I’ve followed the SiemensPLM Blog for some time. Met the authors, and chief instigator Dora Smith, last night at a “tweet up” as the conference is opening. (Note to Emerson Process Management followers, they’re giving you a run for supremacy on social media 😉 – lots of twitter users, the blog picture is from a T-shirt)

Attendance is over 1,400, which is about 40% over last year. And that despite rebooking the conference. It was scheduled for the first of May in Nashville at the Opryland Hotel. Flooding wiped out the conference (not to mention tremendous loss in Nashville). We’re at the Sheraton Dallas in Texas this week.

Tony Affuso, chairman and CEO of Siemens PLM, touted the three-year relationship with Siemens which has provided it with “all kinds of resources to draw on.” He noted company performance is back on track after three straight growth quarters–including double digit growth in software licenses. Products Teamcenter and Tecnomatix are top rated in their areas by analysts. He introduced HD PLM (high-definition product lifecycle management). The concept was further explained by CTO and executive vice president products Chuck Grindstaff as a way to help users deal with increasing complexity by fostering better tools for decision making.

For the second time in a week I heard a presentation from a Ford executive. This one was on digital design to production. It’s amazing how far Mullaly has brought that company. Looks as if it is really getting its act together–and making use of Siemens PLM tools to help.