Smartphone and laptop strategy at SolidWorks World 2012

Power

SolidWorks World is a big event with thousands of attendees.  Due to the rise of mobile electronic devices in the past few years, an interesting problem as arisen.  On a normal day, your smartphone’s battery charge may last a day or two without any worries.  However, no day at SolidWorks World is normal.  Even on the most battery efficient devices, you are likely to need power to recharge at some point during the day.  With 2012, this need is even more obvious with the new and highly useful SolidWorks World 2012 mobile application, in addition to other mainstays like social media, calendering, phone calls to your associates and other attendees you plan to meet, etc.

My personal advice is to always have a spare battery on hand, whether you are using a laptop, smartphone, other mobile devices, or any combination thereof.  Also, scope out power outlets wherever you happen to be.  This applies while you are at the conference, and more so also after hours while you are out and about and when your device is most likely to be low on power.  If you have a smartphone and a laptop, you may be able to charge your phone from the laptop via the normal USB connection.  Finally, the most obvious thing of all, don’t forget any of the charging cables.  Make sure they are on your checklist!

Wifi

Another growing need is connectivity via wifi.  Those of us with smartphones may not be as tethered.  However, don’t rely on cellphone carrier signal for data connections while inside of the conference center.  Even an Andriod on a free data plan may need to switch over to wifi to access the Internet at some point.  SolidWorks provides several wifi hotspots throughout the conference center.

Regardless to the type of device you use, scope out the locations of these hotspots a head of time so you aren’t left without data connection at an inconvenient moment.  Even still, there will be many other people accessing the wifi at the same time, so please avoid downloading big files or streaming videos.  I personally recommend hitting the hotspots for specific connectivity needs, then quickly moving on.

Good luck and I hope to see you at SolidWorks World next week!

The author of this article is an employee of Dassault Systemes.  However, the material of this article is not representative of Dassault Systemes, nor is it reviewed by them.  Please see the FTC notice in the right side bar of this webpage for further details.

Author: fcsuper

As a drafter, mechanical designer and CAD engineer, I've been in the mechanical design field since 1991. For the first 8 years of my career, I was an AutoCAD professional. I utilized AutoLISP and many other AutoCAD customization features to streamline drafting activities for 6+ drafters and designers. I authored several custom functions, one of which was published in the March 1997 issue of Cadalyst Magazine. Since 1998, I've been used SolidWorks non-stop. I've worked to utilize the SolidWorks' user environment to simplify drafting and design activities for 20+ engineers. I've created this website to provide current information about SolidWorks from a variety of contributors. More recently, I am now employed by Dassault Systemes as SOLIDWORKS Sr. Product Definition Manager to improve drawing, annotation and MBD related areas. View all posts by fcsuper