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For many of us in the IT sector, how we do our jobs has changed, likely for the foreseeable future and having to conduct so much of our lives online is bittersweet, since some of us were so close to starting to return to some of the working practices that we once knew.
However, in November the pandemic took a new twist, so we must continue to be vigilant to keep safe, and we must focus on as many positives as we can. So put up some tinsel, pull on your FME socks (yes they exist, they are just very rare and that’s why the FME lizard isn’t letting go of his!) and maybe even have a go at the “12 Days of FME 2021” if you’re feeling competitive!
At 1Spatial the UK FME Division has unsurprisingly seen its biggest year for online FME training. There aren’t many platforms that we haven’t used to conduct training with, although “sorry, I think you’re still on mute” is definitely the most common first statement uttered, no matter what the technology.
Our training delegates have taken a unique peek into our trainer’s lives, and us into theirs. We’ve met cats, children and partners, sometimes not completely with their prior knowledge and I’m sure there are an assortment of extended family members that now know how the AttributeManager works, whether they wanted to or not!
We’ve also reached more people with FME training than we have in the past because online training, with a real human trainer (we are, honest!) means that there’s no extra cost for travel or accommodation. The net result is that we decided that we’ll definitely run training in a more hybrid way in the future and you can see our 2022 FME training calendar here which, all being well, includes some face-to-face venue options in Cambridge and Glasgow, as well as the online courses too.
To make our courses even more appealing we’ve even got a promotion running till the 23rd December, more details here.
One of the interesting outcomes of the large volume of FME training this year has been that we’ve supported a significant number of FME users to achieve their FME Certified Professional accreditation. Attending our accredited training is one of the steps along your journey to securing the accolade and getting yourself a proud place on the Safe Software Certification “Wall of Fame”. One such person was Thomas Butt, who managed to attend FME Desktop Introductory and Advanced Sessions, along with our FME Server Authoring course, all whilst working from the comfort of home. So, if you’d like to have the right to say you’re FME Certified too, drop us a note on [email protected] to see how we can help.
Whilst we’re on the topic of Certifications we also have a new member of our consultancy team Martyn Lufkin who’s been certified recently. Martyn has been a long-time user of FME and contributor to the FME World Tour and the FME Community and now he’s completed his desire to submit his application and prove his expertise more formally. Well done Martyn!
In addition to our training courses, we also hosted seven webinars including the FME World Fair, you can watch these back at your leisure via our on-demand page. We’ve also just released our 2022 webinar schedule, register now.
Looking back at the new features that FME 2021 brought to us this year, I think it’s often safe to say that the usability changes are the ones that have the biggest impact to us day-to-day. Those features that you look at and can’t quite believe they haven’t always been there.
For me then that killer-feature this year was ‘data aware transformer dialogs’. If you’ve ever tried to guess what variations of data classifications were in your data in order to filter them out with a Tester transformer, now you don’t have to. Just turn cache mode on, run your workspace, then simply select the values from the cached menu! 100x simpler and it just makes sense.
So then, a new year is just around the corner, and we’re excited to see what FME 2022 has to offer us. We are also very hopeful that we’ll be able to meet you again in person, on the FME World Tour in the Spring. However, on the off chance that doesn’t go exactly to plan given the unfolding story on the run up to the new year, all we want to say is, stay as safe as you can, hold those that matter to you close and of course, have a very Merry Christmas.
Written by: David Eagle, FME Division Manager
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