8 Reasons to Come to the Pointwise User Group Meeting

The Pointwise User Group Meeting 2014 is approaching faster than both you and I think. This is our premier networking event and your best opportunity to learn how to make the software do what you need it to do on your CFD projects.

I invite you to join us in Anaheim on 29-30 October.

Need help deciding? Here are 7 good reasons and 1 kinda questionable one.

1. It’s Free

That’s right, the registration fee for all events is precisely zero. It’s Pointwise’s 20th anniversary and we’re celebrating by eliminating fees as a roadblock to your participation.

Stop reading and register right now. (Yes, it’s free but we still need you to register so we know who’s coming.) Don’t delay – the hotel’s block of specially priced rooms expires on 27 September.

2. You Could Win The Meshy

Close your eyes.

Imagine being envied by your coworkers. Feel the thrill of shaming your competitors.

How you ask? The winner of The Meshy Award not only receives an engraved Meshy Award trophy to take home but their mesh appears on the T-shirt that all meeting attendees will be wearing.

The Meshy Award Winner from 2013

So enter your finest mesh in our contest for The Meshy Award. What makes for a winner? “visual appeal, originality and uniqueness.”

Enter today. But don’t be late – entries are due by 15 September.

3. It’s Our 20th Anniversary

It’s hard to believe that we’ve been earning a living doing mesh generation for 20 years. That’s 30 years for Dr. Steinbrenner when you account for the pre-Pointwise days.

So come hear us wax nostalgic about the past two or three decades, retelling some stories for the hundredth time. See the toll that a couple of decades of mesh generation will take on a person.

Hmm. Probably not a strong selling point – moving on…

4. Anaheim Is Lovely That Time of Year

After hosting the past decade’s worth of events in our home town of Fort Worth, Texas, the Pointwise User Group Meeting 2014 will held on the west coast in lovely Anaheim, California.

Come for the meshing. Stay for the mouse.

5. Become an OpenFOAM Master

You can become not just a user but an OpenFOAM master by taking the special colocated OpenFOAM Master Class taught by Dr. Darrin Stephens of Applied CCM. Not only is Dr. Stephens extremely well-versed in OpenFOAM, but he’s also the Pointwise distributor for Oceana.

6. Learn From Us and Each Other

Yes, you can learn from us with a full day of training courses on the latest tools, techniques, tips, tricks, and best practices in Pointwise. And you get to tailor the training to your needs by voting on the topic of a special short course we’ll offer. (But don’t delay – short course voting ends on 11 August.)

But you will also learn from each other, from discussions during the breaks and in the evenings.

And certainly the formal presentations of CFD work based upon Pointwise meshes will be a focal point of the information sharing. There’s still time to submit an abstract – they’re due 12 September.

7. See Other CFD Software

We’re fortunate to have several of our partners join us for this event, giving you the opportunity to learn more about how their products can work with Pointwise and your applications of CFD.

The current list of exhibiting partners includes:

ADS, a provider of design and analysis software for the turbomachinery industry
Applied CCM, an engineering software development company
CEI, developers of a visualization software package called EnSight
Intelligent Light, a provider of post-processing, data management, and big data visualization capability
Tecplot, developer of data visualization and analysis software

8. Monica Says So

In writing about SolidWorks World 2013, Monica Schnitger eloquently made the case for attending software user events. Let me quote her directly:

“Do it. Even if you’re not a joiner, go. Even if you don’t think you have anything to offer (you’re dead wrong, you do), go. Even if you didn’t organize it, go. Trust me. It’s very rarely not worth the effort and often you get out far more than you put in.”

You can read the rest of her words in The Power of Community.

I hope to see you in Anaheim this October when our community gathers.

[Update: 30 July 2014] Added CEI to the list of exhibiting partners.

[Update: 11 August 2014] Abstract due date is 12 September.