COFES 2012: Clouds in the desert

Apr 18, 2012 | Hot Topics

COFES, the Congress on the Future of Engineering Software, takes place in the Arizona desert each April. Usually, the sun is glorious, the birds sing, the rabbits hop and the 300 or so attendees scurry between sessions and meetings, with the occasional pause by a pool...

COFES 2011: desert, ideas and horses

Apr 25, 2011 | Hot Topics

For those who have never attended, COFES is hard to describe. It’s a mix of conference sessions, facilitated discussions and informal chats that disrupt those poor folks who came to a resort in the Arizona desert for sun and swimming pools. It’s not about product...

Channels, plants and innovation

Apr 19, 2011 | Hot Topics

I am on quite the road trip —won’t be back in the office for a few more days— and my head is spinning from all I’ve learned. The next few posts will be my attempt to recap and set it all into context for those of you not at the Autodesk Channel Summit,...

COFES 2010: Mike Payne responds

Apr 22, 2010 | Hot Topics

A few days ago, I posted a few thoughts about this year’s COFES, including my take on a brief presentation given by Mike Payne. Mike graciously responded and below is his email in its entirety. He makes a number of good points: Monica, I had condensed the talk down to...

COFES 2010: Clouds, ashes and the future

Apr 20, 2010 | Hot Topics

COFES is always interesting (I’ve only been twice, so “always” is a relative term). Get 200-300 CAD/CAM/CAE/PDM/PLM people together at a resort in the Arizona desert for 3 days. Set up a few ballroom speeches and a lot of informal discussion sessions in the resort’s...

Catching Up: Bentley, Intergraph, PTC, Siemens and COFES

Jun 9, 2009 | Hot Topics

I may be quite busy and on travel, but the engineering software world rolls on. A couple of interesting tidbits:- According to Greg Bentley, CEO of Bentley Systems, engineering software provides significant return on investment by improving standards of living through...

Trip Report: Arizona in April

Apr 23, 2009 | Hot Topics

– is lovely. Stark brown scrubby hills surrounding the city of Phoenix — which stretches onforever. I will definitely go back to climb some of those hills someday, if I can convincemyself that the scorpions and rattlers are more afraid of me than I of...