 From Boston, Massachusetts, it's theCUBE. Covering LiveWorks 18, brought to you by PTC. Welcome back to the seaport in Boston, everybody. This is day one of the LiveWorks show. PTC's big IOT user conference, but it's much, much more than that. My name's Dave Vellante, Stu Miniman. You're watching theCUBE, the leader in live tech coverage. It's really our pleasure to have Devin Cleary here as the director of events at PTC. Dave, thanks so much for coming on theCUBE and thanks for putting together such a great show. Oh, thank you so much for having me. This is great. You're welcome. So, you know, I say it's a user conference, but it's so much more. I mean, talk about what your intent was and what you've created you and your team at LiveWorks. Absolutely. So for us, we take a step back in corporate events and we're really trying to bring sort of a unique flair to the corporate events world. You know, in a nutshell, we at PTC have a 25 year legacy of doing really powerful user events and it was really an inspiration two years ago to kind of shake the mold and again, no pun intended, be disruptive in the marketplace. So for us, we sort of coined a new term or strategy that we call industry inclusiveness and this is something where we wanted to sort of break down the four walls of the company and invite industry influencers, individuals who are leading the charge inclusive of actual competitors because for us, it's better together and the whole story and talk track around LiveWorks is collaboration accelerates innovation. So for us, we want to make sure we embrace a lot of different people, walks of life and diversity and the intent is to create a one time a week a year successful program that focuses and profiles nine of the most disruptive technologies on the planet. So this is everything from robotics to AI to IoT to AR, blockchain and so much more. And for us, this is really the essence of what LiveWorks has become. Which again, for us, we want everyone to know that this event is sort of the world's most respected digital transformation conference. So a couple things I want to point out. Well, it's over 6,000 people here. The kickoff was in the theater of the round. I've only seen that we do over 100 events every year. I've only seen it done twice and it's worked both times. I think it's a home run when you do the theater and around. The intro was, I tweeted out this morning, it was like an Olympic opening ceremony. I mean, really, where do you get your inspiration from that? So you know what, for us, I have a really amazing team that works with me and collaboratively and for us, we really want to sort of challenge the status quo. So we always look for things actually outside of the tech bubble, if you will. We look at music, we look at fashion, we look at art, we look at a lot of pop culture sort of references and that sort of stems our ideas of how we sort of nurture and create what we call the apex or live works or what you saw this morning. And for us, I'm all about what I call delight moments. So these are moments that, frankly, are sort of above and beyond the core content of what the conference offers and just making people have a great time. Showmanship and entertainment is just as much important as the core again content that we offer at LiveWorks. Yeah, Deb, you've got a big tent here with a lot of different topics. There's a show I go to, we talk about the random collision of unusual suspects, which this reminded me of. Can you talk a little bit about how in these diverse communities yet, we should see some overlap and some bumping together? Yeah, absolutely. So again, with LiveWorks and sort of again, profiling these nine to 10 most disruptive technologies out there, we're always trying to recruit people that are very diverse from various backgrounds. One specific goal that we have, just from a geographic perspective, is making sure that over half our audience is from international markets outside of the United States. So again, when your bumping shoulders are walking in the halls of everywhere around us, you're guaranteed to hear someone that comes from a different walk of life, a different experience, a different educational background, and that adds a lot of value to the overall conference. Now again, we target everyone from administrators to engineers, developers and more because really this show runs the gamut on everything from product design and sort of the ideas of what you want to do all the way through service, manufacturing. It is a full scope of Industry 4.0. So to your point, there's a lot of intersection and a lot of overlapping because every company, every person, every individual wants to experience and learn how to embrace what we call disruptive tech. You know, again, we do a lot of shows and the vast majority, when someone like you guys brings us to a show, they want to showcase their products and basically pimp up their own stuff, you chose a different approach. First of all, thank you for that. So this today has been all about thought leadership. It reminds, Stu and I were saying, it reminds us of some of the stuff we do with MIT. We have professors, you have thought leaders talking about not, kind of frankly, some boring products. And it's not a sales pitch. Right, it's not a sales pitch. But why that decision and what's your vision for where you want to take this thing? Yeah, so again, I would say that a lot of conferences, and this is no offense to my brothers and my sisters in the events world out there, but people are so sick and tired of going to the standard trade show. The days of pipe and drape and aisles of just being pitched to and receiving free stress balls and hiring staff that might not even be employed by the company, but they just frankly look good, those days are completely over. And our audience, the technologists who really matter in this world who are doing a lot of great work, they want that substance and that core content. So for us, it's really a vision about that's embraced and sort of evolved into give back and let the content lead your success. And that is going to help amplify the voice and further the mission. We look at live works as a catalyst well beyond the company that employs me and the people that work for just these companies. We have a vision to make Boston an epicenter, a headquarters, a world renowned attraction for technologists worldwide, knowing this city for IoT and for AR. And for us, we embrace the innovation district as that pallet, that backdrop, that environment to allow us to really accomplish that. So live works is growing exponentially. We experienced double digit growth this year, which is amazing. Starting where I was only with this company two years ago at less than 2,500 attendees and we're at 6,100 right now live on the show floor at live works. So the future is really bright for us and we're embracing this notion of the convention center is only going to be constricting for so long. It's time that we also implode those four walls and we embrace the outside. And what our plans are going forward, which I'm really excited to sort of announce, is we're going to be now becoming more of an industrial innovation week in Boston and taking our plans mainstream. So that means taking the content that we focus on and the partners that we work with and the industry thought leaders and now you start to actually replicate these events throughout the entire seaport. So think of it and again, most of you know South by Southwest. I'm a big fan and an avid follower. Think of it South by Southwest meets industrial and that is the future of this show. Love it and you know, we're thrilled to be part of it and it's palpable. You actually see now in the seaport, you know, we were talking off Kimberley, you can't compete with Silicon Valley in terms of what Silicon Valley does. You shouldn't even try. We're by Coastal. We have an office in Palo Alto. We know it well. It's a unique vortex. But I certainly IoT, you know, blockchain, VR there really is some clear innovation going on here. And so if you can focus on that, you can actually really blossom an ecosystem and that's really what you're doing. Oh, absolutely. And you know, again, PTC has been headquartered here for over 25 years. They're a leader in industrial innovation. They are a company that believes in giving back. We have curated and nurtured through partnerships with Harvard Business School with MIT Innovation Lab, et cetera. We've cultivated some of the greatest startups of our time right now who are creating groundbreaking technology in IoT, in AR that is changing the world. We're even actually doing work right now in our backyard with Boston Children's Hospital, for example, doing incredible work with our before year product and AR that's helping actually find a cure for Alzheimer's. So again, the possibilities are endless and the innovation is limitless. Well, you're the hot company right now. Obviously, you know, growing very rapidly. You're kind of like the comeback kid. You're clearly punching above your weight. The Scott Kirstner article in the Globe was unbelievable. Thank you. I know we're very, shout out to Scott. You got to be thrilled with that. And so, but what's interesting to me, Dev, is you're not, you could ride that wave and just pump up PTC, but you're doing things that will allow you to sustain this as a community member, paying it forward, you know, it's kind of a cliche, but that's what I see. Thoughts? 100%. And you know, again, the way that we sort of frame live works is, I want you to think of PTC as the presenting sponsor. They are an investor in the vision that this team has to carry forward the community and the movement all around industrial innovation. And again, we feel that Boston, being in sort of our headquarters and our backyard, it's important that we're giving back and again, furthering that opportunity to further solidify our right, as a rightful heir of IoT and AR as a city, as a community, and as a state of Massachusetts. Dev, wondering if you can give our audience that didn't come to this event. Quick flavor of what's going on. Flavor, you know, I love to have the Boston food trucks all, you know, right outside, they're a little warm. You know, my friends from the West Coast are like, this isn't warm, but for Boston, it hits summer. But give us a quick tour around what PTC is. Yeah, so we're all about an immersive experience at LiveWorks. You know, again, you're going to have sort of the checklist of what you absolutely need to have at an event to sustain someone's expectations. So the content, the networking, the value. But again, we like to take it a step further and things that I call delight moments. So for example, this year in Extropolis, and Extropolis for those of you at home, that is our sort of expectations shattering, groundbreaking playground for adults in technology. So every corner, every ounce, every inch of this show floor has something to engage, ignite the five senses and tell our story. And one example specifically I love to highlight this year is I've actually created the vision with a whole slew of individuals from PTC and partners and whatnot, something we call the X Factory. Manufacturing is one of the biggest industries and business in the world. Mostly every company at an enterprise level has some sort of manufacturing component to it. And what we wanted to do this year is create the factory of the future. Meaning working with the leaders like McKinsey and again, HeroTech and global brands in Germany who are defining manufacturing and who founded manufacturing in our history, we have partnered with them to say, what does that factory of the future look like? What are companies going to be doing five, 10, 15 years from now? And what can we expect? You're getting that first at LiveWorks, which is awesome. And the whole process is let's not have a standard kiosk. Let's not do a laptop with a video. Let's actually build out a 20,000 square foot industrial factory with multiple stations from digital engineering to service to again, AR induced digital twins and everything else in between. And let's actually have every single attendee create design and manufacture a smart connected product. We're working with our partner, Bell and Howell from a shipping and service and supply chain perspective. And again, we are blowing the roof off this show on that one activation and there's over a hundred in total throughout this entire show this week. So that's a little bit of a flavor of LiveWorks. And beyond that, we do things from everything from a puppy daycare hour to sort of do a high tech, low touch feel. We do incredible food presentations and we're going to be ending with a big bang tomorrow with our closing party called the Mix at Six, which is one of my favorite programs the entire week. And that is actually a superhero themed event where we're actually having a guest host and a personal friend, Paul Rudd, who is the ant man for Marvel. He'll be hosting our event. And the whole notion around superheroes is that we tell everyone this week, unleash your inner superhero. Take advantage of the technology that is on display and realize how it can enable and empower you to now have superhuman powers. So everything from AR giving you the power to see the invisible to IoT helping you give the power to predict the future. Everything is possible and everything is creative at LiveWorks. Well, it's obviously working. And so I'm sure your execs are seeing this going, great, good job, way to go. We got some momentum, let's double down. But back up two years ago, how did you sell this to the folks because we see a lot of guys like, how many leads are we going to get out of? How much revenue are we going to drive? How did you get through that knothole? So let's put it in this perspective. There's a lot of intrinsic and intangible ways to measure the success of a show and the value and the impact brought to a company. One thing I would actually say, I've worked in the tech industry for over six years now. I've been in the events business for over a decade. I've worked for some of the most incredible and impressive and media driven startups in the world right now. PTC though is a very interesting ecosystem. Their executives actually embrace the notion of what I presented first and foremost about again, industry inclusiveness as we call that term. And for us, we have a vision at PTC to be disruptive, to be groundbreaking. If we do not embrace that ourselves as our culture and our business model, how do we hope someone else to believe in the products and the vision and the mission that we set forth in the marketplace? And from that, you got a response if you have, let's do it. So again, am I going to be 100% honest and transparent? Was everyone embracing that 100%? No, but again, I think the proof is in the pudding and I think again, it's a leap of faith in saying, listen, take a chance, be disruptive and see what the product of our fruits of our labor could be. And again, here you have it three years later, triple the size of the audience, tripling the size of the success, seeing multiple customers, multiple partners, multiple industry leaders now attaching themselves to this brand. So for us, LiveWorks is nothing greater than a record-breaking success this year and I'm so excited for the rest of you at home to experience on the live stream. Or again, check out 2019, June 10th through the 13th. June 10th right here, right? Right here again. Dev, well, first of all, thanks so much for having theCUBE here and making us a part of this awesome event and look forward to working with you in the future. Congratulations on all your success. Thank you so much. You're very welcome. Okay, and by the way, check out thecube.net, that's where all the videos here will be, check out siliconangle.com, all the editorial coverage, wikibon.com is where the research is. We're a wrap here from LiveWorks day one, Dave Vellante for Stu Miniman. Thanks so much for watching. We'll see you next time.