Month: February 2016

Juan starts off by telling us a little about himself and what he thinks about The 5th Wave. Juan then tells us how he got started with Access and how he turned his knowledge of Access into a business. He then shares what it was like hiring and working with an employee with a disability. Juan shares some business tips including how to get started, how to use Google Ads, and how to get your potential clients to “yes”. He goes a bit deeper into running your own business by sharing how he uses contractors and how he diversifies his client base. The conversation closes with how to have longevity as a consultant.

Links

• ITImpact.com
• AccessExperts.com
• AccessUserGroups.org
• Netflix Daredevil Season 2 Trailer

Bio

Juan is the President of IT Impact, a custom software consulting firm with 14 employees and a focus on Access with SQL Server. He has been named an Official Access MVP for the last five years and is a frequent author on the official Microsoft Access blog as well as the first Access Expert Developer to be profiled on their site.

He is the founder of Access User Groups with groups throughout the USA and the world, where users go online to discuss monthly topics on Access. Juan frequently travels throughout the US and the Caribbean hosting workshops and mentoring professionals in the industry. He is an avid poker player and loves to travel. He can be found on twitter at jsoto22 and on LinkedIn.

We start off this episode by digging into Erez’s college past, his business degree, and how the need for income brought him into building software. He also shares with us how he started working on websites and taught himself how to program. Cecil asks Erez how he got into working with a startup while at college, and how much value he gained from that experience.

Erez talks about his Software Company, Taskmastics. Erez tells the story of how they went through multiple iterations to get to a quality product. Cecil asks what it’s like building the next version of Taskmastics on unreleased versions of ASP .NET Core. We discuss how it affects clients, timelines and more.

Erez gets into his pull request to the ASP .NET Core the merits of contributing to open source. He then goes into his experience working with the ASP .NET team and getting his changes merged. Erez is a pretty hands on type of guy. He talks to us about building his own trailer for his car. Then his hobby of woodworking and all the cool things he’s built.

Links

• Critical Role
• Taskmatics
• Wix
• Aurelia
• Bootstrap

Bio

Erez Testiler is an experienced developer, specializing in Microsoft technologies. He has worked in a wide range of areas such as healthcare, consumer electronics and e-commerce. He’s designed and built scaled-out web applications, multithreaded desktop applications and high throughput backend services. His latest venture is architecting solutions for JBS and working on Taskmatics Scheduler. After work he enjoys spending time with his wife, baby girl and ferocious pug. He also enjoys biking and kayaking.

Dave starts off talking about the early days of starting user groups and developer communities in the early days. Our panel discusses the some concerns that user group leaders have to address today. Cecil asks about the potential for improved user group collaboration. Richie talks about having to be ready for volunteers. Dave talks about getting Erik involved with South Florida Code Camp (SFLCC). Cecil asks Dave and Erik to talk about SFLCC. Dave starts off with the history of code camps. We dig into the benefits of attending an event like SFLCC. We discus meeting experts and stepping up to become the experts ourselves. Cecil asks what does it take to put on an event like SFLCC. Erik talks about his experience helping out for the first time. Dave and Erik discuss the various topic tracks at the event. Finally, Richie asks Dave what advice would he give to someone wanting to start a new user group today

Links

• FlaDotNet
• Computer Ways
• AgileThought
• South Florida Code Camp
• Wordcamp Miami
• BocaJS
• Code Camp Manifesto

Bio

Dave Noderer is CEO / President and founder of Computer Ways, Inc., a Microsoft Partner. Dave co-founded FlaDotNet.com User Groups in 2001 and still runs a monthly Coders Café meetup. He spent 3 years as an officer and director of INETA (International .NET Association) where he oversaw the enrollment and support of hundreds of .net user groups worldwide. Dave has also been organizing the annual South Florida Code Camp since 2004 which attracts 1000 developers for a day of free software developer education and networking.

On the non-technical front Dave has been key volunteer with the Deerfield Beach Historical Society, Kiwanis of Deerfield Beach, Deerfield Beach / Lighthouse Point Relay for Life, Hillsboro Lighthouse Preservation Society and the Deerfield Beach Chamber.

Erik Lindgren is a former teacher and software engineer who now focuses on software “delivery” and Agile coaching.  He lives in South Florida, works in Tampa, and spends a lot of time on the road.  For fun, Erik likes to travel and learn languages.  A native speaker of English and Swedish, Erik also speaks French and Spanish passably well, and a smattering of 5 other languages.  Say something to him in Russian or Mandarin and see how he reacts!  For a more professional view of Erik, please see www.linkedin.com/in/jeriklindgren.

This episode was recorded on January 7th, 2016.