I was there last night. Turn out was pretty good with a couple dozen or so folks. Most of the audience was from the Almaden Cycle Touring Club.
The presentation focused on construction and benefits of the IsoGrid/ExoGrid frames. Bill started with an explanation of how carbon tubes/frames are manufactured, then moved on to discuss the IsoGrid construction that Santana licenses from VyTek for their carbon frames. He discussed the benefits of the titanium tipped IsoGrid tubes used on the Santan Beyond (lighter and stronger joints than all carbon), as well as the Bilaminate damping effect you get on the Beyond and the ExoGrid models. Basically by laminating two materials (titanium and carbon fiber in this case) with different resonant characteristics you get a frame that dampens vibrations better than all carbon. And that's even more of a benefit than the weight savings and stiffness -- you fatigue less and therefore perform better as the ride wears on.
Bill had various cutaway tubes and couplers (very slick couplers) to show, plus five or so tandems including a Beyond and a Titanium ExoGrid. The tandems were gorgeous.
I found the presentation interesting since it was all new to me. But my impression is that it is the same stuff he's been showing at the various trade and bike shows.
The evening finished off with wine, cheese and mingling. Bill was very friendly and happy to answer any and all questions and he was busy with questions since it was a pretty bike geeky crowd. All in all a pleasant event.
A couple random notes / observations:
When Gates first came out with the belt drive Bill was initially skeptical. But he says that their tests have shown the belt to be as efficient as a chain. Or at least they can't detect it being any less efficient than a chain.
He mentioned the frame flex testing device but didn't really share any data other than they've measured a lot of bikes and Santanas hold up very well in comparison to the competition. When designing new fames they use the Sovereign as the benchmark for lateral stiffness.
Their top selling model in terms of unit volume is the Beyond. So their high end model is their volume leader.
FYI TandemGeek has a review of the Beyond in his blog that has some additional details on the IsoGrid technology:
http://tandemgeek.wordpress.com/2011...beyond-review/