Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1400005
62 DESIGN007 MAGAZINE I AUGUST 2021 we don't empower designers with educational resources to effectively leverage those tools and offer training in solid design principles in an intelligent and effective way, then it's an incomplete solution. e more that we can be an empower- ing solution and resource provider, the more we allow them to not just succeed with our tools but help them successfully navigate the requirements of all their stakeholders and partners. is all happens within a connected industry ecosystem that provides both tools and complementary educational content. By co-locating AltiumLive at IPC APEX EXPO, we will be able to help connect designers to that event's manufacturing ecosystem. is is designed to be a physical manifestation of the digital ecosystem we are building on the heels of Altium's introduction of our cloud-based platforms Altium 365 and Nexar. We've had a tagline for AltiumLive for four years now: Learn, Connect, Get Inspired. Johnson: e results are better yields and more affordable costs for the fabrication of boards because they made good choices. Plus, more resilience and the ability to fabricate at mul- tiple fabricators because they were designed in a way that was interchangeable, suddenly that makes the OEM more profitable. Warner: Exactly. In this way, we're correlating our customers' success to our own. Of course like every other company, we promote and sell soware, we do all the typical activities that a business would do, but we believe at the heart of it, we must have a fundamental user and ecosystem-centric focus. Education is one way to embody this philosophy. Enabling them to have visibility, to be successful, to save money, to look good with their bosses, improve time to market, and all the things that indicate suc- cess for them, well then, we've been more than just a tool provider. We have entered a part- nership with them where we're committed to a belief that when our customers and partners succeed, we succeed. Johnson: Are there portions of all your multiple approaches that seem to be working better? Is there a front runner with respect to how your audience is connecting with your content? Warner: First, there are webinars, because peo- ple can engage, ask questions, follow up, and watch it again. On-demand education does well, particularly technical on-demand educa- tion, where perhaps we reveal designers' blind spots. One example is a livestream Rick Hart- ley did for us on proper grounding that has almost 80,000 views. Design engineers do not get this kind of field theory at university, but it causes them problems regularly, and Rick shows them how to solve this pervasive prob- lem. Another example of ecosystem-centric content that performed well was a podcast I recorded with Kelly Dack talking about lay- ing out rails for assemblies. Honestly, I didn't think it would be that popular or engaging, but it is one of the most popular podcasts to date. I suspect that was just because it's a fundamental and practical thing they needed to know and could apply immediately. Kelly did a good job explaining the different ways to cut out rails, why they need to be a minimum width, and he brought on show-and-tell boards. It ended up being quite valuable. We have two types of content: the tool con- tent and the technical design education con- tent. For most of our customers, they value having access to both. e podcast has really expanded, and we are quickly approaching Obviously, our end goal is to create and sell powerful software solutions that help design engineers to succeed.