imug 2003 recap

2003 iMUG Conference a Success!

By Marcia Swan, Moldflow Corporation

The 2003 International Moldflow User Group Conference was a great success. More than 175 users of all Moldflow technologies traveled from across the United States and 14 other countries to attend this second international conference April 1-3 in Pittsburgh, PA USA. More than 80 participants also took advantage of the pre- and post-conference training and certification opportunities.

During the opening day of the 2003 conference, for the first time, a Manufacturing Track "conference within the conference" was held to focus on issues targeted specifically to manufacturing professionals. Customer and student presentations as well as Moldflow technical presentations focused on aspects of Moldflow's shop-floor software products, and the launch of Moldflow Manufacturing Solutions^TM (MMS^TM) Release 1.0 was announced during the event.

Featured speakers at the 2003 conference represented both worldwide industry and academia, giving conference attendees two important perspectives of the industry as a whole. Brian Jones, president of Nypro Inc., presented "Implementing the Lean Enterprise Globally." Professor Phil Coates of the University of Bradford, UK, presented "The Dream Machine — Process and Product Measurements for Enhanced Process Understanding, Modeling and Control." In addition, Moldflow Corporation president and CEO, Roland Thomas, presented the Moldflow vision for the future of automation and optimization software technology for the plastics injection molding industry, built on the convergence of three primary knowledge areas: numerical methods, material data intelligence and manufacturing processes.

In addition to the presentations given by invited speakers and Moldflow technical and marketing staff, 16 customers delivered excellent presentations on topics ranging from application case studies to research projects involving Moldflow Plastics Insight^®, Moldflow Plastics Advisers^®, and Moldflow Manufacturing Solutions^TM products.

Students had an opportunity to show off their work during a networking session, which focused on electronic poster presentations submitted by students representing Penn State Erie, UMass Lowell, Napier University and McGill University. This year, the advisory board awarded two Best Student Topics, and those students were invited to present their work during the conference sessions. Laurent Charrel, a graduate student at Napier University (UK), presented "Commissioning and Evaluation of Moldflow Plastics Xpert (MPX)" as part of the Manufacturing Track, and Kevin Alam, a graduate student at McGill University (Canada), presented "A Genetic Optimization of Shrinkage by Runner Balancing."

Special Interest Group (SIG) discussion sessions provided opportunities to create a dialog between Moldflow and our users that increases mutual understanding of product usage and drives enhancement requests for future releases. Each SIG discussion was co-moderated by a user representative and a Moldflow representative. Topics at the 2003 conference included Manufacturing, Moldflow Plastics Insight, Moldflow Plastics Advisers, and 3D Analysis. Plus, two new panel sessions were introduced: the Ask the Experts Panel allowed users to bring plastics analysis problems for discussion, and the Tips and Techniques Panel provided a forum for users to share their favorite ways to save time and improve analysis results.

The 2003 conference also included exhibits and demonstrations from 13 corporate sponsors, including our platinum sponsors, EDS and HP, and gold sponsors, Altair Engineering, PTC and Solidworks. Special events, including the Welcome Reception, Sponsor Fair and Customer Night Out at The Church Brew Works provided opportunities for networking and interaction among all conference participants.

In addition, participants were able to "test drive" the latest releases of the Moldflow Plastics Advisers, Moldflow Plastics Insight and Moldflow Manufacturing Solutions product lines at hands-on labs during the conference. Moldflow engineering staff were on hand to provide help and respond to questions.

The positive response from 2003 conference participants has lead to even more ambitious plans for the 2004 International Moldflow User Group Conference, scheduled May 17-19, 2004 in Frankfurt, Germany. Visit Moldflow's Web site to keep up with the latest developments. Go to www.moldflow.com and click on the iMUG logo icon.