Hi SOLIDWORKS Peeps and Bacon Lovers!

Well the time has come for yet another SOLIDWORKS World.  This year it's in LA...west coast...six-hour flight for this guy!  What does that mean?  It means a super early a.m. alarm ‘cuz I live an hour west of Boston but yet close enough to pour on that famed Boston accent at will.  Anyhow, what it really means is I have to get up at 4 a.m., to get out the door by 5 a.m., to get to Logan Airport by 6 a.m., to catch a plane at 7:30 a.m.  Yaaa....coffee will be my best friend that morning...as will the shoulder of the passenger I'll be sitting next to...zzzzzz!

So you might have heard of this bacon phenomenon at SWW a few times.  If you have then awesome!  If you have not then listen up!!!  John Matrishon, Western MA SOLIDWORKS User Group leader and I have built a subculture that is totally surrounded and supported by bacon lovers while at SWW.  The roots of this love affair for bacon was created several years ago by a group of bacon loving gents at SWW 2011, which was also my first SWW.  Only a few in that group have managed to return to SWW every year since but the Bacon Brotherhood lives on.

At SWW 2014, John and I turned this love for bacon into a fun social networking game.  We thought...let's get attendees at SWW to take a selfie with something bacon related; food, a sign, eating bacon, whatever and then post the pic on Twitter.  That gave you exclusive rights to be part of the Bacon Brotherhood but you were not done just yet.  You then had to find either one of us to get your coveted Bacon Brotherhood ribbon to add to your conference pass.  Only then was your mission completed.  What do these ribbons look like?  Behold the 2017 SOLIDWORKS World Bacon Brotherhood Ribbons.  Want one?

Then John and I had a revelation!  Let’s make t-shirts and parade around SWW as if we are the King of Kings of Bacon.  Well, that is surely over imaginative but what we truly wanted to accomplish with our bacon themed madness was to extend the opportunity for attendees to get even more involved.  Last year we found a t-shirt company that would make Bacon Brotherhood shirts, collect the money from the sales of tees, and then distribute the donation contribution back to us so we can give to our two loved charities.  We didn't sell many shirts but we sure sold more than we expected.  Thank you thank you thank you!!!

Let’s see…you get to post on twitter how much you love bacon at SWW, you get to meet people that love bacon at SWW, you can contribute to a few great causes that we both believe in due to our love of bacon……..AND…......you get to meet the King of Kings of Bacon at SWW!!! 

Click this link http://connswug.com/sww17/BaconBrotherhood.pdf  for the official rules, to order shirts, and to read a little more about the Bacon Brotherhood.

See all of you soon in LA and thanks for the years of support,

John & Ed of the BBH