First, the fun fact.\u00c2\u00a0 SolidWorks World 2010 will be held at the Anaheim Convention Center in Southern California.\u00c2\u00a0 I think this\u00c2\u00a0is good for many of us left coasters, but also for those from the Asian Pacific areas and\u00c2\u00a0Central America;\u00c2\u00a0it means visitors from the East Coast and Europe will have to do more planning.<\/p>\n
In a pre-announcement of sorts, Ray spoke about a new program that will start later this year called Engineering Stimulus Package.\u00c2\u00a0 This program is designed to support engineers who have lost their job through no fault of their own in the current difficult economic environment.\u00c2\u00a0 A free personal version of SolidWorks will be given to such individuals, along with contact with their\u00c2\u00a0local VAR.\u00c2\u00a0 In a news conference later today, Jeff Ray added that this program is\u00c2\u00a0similar to another program implemented by SolidWorks Corp during the last economic downturn.\u00c2\u00a0 The key difference this time is that this new program will have the goal to help\u00c2\u00a0the participicants to achieve a CSWA, which will give them an advantage by providing\u00c2\u00a0certification\u00c2\u00a0of their\u00c2\u00a0skillset related to\u00c2\u00a0SolidWorks.\u00c2\u00a0He also added that the roll out of this program will be in different stages around the world, but that it will be global (not North American centric).\u00c2\u00a0 A forecoming official press release will have more details later this year.<\/p>\n
Ray announced that there is a new program in Ireland where 18,000 seats will be placed in over 900 schools around the country, giving 16 to 18 year-olds the opportunity to use 3D CAD software earlier in their schooling.\u00c2\u00a0 Currently, there are over a 1 million students using SolidWorks\u00c2\u00a0worldwide.<\/p>\n
He made several other announcements that I may cover via other articles.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"