S3 Bonus: Inside the Share PLM Summit 2025: Key Takeaways and Reflections

In this special episode of the Share PLM Podcast, Helena Gutiérrez, Beatriz González, Maria Morris, and Jos Voskuil share a behind-the-scenes look at the first-ever Share PLM Summit held in Jerez, Spain. 

More than just a recap, this episode dives into the inspiration, values, and creative decisions that shaped the event—from its human-centric mission and unique venue choice to the diverse community it brought together. Whether you attended in person or are just discovering the Summit now, this conversation offers powerful insights into how PLM (Product Lifecycle Management) can evolve through collaboration, inclusion, and people-first innovation.

Here's a deep dive into the key themes and ideas that emerged from the summit.

⚉ The Inspiration Behind and the Purpose of the Summit
⚉ Building Connection Through Shared Experience
⚉ Diversity Done Right: Gender, Age, and Cultural Inclusion
⚉ The Power of Being System-Agnostic
⚉ Human + Tech: Striking the Right Balance
⚉ Key Takeaways and Final Reflections 


If you're passionate about creating meaningful, lasting change in PLM, we would love to have you with us. 

Learn more and check out the Summit recap here: https://shareplm.com/the-share-plm-summit-2025-recap/ 


CONNECT WITH SHARE PLM:
⚉ Website: https://shareplm.com/ 


Join us every month to listen to fascinating interviews, where we cover a wide array of topics, from actionable tips, to personal experiences, to strategies that you can implement into your PLM strategy.

If you have an interesting story to share and want to join the conversation, contact us and let's chat. We can't wait to hear from you!

Transcript

[00:00:12] Maria Morris:
Hello everyone and welcome back to the Share PLM podcast. I'm Maria, normally you will find me behind the camera, but today I'm actually taking part in this very special episode in which we are going to be taking a look back at the Share PLM Summit in Jerez.

So this was the first time that we brought together our community in person, from customers, partners to thought leaders and innovators in the PLM space. We tried to bring as many of them together as possible, and we brought them all together with one goal in mind. And this was to explore how we can drive more human centric transformations.

So in this episode, we will reflect on some of the key moments, takeaways, and conversations from the event. And essentially we want to share a bit of the behind the scenes thinking that shaped the summit. And so whether you were there with us in person in Jerez or you were following us online, we hope that you'll enjoy this recap and leave with some fresh ideas and takeaways, and hopefully we will see you in the next Share PLM summit.

So, to get started, I want to dive a little bit into the kind of the background behind the Share PLM summit, what spark the idea? So to do that, I would like to propose my first question to Helena, which is what first inspired the idea of creating a human centered PLM event?

[00:01:43] Helena Gutiérrez:
Thank you, Maria. Yes, so we go to a lot of events at Share PLM and many of these events, they focus a lot on technology. They focus a lot on the technical side of things and. They talk about features, about our specs, and we have been working with projects since seven year already. And many of these projects, the real issue is not the technology, it's the people that drive the transformation.

And Bea and I were thinking a lot about how about how about creating an event that focuses more on people, that focuses on the transformation that happens to us humans when we need to change our way of working, when we need to start using a new tech piece. So we started to dream about this event, but it was a bit a big thing for us.

So it took us some time to kind of save the action from the idea and the dream. And I think last year we were, I think Maria you were also there. We were having some drinks after an event and we were saying, yeah, next time it's going to be our, our event with Share PLM. Let's make it happen.

[00:02:53] Maria Morris:
Exactly.

[00:02:54] Beatriz González:
We take the risk in January and we did event in May. So I think it was, yeah, a successful challenge.

[00:03:01] Helena Gutiérrez:
Yes.

[00:03:02] Jos Voskuil:
Yeah, it's amazing. And seeing conference being prepared one year in advance, you did a magical job.

[00:03:10] Maria Morris:
Yes.

[00:03:10] Helena Gutiérrez:
A lot goes to Maria who was the brain behind the organization. She made it happen fast and curious.

[00:03:12] Beatriz González:
Yes.

[00:03:18] Maria Morris:
Yeah, I think at times we doubted whether it would actually happen. I know Jos was asking me a lot, are you sure you're going to be able to pull this off in just a few months? And we said, don't worry, Jos, we will make this happen. Yes or yes.

Okay. And so then I guess my next question to Helena is more about kind of the context of the event, so where it took place, the setting. Why did you choose to host the event at a bodega instead of a traditional conference venue?

[00:03:46] Helena Gutiérrez:
Yeah, this was really intentional. We are currently working also on a parallel project that's called The Nest. It’s a space for connection and collaboration for companies to do team retreats in the south of Spain. And we chose the south of Spain very intentionally because it's a different setup, a different atmosphere, something that we are not used to in the business setting.

So we chose Bodega because we thought it was a different space where people would probably get a bit relaxed. It'll be also inspiring. It's quite inspiring to see what the architecture of the bodega, how it's built and everything that's around it. And that was a bit the reason why we chose the bodega to make us get out of our comfort zone and be somewhere else.
And I think it, it worked quite well. What do you think guys?

[00:04:35] Beatriz González:
Yes. And also, because it's a human-centric event, we wanted also to be in contact with the nature, right? And more having more light, having also the green that we had in the bodega it's something that made us also decide, decide for that instead of being in a, in a conference room, dark the whole day. So, yeah, focusing on the feel and experience.

[00:04:55] Jos Voskuil:
I was probably the most shocked person, meaning being used to conference rooms and, uh, offices and then suddenly somewhere and for me, nowhere. I haven't been in ulu before. And then a bodega, I mean, it was such a change of scenery, so different, eh?

[00:05:11] Helena Gutiérrez:
How was it different Jos like from your experience, I know you have been to thousands of events, so what did that change of setup made to the conference?

[00:05:20] Jos Voskuil:
I think the, it was a brilliant setup for being human-centric and starting with the tapas evening where already before the conference you meet people, so you have your first conversations.

Then having the breakfast at the location was also brilliant because otherwise you just jump into the conference, watched the scenery and they go back and now people could communicate and there were so many moments that you could interact.

And the whole setting was related to human communication. At the end, I think everyone knew each other or had talked with each other, which is completely different to some home conferences where you have those groups sitting in different disciplines and they go dinner together somewhere else.

We were really as a group, communicating so that the human centric was, yeah, was really there.

[00:06:07] Maria Morris:
Yeah, I think one, kind of stand standout point for me that made this event a lot different to other PLM conferences that I've attended is in the past when I've attended conferences before, you've always been able to count the number of women in the room. It's always been about five, six at the most. And I remember even at one conference I went to, there were so little women that we actually had an all female photograph, just to prove that there were actually some women at the conference.

And so I think one thing that we tried to make a big point for this conference is that we wanted to promote diversity and representation. And we were actually able to manage to have around 50% of our participants actually being women, which was a huge achievement. But Bea, why was this something that was really important for us and how does this kind of relate to our values at Share PLM?

[00:06:57] Beatriz González:
Yes. It felt really, really great having so much women, and not only women, I would say also young people, which is not usually in conferences, having young people even presenting on the stage, but it feels very energizing and saying, okay, this is something that everyone can learn about PLM, about technology, about human, and it doesn't depends on the age. It depends on the skills and your interest and your values.

So in the conference was also what full of old people, young people, men, women that we have a common goal that this was taking care of the people around us, right? So I think, I feel very grateful of having the opportunity to share these two days with this amazing community that everyone is welcome. What do you think Jos?

[00:07:43] Jos Voskuil:
Yeah, I think also where the, the diversity was so important because it also allowed people to speak up. If it was only tech gigs, the other ones would be silent and maybe flabbergasted with all those drawings and diagrams. Now, everyone had opportunity to speak, to discuss, and I saw the old gurus talking with the young guys. It was really a mix of culture and ages. It was, yeah, really diverse huh.

[00:08:08] Beatriz González:
Yes, the culture mixed. It was amazing also, especially in bodega with lot people from all around Europe and from the states, right?

[00:08:16] Jos Voskuil:
Yeah.

[00:08:18] Maria Morris:
Definitely. And how do you hope Jos that this setup of the event, so we've already mentioned having a great mix of both technical experts with people-centric roles as well as younger people, better representation and kind of diversity within the event. How do you hope that this kind of shapes the future culture of the PLM community and future events?

[00:08:41] Jos Voskuil:
Well, I, I think and that was also Helena's story, the future is human. I think we are on the path to the future and this event could be one of the leading events for this, uh, keeping the focus on the human side. It should not grow too big. Then it becomes massive.

[00:08:57] Helena Gutiérrez:
You will lose the magic right?

[00:08:59] Jos Voskuil:
The bodega is big enough, but maybe the stage is not big enough. And I think that remains crucial. I mean to keep the spirit. And as you may have noticed on LinkedIn, there has never been so much excitement after a conference as this conference from the people that were there.

So it's really a new wave of energy and it should grow a little bit, but not too much.

[00:09:24] Maria Morris:
That's a good takeaway. What do you think about that, Helena? Do you think that in order to keep the essence of the event, it's important that it doesn't get too big?

[00:09:32] Helena Gutiérrez:
I was listening to Jos before and it was so right. That I think everyone talked to each other like when we finalized the conference, I think everyone knew each other and that was quite impressive because I haven't been to any, any conference where that happened.

So I agree with just that we need to keep the magic, we definitely need to make it a bit bigger because otherwise it's not economically, not very sustainable. I think that we need to also take care that it doesn't grow too big because otherwise you lose that connection. So I think as Jos says, a little bit bigger, but not too big so that we don't lose the magic.

[00:10:08] Maria Morris:
Definitely And what I would like to do now is actually do a bit of a deep dive into some of our key takeaways from the event. I think this will be especially interesting for those people who weren't able to attend the event with us in person.

And so I would like to actually come to Joss first and ask you kind of what were some of the key themes that really stood out for you during the summit? What conversations left you thinking when you left the event?

[00:10:35] Jos Voskuil:
Well, I think most of the presentations were always a surprise for me. I mean, although I thought I knew a lot, but now seeing people with a different starting point, the human-centric point of view, like Andrea or Linda. It was completely new and interesting to learn, the most of the highlights I described in my, uh, blog post the weekend after. And that was more on, I would say the first impression, so read this post.

But also, yeah, I was impressed by the closure of the conference having a flamingo straight to the heart. And I think I've never seen a conference like that because usually you leave, you move away, you say bye now. We had a, a really booming end all together, made it also a good last impression.

[00:11:21] Beatriz González:
With a glass of wine.

[00:11:23] Maria Morris:
Yes. How can you forget that.

[00:11:27] Jos Voskuil:
But yeah, I mean the presentations were of good quality and also, again, very diverse. And that's what I liked. I learned also again, and that's beautiful.

[00:11:35] Maria Morris:
Good, and Jos, you could definitely embody all of our values at Share PLM, because whilst you are our PLM guru and you have all of the technical kind of background and information, you also have a very people-centric approach. Do you think that the conference had a good mix for you of both the technical aspects and also the human-centric topics as well?

[00:11:55] Jos Voskuil:
Yeah. I think and maybe I missed the workshops also because there you had also the opportunity to dive deep in a topic of your interest because maybe not everyone is a technical guru or a change management guru. So I think that was also the beauty, the workshops combined with the content.

[00:12:14] Maria Morris:
Very good. And what about you, Helena? How did you find the mix of the technical aspects and the human driven approaches?

[00:12:21] Helena Gutiérrez:
Yeah, I think it was excellent. For me, one of the things that was more inspiring was to have people like Jos in the room, Olek, even Martin Eigner. I've read all of Martin Eigner’s book, and for me it was like amazing to have all these supporters there in the room and helping us, and also being part of the group.

But also people with huge experiences from enterprise and very, very special set of skills like Andrea from Tera Pack talking about design sprints or Thelma from Methode, talking about the learning setup that they have at Methode. I think it was really a great mix of both technical and also human topics and I really enjoyed the content. I agree with Jos there as well that I learned again, which is always for me, a very inspiring thing. So I think the content of the conference was also very good.

[00:13:14] Beatriz González:
Yes. And also because the presentation were balancing very well the technical and the human side. And then the, all the events gave me and all of us opportunity to go to this person and then go deeper into the topic you are more interested in. For example, if you are more interested on the technology part, because you are using the three experience like Thelma was presenting, then, then you go there and you go speak and so you have a broad image of the real transformation which I really, really enjoy.

So they did great, all the speakers. And also the speakers all of them were presenting in the preparation day, they were coming and helping us with all the setup. So what I really appreciate from them, so we were a team together.

[00:13:55] Maria Morris:
Definitely. 

[00:13:56] Beatriz González:
Also, Maria, I would like to add that Helena's presentation was great. She was able to mix the features with the motions and I really like it so thank you Helena.

[00:15:12] Maria Morris:
And I just want to pick up on a point that Bea had mentioned. She mentioned the fact that event was a place where depending on the topic of your interest or maybe your role or the system you were using, we had a very good representation of various roles, various systems, so you could go and dive deeper with certain people. And I think that's one thing that we haven't mentioned yet in great detail, that this event was system agnostic.

So it wasn't an event that was focused on one specific system or tool. And I wanted to ask you, Jos, do you think this makes a difference in the types of conversations you can have at, at the event?

[00:15:47] Jos Voskuil:
Yeah, I think if it is a system agnostic event in any way you can discuss on broader topics, and by making it even human centric, we have even a broader common ground. I mean, otherwise it would be an aerospace or a automotive conference. Then we would have, again, a limited audience.

And I think everyone tried to be human centric and even the most technical guys started from the human. So I think that was also a nice challenge for everyone in presentation.

[00:16:15] Helena Gutiérrez:
Yes and something I want to add is that I also felt really proud of the team at Share PLM. Maria you were the first there, but also the rest of the team. How there was one point where we didn't have coffee and I saw the guys cooking coffee in the kitchen, heating up the water. And Maria, you have been impressive in the managing, and I would like to also ask you, Maria, from your perspective, from your point of view, how has it been for you?

It's the first event that you have organized and it's been quite big. So what is your personal experience with the organization of the event?

[00:16:49] Maria Morris:
Definitely. I mean, when we first started talking about the event, I don't think I realized how much work goes into planning an event because it was my first one. But I think that was almost an advantage because I wasn't nervous or stressed at all. I just was excited for the end result.

And, yeah, I think from my perspective, it was incredible to be able to speak with all of the speakers and all of the sponsors leading up to the events, getting to know them better, learning more about their roles, their organizations whilst we were planning their topics. And so for me it was amazing.

And then to finally arrive to the event and, you know, have the opportunity to kind of be the master of ceremonies, be the moderator for the panel talks. It was honestly amazing because it was also a huge learning opportunity for me as well. I mean, you have some of the best minds in the industry in one room, and I was kind of in awe the whole time just listening to everyone speak and learning from their experiences.

And so, yeah, whilst I definitely underestimated the amount of work that goes into such an event, and I think I definitely have some lessons learned from an organization perspective. I think overall, considering it was our first event, so I'm very proud of what we pulled off. But of course, it wasn't all just my efforts. There were a team of us behind and a special big thanks to you three, Helena, Bea, and Jos, because you were always open to responding to my questions and my thoughts.

And, Jos, you always came with lots of great ideas and you let me bounce different ideas off with you from your experience at different events. So that was really helpful. So thank you all for that as well.

[00:18:32] Jos Voskuil:
Congratulations. I was impressed. I mean, I hope we can keep you in Share PLM for conferences.

[00:18:46] Maria Morris:
Does that mean I'm rehired? Does the emcee for next year.

[00:18:53] Maria Morris:
Very good. Okay. And I guess this is just an open question to all of you. Were there any specific key moments from any talks or any conversations you might have had informally during the networking breaks that kind of really stood out to you and you would like to share?

[00:19:09] Helena Gutiérrez:
For me, personally due to my personal interests, I really enjoy Andrea Jarman's presentation. I've seen the work of Andrea Tetrapak with Design Thinking, and it's something that I discovered during my career, and I have seen the power of it. Having Andrea share her experience from Tetrapack running design sprints at our conference was an honor.

So that was one of them. And the other I already mentioned, like having all these PLM gurus like Jos, Olek and, Martin, joining us and setting their view on the future. That was also something that inspired me a lot.

[00:19:44] Beatriz González:
And adding to Helena, because Maria and I, we were not surprised about the most of the presentation because we had to take them before. But I was also very surprised with Rob's presentation of theater that he could combine all the people aspect with the process and misunderstanding was really really fun. So, yeah, it was good, good to see and learn.

[00:20:08] Jos Voskuil:
The biggest impression was that all those presentations, everyone tried to start from the human and even if you were a technical guy. And, yeah, as you said Bea, Rob's play started very funny and interesting, but then his part were still serious at the end. Every presentation on its own was a, was a jewel.

[00:20:28] Maria Morris:
I completely agree. And I think maybe one of my, as you mentioned, all of the presentations were amazing and it was great to see that even the most technical people took on the challenge of creating human-centered presentation, which wasn't easy for a lot of people at the beginning, and I know it took a lot of iterations, but in the end, we had some incredible presentations.

I think one of them that really stood out for me was Linda Kangastie’s presentation as talking about her first year as a PLM program manager. And I think this stood out for me a lot because in all other events I've been to the people who are presenting are typically talking about a PLM program that has nearly come to the end or their experiences over their many years within the PLM industry. And I think it was great to have a fresh perspective of somebody who is relatively new to PLM and talking about the lessons she's learned across the way, how she's leading with a human centered approach. And I think it was very refreshing that we have representations of people who are at the beginning of their PLM journey and ones who have been in the industry for many, many years. And so yeah, I think that was one of my highlights of the event.

And coming to kind of the end of this episode, I think it's always important to talk about some lessons learned. I already mentioned there are definitely some that I have taken away from an organizational perspective. But I would like to ask Helena, if, there have been any kind of valuable lessons learned when it comes to organizing the Share P LM Summit and kind of what you'd like to see in the next Share PLM Summit.

[00:22:02] Helena Gutiérrez:
Yes. I think we were newbies here, so there were some things that we definitely need to improve. We have already discussed with Bea, with you, Maria, that in the future we need to appoint someone who takes care of the holistic organization of the event. We had someone who was more in charge of the operational side, one that was more in charge of the content side.

And I think it's important for the next event that we have someone who really oversees the whole thing. In terms of the event itself, one mistake we made was that we didn't realize that there was no wifi in some areas of the bodega. So that's something that we, for next year, we need to make sure that we have some, some good wifi in the venue.

Also, some people mentioned the seating that the chairs were not so comfortable. And we have already discussed about the coffee that it was not always on time. So next year we need to put some, how do you call these kind of machines that…

[00:22:58] Maria Morris:
Yeah, the, the coffee heaters. Yeah, the thermo, the thermos.

[00:23:02] Helena Gutiérrez:
Yes. But I think in general, to be honest, maybe there are these more things, but the whole experience, as I said, was really great.

So I think it was very successful and we definitely need to learn from this to make it even better. But I'm very satisfied with the result. What do you think guys?

[00:23:21] Beatriz González:
Yeah, there are room, room for improvement related to maybe the workshops that Jos was mentioning, that they were very valuable and we had only three in parallels. So maybe next time we need to think if we have more slots for workshops to go in deeper into some topics. That might be interesting if also I get this feedback from some of the sponsors that would been good to have more in depth workshops.

[00:23:45] Jos Voskuil:
And I had one big lesson learned, never merge PowerPoint.

[00:23:52] Maria Morris:
That was a big one for sure.

[00:23:54] Jos Voskuil:
Yeah. I was afraid for it, but yeah, it happened and I think then you lose sometimes even the text and uh.

[00:24:02] Beatriz González:
Yes, totally.

[00:24:03] Jos Voskuil:
Yeah. But Helena you said there was no wifi and I think sometimes having no wifi is good if you want to be human. Yeah.

[00:24:12] Helena Gutiérrez:
Interesting perspective.

[00:24:14] Maria Morris:
Yeah, there are definitely pros and cons with that. I mean, in some other conferences it's very common to look around the room at times and you see people responding to their emails, doing some work during the keynotes. And one great thing at the event was, you know, there was no wifi so nobody was able to do anything else other than focus on the event. So maybe we should say that was strategic thinking as opposed to uh an oversight, but yeah, definitely something we can look out for next time.

And talking about feedback we've received, Bea, you've already mentioned some, but what feedback have, have you all received from the event? I know we've seen a lot of various posts on LinkedIn, but what has kind of been the, the response so far from the event?

[00:24:58] Helena Gutiérrez:
I have received great feedback from the people who were there. I travel back to Germany with Martin Igna and he promised me to help me with our business development in Germany, if we do this event next year. He was really, really happy about the event, and also many, many people I have talked to, I think everyone was really happy about, about the result.

And also I have received so many messages from people who said that, hey, next year I want to be there. Really like this year I couldn't make it or I didn't see it, or I was not able to travel, but next year I want to be there. So it's been really amazing, like the feedback that we've got both from participants and also from people who have seen all these messages on LinkedIn, and have reached out to us.

[00:25:42] Maria Morris:
Very good. And Jos what about you?

[00:25:45] Jos Voskuil:
I only got Spanish feedback because I was the whole week traveling through one of the, so. I saw that the energy on LinkedIn and in my network also. And this week and next week, I'm visiting some of my customers and I'm sure I will get their feedback also, because either they were attending or they were, say jealous of not being there.

[00:26:06] Maria Morris:
Good.

[00:26:08] Beatriz González:
Yeah, we were also like, people that couldn’t join, they were telling us that some of the companies they have the events in budget also. So it's good to tell, tell it in advance with more time that we have this year. But for the next year we will, we'll have the tickets sooner so they can also be prepared so they can make it.

[00:26:27] Maria Morris:
Definitely.

[00:26:28] Jos Voskuil:
And by the way, this reminds me of also the great sponsors we had. I mean, all of them also with their sponsor contribution, both the booth, but also the presentation. It fit all fantastic in conference.

[00:26:40] Beatriz González:
Yes, and the mood and the energy that they all brought to the event.

[00:26:46] Maria Morris:
Good. And so to kind of wrap up today's episode, I'm going to wrap it up in the same way we wrap up all our other episodes because it wouldn't feel right not to. And that is to quote our co-host Jos. And he often says, experience is what you get when you don't get what you expect.

So while we have talked a lot already about our key takeaways from the event, what is one personal learning moment or surprise that really stayed with you from the event that you can share with us, each one of you? And maybe we can start with Jos.

[00:27:18] Jos Voskuil:
I have of course the most experience, and the good news is, I still had an experience, and I think the big experience I had is that human centric is possible in the world of PLM.

[00:27:28] Maria Morris:
Very good. That's a great takeaway. What's about you Bea?

[00:27:34] Beatriz González:
I cannot compete with Jos' takeaway. It was very good.

[00:27:39] Maria Morris:
We can leave Joss's takeaway as our collective key takeaway, because I think he summed it up perfectly. Okay, so I think it's time that we wrap up today's episode. We really hope that you enjoyed this recap of the Share PLM Summit 2025.

Again, I wanted to say a big thank you to Helena, Bea and Joss, not only for all of your help and support in organising the event, but also for participating in the event with your keynotes and workshops.

And of course, I'd like to say a big thank you to all of our sponsors, and all of our participants and speakers who attended the event, it wouldn't have been possible without you all. And as well, for those of you who weren't able to attend, even for those of you who were and you want to catch up and reminisce on the amazing time we had.

If you go to shareplm.com and you look for the Share PLM Summit recap, you will be able to find a page full of photos from the event, the keynote materials, and very shortly we will be uploading the keynote recordings so you can watch them all back as well.

And before I forget, I wanted to also mention that next week on June the 16th, I believe is the correct date, Jos, at 5pm.

[00:28:52] Jos Voskuil:
Yep.

[00:28:53] Maria Morris:
Joss and I are going to be participating in a webinar hosted by hosted by Michael Finocchiaro. And he is bringing Joss and myself together alongside Rob Ferrone, Oleg Shilovitsky, and also Michael himself, Fino, is going to be obviously moderating the webinar. And again, there we are going to be speaking live about our key takeaways from the event and some of the lessons learned.

So please make sure to sign up for that on June 16th at 5pm. And that's it. So thank you all for listening to this episode. And we look forward to speaking to you all in future episodes. So thank you all.

[00:29:34] Beatriz González:
Thank you.

[00:29:35] Helena Gutiérrez:
Thank you.

[00:29:35] Jos Voskuil:
Thank you.