Convince Your Manager
Approval to attend a technical symposium is easier to get with specifics: what it costs, what comes back, and a plan. This page is for engineers, architects, researchers and software developers who want to attend CDFAM and need sign-off from a manager or budget holder.
Select an Edition
No edition selected. The email and cost table below use placeholders.
The Email
Select an edition above to fill in the event details. The highlighted placeholders are yours to edit after pasting: manager name, project, total cost and your name.
Subject:
What You Bring Back
Practitioner Talks
Two days of presentations on a single stage: every attendee sees every talk. The speakers are the engineers and researchers who built the work, presenting case studies rather than vendor keynotes, with enough depth to judge whether a method transfers to your own problems.
Coverage Across Fields
Speakers work at the intersection of computational design, AI and machine learning across engineering and architecture. Recent talks include Brian Ringley of Boston Dynamics on authoring autonomy, Ryan McClelland of NASA Goddard on AI-accelerated mission development and Raul Llamas of Airbus on GPU topology optimization.
A Shortlist to Evaluate
Most talks show deployed methods and the tooling behind them. The practical output is a shortlist of methods, tools and vendors to evaluate against current projects, with a named contact for each.
The Recorded Archive
Every talk is recorded, transcribed and published to a searchable presentation index. A written summary for the team is straightforward to assemble after the event, and a manager can review past programs before approving the trip.
Previous Presenters
What It Costs
| Item | Figure |
|---|---|
| Registration | Select an edition above. |
| Travel and Accommodation | Your own figures, depending on origin. |
| Meals | Provided during symposium days. |
Registration policy, including academic and team rates, is on the registration page.
Questions
Registration covers a single-stage two-day program, every talk included, with meals during the day, at a cost comparable to one day of paid training. The return is a shortlist of methods and tools evaluated against your current work, direct contact with the people who built them, and a written summary the whole team can use. The sample email above states this in a form a manager can approve.
Read a past program in the archive and note three to five talks that map to your current project. Put a figure on the whole trip: registration, travel, accommodation and meals. A specific plan with a known cost is approved faster than a general request.
Engineers, architects, researchers and software developers working with computational design, simulation, AI and machine learning. Recent programs ranged from architected materials to aerostructures to building-scale systems. Talks assume technical literacy.
Recordings and searchable transcripts of talks from editions back to 2023, including speakers from NASA, Boston Dynamics, Airbus and nTop. Each talk has its own page with video and transcript, and the full index is searchable at cdfam.com/presentation-index.
Barcelona 2027 has a team rate of 550 euros per person for groups of four or more, available until April 1, 2027. Team rates for NYC and Tokyo 2027 have not been published yet.
Recordings cover the talks themselves. Questions to the speakers, and conversations with attendees working on comparable problems, happen at the event, and those contacts are part of what you bring back.
Registration for Barcelona 2027 is open at cdfam.com/register, with early bird pricing until January 1, 2027 and academic and team rates on the same page. Registration for NYC and Tokyo 2027 has not opened; the registration page takes signups for updates in the meantime.
Make the Case
Pick an edition, put a figure on the trip, and send the email.