their way to the Super Bowl.

"Most technology companies do not like press talking to their users," said Jeff Ray, CEO of SolidWorks, who seems intent on continuing his company’s longstanding success with the trade press (see previous post "How to Treat the Press")

However, a mild fracas erupted over the use of video cameras, which were banned for some of the day’s events but not others. Leading the protest was Rachael Dalton Taggart, of Strategic Reach, who asked pointedly why she could not film for her CCNtv show while all manner of cell phones and digital cameras were in operation and could be taking videos.

As it was, the press day was a mixed success. Jeff would have liked to have an informal, town hall "PowerPoint-free" style but the crowd of over 150 was too large. We were offered little in the way of new announcements, sneak previews, or anything really too exciting to present to our readers. Perhaps SolidWorks did not want to steal thunder from the main stage the next day.

But not giving the press a bunch of new stuff to feast on and ask about may have left room for some prickly subjects to pop up in the resulting Q&A:

• "User interface — ribbon technology. why  didn’t you deliver the old way?" Many SolidWorks veterans have expressed displeasure at the new UI. "I’m surprised we’re not getting a lot more negative feedback," said Jeff.
• "Can you explain why adoption of SW08 has lagged previous releases?" asked a blogger/user.

We heard how this year’s show was the biggest ever with 4,400 enrollments, beating the previous record of 3,600 set at New Orleans.