Another successful SSI Americas User Conference is officially in the books.
The 2018 edition of the conference marked my very first trip down to Mobile, Alabama. It was an absolute pleasure to not only spend time with my colleagues in a completely different environment, but talking and getting to know you, the user of our software, was amazing. So many great conversations and connections! But before I get to that, let’s start at the beginning:
Monday, September 24, 2018
It all began early Monday morning with eight of us heading from Victoria, BC to Mobile, AL. We had a long day ahead of us, so coffee was obviously the very first stop once we arrived at the airport in Victoria.
Above the seven guys from the Victoria office that were my travel companions for the day. (From left: Guy Woolliams, Brian Spahn, Max Naydek, Ted Deng, Blair Johnston, Jagan Seshardi, Josh Hawthorne)
One flight down, two more to go!
After three flights and about 15 hours of travel we finally reached the hotel in Mobile. Man, it’s hot down here!
Tuesday, September 25, 2018
We were all up bright and early to do some final set up and getting ready for all the conference attendees. A big shout out to everyone at the SSI USA office for hosting and setting up the majority before we even had arrived. Y’all did a fantastic job! (My Alabama is showing haha)
After registration and coffee, the conference kicked off with opening remarks from SSI USA’s Patrick Roberts in front of a full house. The first day’s presentations was all under the theme Getting the most out of ShipConstructor and included presentation from SSI staff as well as presentations from SSI customer Trinity Marine Products, SSI partner ARAS PLM, and SSI Representative InnovMarine with partner CLOUDIS.
The day concluded with a fantastic cocktail reception held at the same location as the conference that allowed AUC attendees and presenters to mingle and network while enjoying some light snacks.
Wednesday, September 26, 2018
Day two of #SSIAUC2018 focused on more Case Studies & Complimentary Tools and was also the official kick off to the highly anticipated Certified Training sessions.
Presentation-wise we welcomed representatives of HII-Ingalls, Austal USA, BAS Engineering, ARCOS Innovations, and AutoFEM to the stage.
In the conference room next door, we saw rows upon rows of SSI software users getting started on the SSI Certified Training curriculum. While there were 5 trainers on hand for questions, it was great to see users teaching users.
Again, the day concluded with another cocktail reception that featured the drink of the conference the Moscow Mule.
Thursday, September 27, 2018
Under the theme of The Road to the Future: Cutting-Edge Research & Tools we saw some very inspiring and educational presentations on the last day of the 2018 Americas User Conference. These included speakers from Genoa Design, Wolf Robotics, Dot Product, Altair, Praeses, VizSeek, and ATA Engineering. Throughout the day we received a very detailed look into the NSRP efforts our clients are involved in.
Friday, September 28, 2018
As the presentations officially wrapped up the day before and the training was set to wrap up that afternoon we made our long way back home. It was an incredible week getting to know my colleagues even better but also to put some faces to names and chat with all of you throughout the week. Thank you to everyone who attended this year’s conference and made my first trip down to Alabama so much fun.
A huge shout out to the whole SSI USA team for being incredible human beings and putting on a fantastic user conference. You made sure everyone (clients, presenters, attendees, and staff) were well taken care off and went the extra mile to ensure everyone was able to enjoy the conference. Thank you!