SIC_London - Cory Mogk

[Hirazi Blue]

This just in, from the Softimage Creatives, London:

We’re excited to announce that the Autodesk Softimage Product Manager – Cory Mogk – will be present at an exclusive Softimage Creatives user group event on 15 January 2013 at the Courthouse Hotel, Soho.

NDA's are mandatory (see the website)
and apparently there is only room for about 90 people, so registering soon might be a good idea.

Read all about it: The Next Event

[Bullit]

Nice.

About the NDA's point 7 Return of Confidential Information made me laugh, it means they can require our brains-or addon memory for them - to erase all pertaining information. Not far fetched in a couple years...

[csaez]

Don't freak out about the NDA contract (I can see it coming), they probably will be showing a pre-release version and such requirements are normal.

[Bellsey]

This is a very common clause that appears in NDA's.

[angus_davidson]

Hey Guys

Would it be possible to get the minutes or something from that meeting for those of us unable to attend. Perfectly happy to sign the NDA as well

Kind regards

Angus

[csaez]

In the future Autodesk might want to reconsider its slight bias towards London for these kinds of presumably important events. The relatively short notice and the apparent small size of venue would make it seem unlikely many non-UK based Softimage users will be able attend.

Or others user groups could try to reach them and organize something, don't you think?
This forum is unbelievable, always looking at the negative side of things

[Hirazi Blue]

always looking at the negative side of things

That's nonsense (and quite insulting, frankly), especially considering the specific message...
For all we do here, everybody only wants to see what they perceive to be the "negative" side of things.
And let's not turn this into a "take a shot at the si-community" thread.
This thread I started is about the meeting the Softimage Creatives London have set up with Cory Mogk.

I removed my previous, offending post, somewhat rashly, as mr. Csaez already quoted it in full...
But after reconsideration that might have been a mistake, but I can't undo it, sadly.

[Bellsey]

It was a perfectly valid point made and one that I thought would appear when the news of the meeting was released.

We're not intentionally or deliberately focusing on London, though it does look that way. Ever since Cory and Stefan have taken over some of the responsibilities for Softimage, we've been keen to get the guys over here to EMEA from some customer visits. And since they started, we've been talking with the SIC guys about how we could maybe facilitate things better, or get more feedback from the community to the teams.

When any of the product teams go and see customers, we're often constrained by things like time and budget. When planning Cory's visit, we discussed things with the entire EMEA team and we recognised the fact that it was important to maximise Cory's time as much as possible, also considering that he'd also be seeing Maya customers as well. Considering how popular the SIC London meetings have been and the number of Softimage studios/users we have in London, the best way to see as many people as possible was to host a meeting in London and involve the SIC group.

I know this means that we do miss alot of people out. And unfortunately (sorry Angus) we probably wont be recording this meeting either, due to the confidential information we might be showing. Most people are sensible and respectful of an NDA, although as we've seen this year with some rumours and leaks, there are some that aren't.
As I replied on Twitter, there might be some ways in which I might be able to reach out to EMEA based customers after Cory's visit, and though I can't promise anything, I will look into what might be possible when I'm back on duty in the new year. When planning the visit, we had discussed this scenario of what to do with customers who weren't in London or who couldn't make it.

[Hirazi Blue]

Thanks for your reply!
A large problem is obviously that the non-London crowd would definitively appear to be less well-organized.
But if setting up more of these events could benefit from our assistance, feel free to ask, on- or off-forum!
;)

[angus_davidson]

Hi Graham

I can understand. The main thing is that a lot of softimage folks (wether rightly or wrongly) are very concerned with what direction softimage is moving in. So my main hope from the London event is that there will be sufficient information that does gets released post the event (obviously minus the juicy NDA bits) that will help us understand what is coming. Even if its in very broad terms. Given the current circumstances the softimage image team really needs to be far more inclusive with their users. Its always been a part of what has made the community work so well, and that's possibly why this overall lack of anythign specific has been very disconcerting.

That been said I am am eternal optimist (I am one of those holding out for a Mac/linux version just to give you the degree of optimism here ;) ) I hope whatever is shown really put the minds of those folks who can attend to rest. That in itself will be greatly appreciated.

Anyway have a great Festive season. be Safe and may your renders have no unintended artifacts!

[Bellsey]

Well this is one of the main points of having this particular event. We've known for a while that the interaction between the product team and the user/studios hasn't been as good as it should. For a variety of reasons, it appeared to drop off (something I haven't liked), so hopefully this will be a new start. As Luc-Eric said in the Softimage Good Times 2012 list, Cory and the other guys like Chris, Stefan, and Chun-Pong coming on board has been a big plus this year.

I'm not sure what information from the event, will be able to be made public, hence the need for an NDA. Many should know by now what Autodesk are like when it comes to releasing information and making announcements. Business rules restrict us alot, but if we're able to say something, then we should. imo.

[angus_davidson]

That would work for under my Christmas tree ;)

[mirkoj]

Everybody are aware that investing time in any software is not an small thing.
And if you are in position in an studio for example to make decision which software to use and then after couple months, year or two that software is at dead stop for example... you see where this is going.
So keeping people in dark about plans for developing software is not only lack of respect for time invested in but can put carriers at stake as well.

We can only hope to see some change there and get at least some light shed on future of SI

[FabricPaul]

Regarding location - London is the best place for an event like this, particularly for SI. Soho is very much _the_ hub for professional SI users - when we attended the last SIC London event, I was really impressed by how many people attended a Tuesday evening event (admittedly with free beer). Being walking distance from an event makes it much more likely to have good attendance from a range of studios. Outside of events like Sigg/FMX this just isn't the case anywhere else in the world. Alongside this, it's possible to visit 3 or 4 studios per day in Soho. It's just a very efficient place to visit as a vendor.

As for the NDA stuff - public companies like AD have to be very careful around activity that could be described as future selling. S-O rules are a bitch - if a feature is shown but then doesn't make it into the product, it can impact on revenue recognition (thanks dotcom bubble). It's not a question of secrecy - if that was the case, they wouldn't show anything at all as NDAs and beta agreements are generally not adhered to in friendly conversations in our business.

[Hirazi Blue]

While it's probably true, that London is a great location for these kinds of shindigs, it's frustrating to think that it seems to have become the only location. One additional, alternative location apart from London would already send a friendlier message to all of "us" not working in Soho...
BTW: The geographical center of the European Union is located in Gelnhausen, Germany
(in a wheatfield apparently), in case you're wondering...


edit: I am myself not from Germany, that's not why I mention Gelnhausen, BTW!

[gustavoeb]

Maybe German people using SI could arrange some meeting during FMX, that is Germany isnt it? Autodesk guys should probably go to that event anyways... just saying...