Richard Doyle, the User Group Guy

We catch up with Richard Doyle, the “User Group Guy,” on how CAD communities get built, how they drift when marketing takes over, and why that shift changes what users feel they can trust. We also talk through his move to Las Vegas, poker discipline, career setbacks, and what it’s like to return to full-time mechanical design while still advocating for users.
• SolidWorks World memories and what long-running conferences signal about loyalty 
• Moving to Las Vegas and why poker sharpened his mindset 
• The origin of “User Group Guy” and what the label means 
• Why user group meetings should focus on learning and community, not selling 
• The pressure to promote 3DEXPERIENCE and the friction it created with desktop CAD users 
• How Autodesk University and other events evolved from user-first to vendor-led 
• Leadership stories and the impact of “kill SolidWorks” messaging 
• Layoffs, debt, ageism concerns, and rebuilding with a new design role 
• Staying current in CAD and what daily SolidWorks use reveals 
• Why Onshape stands out, especially mates in assemblies 
• Building Onshape user groups fast, then adapting during the pandemic 
• The limits of online meetings and why real connection still physical presence  — and beer

Transcript

Welcome And SolidWorks World Memories

Roopinder 0:08

Hello everyone and welcome to the Masters of Technology Happy Hour, where once a week I have a drink with someone I meet in the course of business, but someone I'd like to get to know better as a person. Richard Doyle, welcome to the show. Thanks for having me. Yeah, I usually do a little research on my guests. I didn't have to in your case. We've known each other for so long. You were a staple at the uh in all the SOLIDWORKS worlds and whatever it turned out to be called later. Were you around when it changed to uh 3DEXPERIENCE World? Are you with them?

Richard Doyle 0:41

Um you know, I missed that. Was my last the last one was before they changed it to 3D Experience World. So SolidWorks World 20 2018. I think it was the uh, I want to say it was the 20th anniversary. Um, I believe we still have all those 20-year backpacks for uh the folks that had been all 20 of them. Um got some special packs, and it was great. I got to recognize them from the stage. Um, they were all sitting in one area there on community day. So uh that was fun. I want to say there was maybe 20 people uh out of all the folks that ever attended SolidWorks World, 20 people had been to all of them at

Moving To Las Vegas

Richard Doyle 1:18

that point.

Roopinder 1:18

So yeah, Richard, where where do you live now? I think I want to say Reno or Las Vegas. Is it yeah?

Richard Doyle 1:23

I'm in Las Vegas now. Oh Las Vegas moved out here in in late 2018. Uh my kids are grown, I was an empty nester, uh went through an unfortunate divorce, and uh my ex-wife moved back to Canada. And I thought, you know, I've been coming out to Las Vegas a couple of times a year for several years, and I thought, well, now's a good time to go ahead and make the move. And I'm really glad I did. I I really enjoy it out here. Um, I love the climate, especially. I like warm. Uh although I was a little surprised at how cold it can get here in the winter.

Roopinder 1:54

Oh, yeah, yeah. I I've been there. I I so I gotta say, so you did you come to Las Vegas um several times a year by by choice? Because I was yes, felt like I was I was forced to go there for all the conferences that were there, but you like no, I I I love it out here.

Richard Doyle 2:11

I love the lights, I love the casinos, I love the strip. Uh I'm a poker player too. I play Texas uh No Limit Hold'em. Um you know, which which I was able to play a little bit in in Texas, um, but it was more uh uh oh how do I want to put this more more of a social experience in Texas. It wasn't real, real big money. Um we played in a bar poker league, so um, you know, big big prizes were maybe $50 if you won the tournament. Uh whereas out here, you know, it's a little uh a little more professional out here. Uh now I'm not saying I'm a professional, but I have won several tournaments uh at Caesars Palace, and I actually have a cash in the World Series

Poker Wins and User Group Guy

Richard Doyle 2:55

of poker from a couple of years ago. So uh while I'm not to the level of the uh you know the Nigranus and the rest of those pros, I I think I'm a better than average player.

Roopinder 3:05

So oh wow, okay. Now that's a poker is your specialty. Uh I can't help but think of the uh the uh legends of John Hirschstick and uh you know his his skill at uh 21, like blackjack, right? Yeah, yeah. So there's uh there's a history of uh visiting the casinos there at SolidWorks, huh? By the way, I always thought I was a SolidWorks guy, and you were like the between you and Planchard, the two biggest advocates for users in the in the company, right? You and and I I gotta tell the audience, you go by the name user user comp the user group guy. User group guy, right?

Richard Doyle 3:41

Yep. So that's that's kind of a funny story too. Um the the yeah, I wasn't in I wasn't in this particular conversation, but apparently I think it was Brenda Monahan, maybe, um, that was having a use uh conversation with somebody, and and the name came up, Richard Doyle's name came up, and somebody said, Well, who's that? And I think it was Brenda that said he's that user group guy, and that just kind of stuck from there. So that's that's from I don't know, maybe 15, 18 years ago. And uh you know, when when when I left the company, I was a little bit bitter, and uh I I changed all my handles to ex SWUGN, and uh finally I grew out of that, and uh so now I'm I'm still the user group guy. I will always be the user group guy. Um, it's my email address, it's my Twitter handle. Um, you know, so uh I appreciate it and and I I uh you know I revel in it.

Roopinder 4:34

So do you mind say your full email address for the audience?

Richard Doyle 4:37

Or yeah, it's the user group guy at outlook.com.

Roopinder 4:42

At Outlook.com.

Richard Doyle 4:43

You can follow me on X too if you really want to. Um I I I removed the old account that I had. I had a couple thousand followers. Um I've started a new one. It's more of a personal thing. I post a lot of my poker losses mostly um because they're mostly bad beats.

Why He Left SolidWorks

Roopinder 4:58

How can we delete X? Was it because of that?

Richard Doyle 5:00

Uh it was that it was that bitter pill I was I was swallowing a couple of months after I left the company. I I I did not want to leave, um, but I felt like not that I was forced to. I I just I didn't like the direction the company was heading.

Roopinder 5:14

Who was the CEO at the time when you were that was Gian Paulo?

Richard Doyle 5:18

Gian Paulo Bassi was the CEO. And I even I even took my concerns to him, and uh he he gave me the well, you know, we have to do what we have to do, and so I I frankly, I you know, the that direction I I wasn't comfortable with and and wasn't going to try and push something on customers that they didn't want.

Roopinder 5:39

You mean that they were pushing Dassault Systèmes and the 3DEXPERIENCE e on the SolidW orks users and that that just didn't play well with you?

Richard Doyle 5:46

Yeah, so no, I don't mind, you know, certainly the the the company has their their you know what they need to do to to move forward, and I understand that. Um, I remember a meeting with with Gian Paulo and and somebody else whose name I won't mention, um, where it was discussed that 3DEXPERIENCE the 3 was really more for new customers, the the existing desktop product worked very well for the people that had it, and they were really happy with that. When they started talking to me about, you know, we want to have we want to show off 3DEXPERIENCE experience at the user group meetings, and I I was totally against that because again, these were our existing customers. They we never upsell in the user group meetings. Nobody, nobody brings a checkbook to the user group meetings. They're they're there to learn, they're there to network, they're not there to buy anything. And you know, every now and then if you want to throw it.

Roopinder 6:41

That's because you're a purist and you know about user groups, they're for users and they're to help them do their user software better, right? And and to you know, to mingle and be a community. And uh, and uh I totally agree with you. It's it's become something, it's become a selling event, it's become a sales conference and marketing conference.

Richard Doyle 7:01

Well, uh, I still I want to give SolidWorks still some credit because of all of the CAD companies right now, uh, with the exception of PTC, who has you know PTC user, but that's a separate organization. Um so kudos to SolidWorks for still supporting a network of the close to 300 groups, I think, uh, that they have out there. And they're still supporting, as far as I know, financially. Um, they've done some things, I've seen some things online that that I wouldn't have been happy with at the time. Uh, but for the most part, and I stay in touch with a lot of the current user group leaders and former user group leaders. And so far, they're pretty happy with with the support that they're getting. Um, I think it's Dan Wagner is the guy that's running that up there. Um, so they're fairly happy. I I think they've got some new folks, maybe maybe younger people um that are more open to the 3D experience platform and and showing things off like that. Uh, but I think the uh the old guard is still still pretty solid when it comes to, hey, you know, we're here to do some tips and tricks or uh presentation on you know sheet metal or assemblies or you know, whatever it may be, um, not to sell things.

Roopinder 8:08

I

When Conferences Turn Into Sales

Roopinder 8:09

saw the I saw it sort of evolve into something other than a pure user group. I I I've uh attended many many SolidWorks conferences as well as autodesk uh AUs and uh others too, uh including including Onshape, actually, and uh and and others and several CATIA user groups, and I've seen them develop. Well, I gotta say, the CATIA user group is still a pure user group. The uh yeah, what do they call that one?

Richard Doyle 8:38

Uh COE. CATIA Operator Exchange.

Roopinder 8:43

C O E still still owned by opera, still owned by users, still run by users, and uh, you know, they keep trying to keep, I mean they threw me out once because I was a reporter because they didn't want to, they they didn't want to uh you know have any any junk about uh about CATIA being out there in the press. Nevertheless, I was impressed with them because they were so like this this is for the users, you know, and and but I saw this happening at AU, specifically AU. Autodesk started out as a for the users, and it was always about they had a top gun types involved with uh they had uh top 10 lists, you know, they had uh classes for the users. That's what Lynn Allen you know spent quite a bit of almost all of her career there until the end uh with Autodesk. And she was like, I called her the queen of cats. She was rain on the stage, she would, you know, everybody would love her classes, her tips classes were like, oh, they were um standing remote, right? And and then I saw it evolved into like where it became it became a place where Autodesk could sell users on their verticals, right? They would use it, they they knew AutoCAD users were there to to help them learn AutoCAD better, but they wanted them to switch to the user. So it was it was, I wouldn't say a relentless pitch, but a distinct pitch to like, okay, you gotta move to the verticals, otherwise you're just a dumbass may not be the right word, but you know, you did you gotta you gotta get out, you gotta get in there and get in with our it was also profit motivated, and I didn't feel that was right. And I saw that's also with 3D experience. Remember, were you there with Monica Mengini was was the CMO? Yes, yeah, yeah. Okay, right. And then she took over the stage. I'll uh oh okay, go ahead, go ahead.

Richard Doyle 10:35

Well, I've I there I've got a great story about Monica. Um, so we went to what uh my only trip to the uh to the Vélizy campus.

Roopinder 10:43

Yeah, by the way, you know this is being recorded, right? And yeah, unless you tell me otherwise, I'm gonna keep everything on record.

unknown 10:49

Okay.

Richard Doyle 10:50

No, this is this is actually a good story, and and it kind of goes back back to co and and some of the other things. Um, so I almost got involved with co. And almost got involved with all of the other desk so verticals when it came to user groups. So there was a time when Monica stood up and she stood up in front of all of us in this big huge marketing meeting. Uh at that point, I was, you know, I was under marketing, and uh she started talking about user groups, and at one point she pointed to me and she said, just do what Richard does, and that was it. And she walked off the stage. Well uh I had, I don't know if you know Cecile Doan, but um, she used to be a big wig at uh at uh Katia, and she was also involved with with Co. in some of those things, and she talked to me about moving me into a worldwide position and you know, over in all these different groups and all of these and all of the articles, and then she left the company or or moved on, and and so that didn't happen. And then another vice president invited me to a meeting in uh I think it was Providence, Rhode Island, uh, because she had seen uh she had seen some unhappiness in me with the way that the user groups were going. And so we sat down for a couple hours and and she said the same things to me, you know, we see you as as as you know encompassing the entire Dassault Systèmes entire d and and all over the world. And then she got sick and had to leave the company. So I never did get to I never did get the worldwide um you know verticals through the whole desot systems that I wanted, um which is unfortunate. I I think I might still be there if that well actually I'd be retired by now, but yeah, uh I might have still been there for a few more years.

CEOs And The 3DExperience Push

Roopinder 12:38

I suspected that uh John McEleney was also very much at you know SolidWorks' first brand guy, and uh but during the takeover, I think he was very resistant to becoming a DASO systems guy. And uh and I think I there was a meeting that he had with Bernard Charles. And then right after that, he was not at SolidWorks, right? So I I always took about it. My interpretation was that was that he was sticking up for SolidWorks and wanted SolidWorks to be independent. Bernard did not see it that way, and he was and and uh he was let go, and they brought in actually, if I may say, somebody more compliant. That was Jeff Jeff Ray came onto the scene, right? And and that that account has never been disputed, it's never been confirmed, but it's never been disputed. So I'm going with it.

Richard Doyle 13:32

I I loved Jeff Ray. Jeff Ray was honestly my favorite CEO um for a couple of reasons. Number one, and I've written about this um on LinkedIn. Uh he and I did some some traveling through Texas. He came down to you do some user group meetings. And I think we were in San Antonio and we stopped for for some Tex Mex lunch. And uh, you know, like any good CEO, he was asking me about about the job and how things are going. And he said, Is there anything we can do to you know to make your life better? I said, you know, at that time I was a contract employee, and I said, Well, yeah, you know, I'd love to be a full-time employee. And he was just shocked that I wasn't already. I'd been a contractor for a couple of years, actually. And within two weeks, I was a full-time employee. Oh, okay. So, so you know, kudos, you know, great, great for him. Yeah, I also feel kind of bad for him. I'm not sure he was compliant, I think he was compelled. And I always go back to one particular moment, I think it was SolidWorks World 2010 in San Antonio, when he stood on that stage and said, We have to kill SolidWorks before somebody else can.

Roopinder 14:38

Oh, that's that was famous. That was famous.

Richard Doyle 14:40

Oh my goodness, my heart sank when I heard that. I couldn't believe I was hearing that from Jeff. Um, but again, I I think he was compelled. Um, yeah.

Roopinder 14:54

Another and and then another thing that that that I recall I think he tried to clarify what he meant was the version of SolidWorks as we know it was going to go away in turn in favor of something that was more modern, if I could say that, or or more Dassault Systèmes oriented. But yeah, it wasn't like it was gonna go away completely, correct?

Richard Doyle 15:14

No, well, I'm not sure because what they had at the time, if you remember, what they had at the time was something called mechanical conceptual or something similar to that, yes, which you know went out into some sort of beta testing and eventually they killed that whole thing, it never got commercialized, as far as I know. Yeah, so I think that you know, between the statement and what they had in the offering at that moment, uh that people saw and went, Oh my god, you you're gonna kill SolidWorks, and it's just gonna kill SOLIDWORKS.

Roopinder 15:44

Did he so did he say that before they assembled multitude, the users?

Richard Doyle 15:49

Yes, that was from the main stage at SolidWorks World.

Roopinder 15:52

Oh my god. Okay, so that not just your heart sank, but anybody who's a SolidWorks user would be.

Richard Doyle 15:59

I think I'd I'd love to go back. I'd love to go back and look at the Twitter feed at that moment.

Roopinder 16:04

Yeah, yeah. Oh, I the press ran with it. The press was like all over it. Uh Deelip Menizes, I don't know if you'd remember Deelip, he would he commented on it.

Richard Doyle 16:14

He was yeah, yeah, it was uh there was a there was another another instance with Jeff that I think also portended uh a lot of this. Um I I think he was doing like a like a quick news conference kind of thing at SolidWorks World. Somebody asked the question, you know, what do you have to say about the deso efication of SOLIDWORKS? And he turned around and he said, You know what? Nobody asks what about the SOLIDWORKS of Dassault. Yeah, I think Dassault heard that and said, Hold my beer.

Roopinder 16:47

Yeah, hold my wine. That have sort of offended them, I suppose, right?

Richard Doyle 16:51

That they were going to be I I would I would think so.

Roopinder 16:54

Katia, by all I would say, by to just to be really fair and objective, I think Katia is this uh I don't know if you quarrel this a superior CAD product, right? In the eyes of me, right? Right. So it did not behoove them to to uh admit to uh you know what's this mainstream product? No, no way, it's not yeah. Okay, we we want it, it's useful, it makes money, but no, no, this is we're a Dassault company. I can totally see that.

Richard Doyle 17:22

Yeah, and you know, there was there was a time where there was a lot of um uh what you call it, a lot of data behind uh CATIA that could have been used in SOLIDWORKS, and they were told no, no, can't do that.

Roopinder 17:36

Uh so what exactly transpired then? You were you were committed to uh how should I say promote the SolidWorks brands or the SolidWorks product, and you said it went was starting to go in a different direction. You still like Jeff Ray though, and and then his what was his predecessor? Bernard Sicot, Bertrand Sicot, that's it.

Richard Doyle 17:57

Again, another one of my favorites. Um again, I wrote about I don't know if you've seen any of the LinkedIn posts that I've been doing this year.

Roopinder 18:05

I'm reading them, hey, and I gotta tell you, I'm really enjoying them. I think you've uh you've you've uh you've you've talked to a lot of users and have them you know tell their story. It's like what I'm doing.

Richard Doyle 18:17

I'm just writing some things.

Layoffs Debt And A New Job

Richard Doyle 18:18

Basically, I mean it's really the only outlet that I have left, um, other than X. So I'm planning to retire at the end of this year. Um, I'm trying to work myself through the incredible amount of debt that I racked up, you know, after six months off. Um, and even before, even before I got laid off at Onshape, um, in June of I think it was 2023. So I had planned to retire at the end of 2024.

Roopinder 18:41

You were the user user group guy at Onshape.

Richard Doyle 18:44

Yeah, uh yeah, that's another story too. But okay, this was just after the pandemic was starting to starting to uh you know, everybody was getting back to business. In June of 23, my truck got stolen right from my apartment complex, and it was fully paid off. Um, it was gonna be my you know my forever vehicle. So I didn't think much about it at the time. I didn't want to, but I financed another car. I had to, so I picked up uh you know a quick four-year loan, and I told my my manager, I said, okay, you know, the the end of 24 isn't gonna be it. Now I'm gonna retire at the end of 25. And everybody was seemed seemed happy with that. Well, it was just two months later that they laid me off. Um, and it took me six months to find another job. Um, I don't know if it's ageism, I don't know what it was. I did an awful lot of interviews for jobs that I was wholly qualified for, uh, and ended up ended up taking a design job here in in Las Vegas, Henderson, actually. Um and I took a 50% pay cut. Damn it.

Roopinder 19:46

So this is so you know, you know, Edson Gebo. Oh, sure. Yeah, I've known Ed for years. I had we've had him on the show, and he had a similar situation. He after he was laid off for Mont Company, supremely talented, right? A power user if there ever was one, right? And and he's suffered for months without any even any feedback, right? He'd been send out you know, thousand, you know how you do it, thousand resumes, nobody could nobody answers. And I couldn't be any more qualified. There couldn't be anybody more qualified for a SOLIDWORKS position than him.

Richard Doyle 20:19

Yeah, well, I've I finally got lucky. I I ended up at a place Extreme Manufacturing, uh Ahern Engineering, it's the Ahern family of companies, uh, run by Don Ahern, great guy, um, super guy, owns a lot of stuff here in in Las Vegas. He's got a hotel.

Roopinder 20:36

Doing mechanical design?

Richard Doyle 20:38

Yeah, I'm doing mechanical design.

Staying Sharp In CAD Tools

Richard Doyle 20:40

Okay. Um, using all our works eight hours a day. And uh to all those folks that over the years I said, well, if it's slowing down or it's crashing, that's probably your fault. I apologize. Now that I'm using it on a regular basis, I can see some of the frustrations that that users come up with. I don't know.

Roopinder 20:59

Um you were actually not just a user group guy, you were actually a user. So that's that's the only way you got a job as a SolidWorks.

Speaker 3 21:06

Yeah, well, yeah.

Richard Doyle 21:07

I started yeah, I started using SolidWorks in '97. Um yeah, and I used it up up up until you know, until I hired on at SolidWorks. And then when I did, when I put together presentations, I always did all my own model. I didn't didn't download any of the company assets or anything. Um because I loved doing cat. Um and so you know that kept my skills up. It you know, I always did beta testing. I always came, you know, looked at the new releases. I read the the what's new manuals line by line by line by line, trying to find those little those little nuggets that that don't make impress, but that I could put into a presentation that I used to call what's really new in SolidWorks. Uh uh, until marketing made me change it to what else is new in SolidWorks.

Roopinder 21:52

I get a little more credit here because uh, you know how they say you always envy in others what you don't have in yourself. And uh I was a solid, I was an AutoCAD and Mechanical Desktop expert. In fact, I taught classes in those in the with using those products. And uh, but as soon as I got into publishing, it was like a sh decline in my in my uh abilities to use a product, and I never was able to get that back. I you kept it up, which is why I'm commending you for it. But these days, you know what? If I have to go use a CAD product, let's say I'm making something in my workshop. Oh my god, it's really difficult for me. Yeah, stuff so much has changed. I I haven't kept up with it. Like you know, it really has.

Richard Doyle 22:36

And and I I guess I want to say maybe I'm lucky but unlucky. We're still with using SolidWorks 2022 right now. So the last real the rest last version I had had any real experience on was 2018. So things haven't changed that much. Um, we're getting ready to move up to I believe it's 2025, and I've looked through all the what's new manuals. There's not a whole lot there that you know that we're gonna see, but you know, we're paying the subscription, so we might as well might as well upgrade it. Um I still have I have an on-shape, a free on-shape account, too. And uh that's actually my preferred CAD system uh at this time. Um if I if I were to start a code saying that I gotta I gotta read your eyes.

Roopinder 23:18

I know you're a poker player, so I won't be able to read your eyes, but do you really mean that? Or are you just just are you just like saying that out of spite for SolidWorks?

Richard Doyle 23:26

No, no, no, no. I I I honestly mean that. Um, some of the things in on shape the number one thing in on shape that that beats SolidWorks hands down is the way they handle mating. I mean, if you can if you can make objects together with one mate instead of four, yeah, you you save an incredible amount of time. Um now I've got the free version, so I you know I can't do a lot of rendering and things like that, but you know, I still want to work on the uh probably never gonna be able to afford to build the tiny house now. That was always always a dream of mine, but that's not gonna stop me from trying to design it uh and having some fun with that. So um, you know, my retirement plan is to to have some fun with CAD and visit every national park uh in the country um with my brand new tent and all my camping

Onshape User Groups Meet The Pandemic

Richard Doyle 24:15

equipment. I want to design my tiny house, I'll do some LinkedIn things, I'll do some Twitter things. He said, Yeah, yeah, yeah, sure. No problem. So they hooked me up with the account. Uh, I guess a couple of weeks later, after he had talked to Joe Dunn, he called me back and said, Hey, why don't you come to work for us and start putting together a user group network? And at first I told him no. I said, John, I came out here to semi-retire. I want to find a nice, easy job and just settle down. And in fact, I did find a quick design job that didn't work out. They uh I talked my way into it, they were looking for an industrial designer. I told them I'm not an industrial designer, but there's so many more things I can do for you.

Roopinder 24:53

Oh, that means you have to do a lot of surfacing, right?

Richard Doyle 24:55

So yeah, and it just didn't work out, and uh, so that was about a month. So I called John back and I said, Hey, look, all right, let's do this. Um, within six months, we had 27 groups formed. And of those groups within the five that that the rest of that year, those groups, all of them had had at least two meetings, and some of them had had three meetings, and things were I thought were going really well. I was looking, I was looking easy at 50 user groups after the after the first year and a half or so, yeah, and then the pandemic hit.

Roopinder 25:24

Actually brought them back because I I thought they were like sort of declining, not not just because you left, a little bit, but but the user groups were like not a factor in a lot of things, except for the big user group conference at here. Yeah, yeah. I mean the modern modern user just doesn't go for it. It doesn't go to them, right? So it's a bunch of guys like us that like to go to them now.

Richard Doyle 25:50

Yeah, yeah. That's and you know that I think that's probably been the case for for the entire time that user groups have have been around. It's mostly the the more mature users, you know, you you'll get a couple of the newbies, but I I think a lot of the beginners are even afraid to go to a user group meeting. Um, they're afraid maybe they don't fit in, maybe this isn't the place for them. And um, if you're listening out there, new users, that's not true. Get out to a user group meeting, you'll learn a lot, and you'll meet some great people. Um, but I remember exactly I remember exactly where I was in Los Angeles um when they when everything started shutting down. We had had a meeting that night. Um, we were all fist bumping at that point, so you know, but we weren't overly concerned. In fact, I thought the pandemic would be over within a couple of weeks. I didn't think it was going to be a worldwide thing, but there was a meeting that was supposed to be scheduled for the next night, and I called the group leader down there, and we both agreed, probably not a good idea to go through with that meeting. Um, I checked my flight, which was uh out the next the next evening, it had already been canceled. So I rented a car and I drove home. And that was the last on-shape user group meeting, live on shape user group meeting we ever had. Uh now we did switch over to doing some online groups. Um, we did well over a hundred online meetings, but they just weren't the same. You know, we had some good ones, we had some bad ones, but I mean, you can't uh I don't know if you remember. I I actually when I won the uh the community award at COFES, yeah, and I gave my speech, and I think I ended with the line that you can't have a meaningful conversation in 140 characters or less, and you can't shake hands with an avatar.

Roopinder 27:26

And let's have a beer with them, right? Yeah, I mean it was it was uh a best CY user group meeting, I thought, with a camaraderie that people had when they went out for pizza afterwards. I mean, I had great meetings.

Richard Doyle 27:38

That's really what and that's the thing, and and that's what I really loved about the group. So that's what I tried to, you know, lead by example and and and always be that you know that outgoing person and introduce people as much as I possibly could. Um, I I don't know if you read the Betty Baker story on LinkedIn, but one of my favorite uh favorite stories. So Betty runs the group up in La Crosse, Wisconsin. He it's called Leewa, uh lacrosse, Eau Claire, and Wynona. Um and we were we were at an event at Gillette Stadium, uh SolidWorks event. I think it was a launch event, probably, you know, new release kind of thing. And I was milling around, milling around in the lobby of the of the hotel there, and when Betty showed up. And so she was hungry. I had I had something going on. I had a meeting or something that I had to get to. So I uh just it was just my nature. I thought, well, I'll just bring her to some SolidWorks, you know, some fellow user group leaders and and drop her off. Well, she was she was shocked. She didn't expect me to just leave her there with people she didn't know. And again, I mean, in my mind, every they all knew each other, you know. Um, but I just dropped her off there uh with a couple of guys, Steve Calvert and Michael Lord, and uh and yeah, she got over the initial shock and they've all become best friends, and she loves to tell that story too.

Roopinder 28:53

So um okay, but yeah, you brought people together, right? You brought people together. Shake hands and yeah, and and have uh yeah, break bread and drink beer, of course, right?

Richard Doyle 29:06

So just when the pandemic had finally ended, and my manager and I were both starting to talk about getting these live groups going back up again. I was actually reaching out to some of the uh the previous group the group leaders to see, you know, see what their their temperature was on the whole thing. And uh I I I think I know who was behind the decision, but I won't say. But the decision was we're not gonna do user groups, and I was laid off, and so was my manager, both of us at the same time.

Roopinder 29:35

Um, so that was a complete surprise. Yeah, really surprised. Uh I I didn't I didn't know it had officially ended because I was just at a uh Bay Area, it was a separate company, a hardware, hardware startup group, and they had a big thing at a at a uh at a brewery. Uh and I and it was it was packed, I gotta say. Yep. I thought they I thought you guys had done with are done with this, and they are here it is a ton of people. I mean, I think it was maybe it was just the beer and it was at a brewery.

Richard Doyle 30:08

Well, that's that's certainly part of it, and the brewery is a is the second part. No, those are those are marketing events. I mean, they're they certainly bring customers in, but they also bring prospects in. Uh they bring companies in to do presentations on how great you know on shape has been. Um I I wouldn't call it a user group meeting, um, but they're I think they're fantastic events. I I got to attend a couple of them, what do they call MDA um or something like that? So I attended a couple of them, and they you know, they are really good events, um, but they do a lot, a lot of marketing up front and a lot of contacting people. So, you know, they unlike a regular user, you know, a user group meeting where the user group leader is the guy that has to, you know, get everybody to show up, and he's usually got a database of his members. And and you know, back when I was with Solvers, we would help with a targeted email once a year, that kind of thing to keep going. But you know, there wasn't a big marketing push for the for the quarterly user group meetings where you know I always said if if if the menu includes uh cherry, tomato, bruchetta, and you know, some of those other fancy foods, it's not a user group meeting.

Roopinder 31:19

Um that should be it's gotta be pizza, pizza and beer. I I think Autodesk one time tried to oh Autodesk because it's headquartered in M arin County, close to wine country. They tried it with wine one time. They had a the the featured drink was wine. You could tell most of the users were like, where's the beer?

Richard Doyle 31:42

No, it's funny. I was I was pretty adamant about not serving alcohol at user group meetings um for a couple of reasons. Number one, I didn't think it was I didn't think it was appropriate

Online Poker And WSOP Plan

Richard Doyle 31:52

for somebody to get drunk at a user group meeting. And I'm not saying that everybody would, maybe you know, everybody would have one or two, but there's always that one or two people in there that you know shoot them down. And secondly, since we were funding the user group meetings, um, I didn't want anything to do with the liability on that. The liability, of course. Hey, look at that. The power just went back on.

Roopinder 32:12

All right.

Speaker 3 32:14

Hey, how about that?

Richard Doyle 32:15

I can play my four o'clock poker tournament now.

Roopinder 32:18

Oh, okay. So you do online stuff uh all the time now.

Richard Doyle 32:22

Well, yeah, I'm so my my I'm hyper focused this year on paying off all my debts. Like I say, I I incurred quite a few of them. So I play online five dollar and ten dollar tournaments. Um, and I usually I do do well enough that I don't have to to add any money to the bank roll, but I'm you know I'm not making a ton of money. Um I think with the the ITM in the money, my percentage is about 27%, which is on the high side. Um, but again, I'm playing with these online smaller, smaller entry tournaments, you're playing against people that really aren't that good at poker. So uh as long as you exhibit some patience and and the uh the occasional well-timed aggression, um, you know, it's it's it's generally easy not to have to to feed the bankroll. Um, you know, a few years ago when I was playing hundred dollar online terms, I actually I actually won a couple of thirty five hundred dollar first prizes.

Roopinder 33:16

Um, so it can be done, but one of the ones I hear about, I'm not a I'm not a player, but uh I hear about the ones that are offer really big prizes, I think, right? Uh the ones that are televised.

Richard Doyle 33:28

I think so there's there's you know there's circuits all over the world. The big one is the World Series of Poker. Okay, and that's the that's the one they have here in Las Vegas. Um, it's every year. In fact, it's starting uh, I want to say late May. Oh, I can only afford to play one tournament this year. All you have to do is pay the money. Um they have uh close to a hundred tournaments during the yeah, during the couple of months that it runs. Um the the cheapest tournament, that's the one I'm gonna play in this year. It's called the Gladiator, and it's a $300 entry. Um, but they generally get anywhere between 15 and 20,000 entries on that tournament. So the the prize money turns out to be pretty pretty pretty good. Now the main events, you know, that's the big one, that's ten thousand dollars to enter that tournament.

Roopinder 34:16

Entry fee is 10k?

Richard Doyle 34:18

10,000, and they still get 9,500 players in that tournament. Do they sell out? Are they well? No, that's not the max. That's that's just about the average number of uh players that are that are playing in that top prize for that is generally eight to nine million dollars. Oh, that's big money.

Roopinder 34:35

That's a lot of trucks.

Richard Doyle 34:37

Yep. I'm I've actually qualified for a for an online tournament to get a free entry into that main event.

Roopinder 34:44

And what you have to do to qualify besides, but you said a lot of money, but what else? Do they want to get some skills?

Richard Doyle 34:51

I won a tournament online, uh, a tournament for the for the free entry into that. And that happens next Sunday. So I'm gonna be hyper focused on uh on that tournament. And I I suspect close to four or five thousand players in that tournament. Um and they're only giving out one seat, so we'll see how that goes. Yeah, all right.

Roopinder 35:12

Well, good good luck with that. That's great.

Richard Doyle 35:14

Appreciate

Wrap-Up And Goodbyes

Richard Doyle 35:15

it.

Roopinder 35:15

Yeah, that's great. All right, it's been really good talking to you. Great catching up. I hope to talk to you soon.

Richard Doyle 35:20

It's been my pleasure. Yep, thanks for being yep, you betcha. Bye, Richard. Bye. Bye.

Roopinder 35:28

And that concludes this episode of the Masters of Technology Happy Hour. I hope you enjoyed our chat and will join me as we talk to some of the most interesting people in the design and engineering software community.