The eighth European Catia Forum (ECF) 2004 was held at Disneyland, Paris, from 12 to 14 October and played host to 1700 customers, partners, exhibitors, consultants, journalists, analysts, Dassault Systèmes and IBM specialists.

Visitors were treated to 86 sessions and 53 booths at the exhibition, with plenty of opportunities to learn more about Dassault Systèmes and IBM's developments and vision for the future and meet with fellow users and exchange ideas.

Held just after the launch of Catia Version 5 Release 14, the ECF aimed to address issues such as:

* How can PLM increase revenue?

* How to distance yourself from the competition.

* How to deliver products to market in a reduced timeframe.

* Managing seamless collaboration.

* Improving quality.

* How to achieve better ROI.

In his opening address at the plenary session, Francis Bernard, executive committee advisor at Dassault Systèmes commented, "PLM stands for Please Laugh More," and this set the tone for the entire forum - the ease and consequential benefits of efficient product lifecycle management.

"PLM is no longer an IT approach, it is a business approach", was the comment from Bernard Charlès, president and CEO, Dassault Systèmes.

In addition to the Business Value-, Product Strategy and Trends- and Technical sessions taking place, the exhibition hall was abuzz with presentations and demonstrations.

And attracting a lot of attention was the miniature racetrack in the foyer of the ECF conference - a multimedia display built by Dassault Systèmes and IBM and run by Re-Engineering Australia Forum, which recently held a Schools Innovation Design Challenge (SIDC), a nationwide competition in Australia. The SIDC involved students designing, testing, making and racing miniature gas powered F-1 style cars with the aid of sophisticated engineering technology.

Although separated by over one thousand kilometres, the winners paired up as the inaugural Australian SIDC team, Thunder From Down Under. Using CATIA and Telstra/IBM-supplied collaboration technology, they combined their skills to design-test-make 'the ultimate miniature F-1 racer'.

We will be featuring interviews with IBM and Dassault Systèmes representatives over the next few months.

To view the ECF presentations, visit www.ecforum.com