Last week I got opportunity to chat with Glenn Colpaert for my interview series.
Glenn is well know speaker and contributor to BizTalk community.
He believes its shame to let his learning, experiences, POCs / demos, sit there with no purpose. So he often share his learning and experience with the community by writing a blog post or giving a talk on that subject.
Recently he spoke couple of times in Integration User Group – Integration Monday.
He has also created a video for Microsoft Channel 9 about Microsoft Cloud Integration and SAP.
He has also written a white paper for the new WCF-SAP library NCo – What to do now that support for the current SAP Adapter ends?
He has been awarded couple of times as Integration MVP !!!!!
Question: Can you please introduce yourself?
Answer: My name is Glenn Colpaert and I’m based in Belgium where I live in a small town with my wife and son. I work as an Integration Consultant for Codit and next to my day to day job I’m also a Microsoft Azure MVP and organizing community events with the Belgian BizTalk User Group.
Question: What do you think it was which got you MVP award 2 times – kind of contribution you provided to BizTalk community?
Answer: As it’s a top secret on how Microsoft selects/rewards people with the MVP award it’s difficult to say what it exactly was that rewarded me the MVP award. During the years prior of receiving awards I did a lot of blogging and did a couple of talks. After being rewarded as MVP I got the opportunity to do more talks and joined the Belgian BizTalk User Group as a board member, which allowed me to organize community events. I think above combinations allowed me to be rewarded and re-rewarded as MVP.
Question: How did you get opportunity of speaking and how was the experience?
Answer: The first couple of talks I did was at small local events, after that it’s all about submitting proposals to different kinds of conferences and user groups and hope you get accepted. Once you have that first couple of talks on your list, it appears to be easier on getting accepted to talk on different kind of subjects.
Question: Recently you did couple of presentation in Integration Monday and both the time you spoke about EDI. Any particular reason?
Answer: No, not at all! I think it just a coincidence 
! However, it’s pretty cool how 30 year old standards are still that widely used in the modern days of API’s, IOT and other cloud technologies.
Question: What’s your thought on the App Integration on Azure. What is the future of Logic Apps?
Answer: Logic Apps is a product that is currently being worked on and is growing fast. I feel there is a big drive behind Logic Apps both from the community as the Product Group! They really take into account feedback and go back to the drawing board with it. I’m not a visionary, but we all know BizTalk is a robust product and will be hard to replace. But I believe with the proper investments and the combination of different services in Azure (Logic Apps, Service Bus, API Aps,…) Logic Apps will be something to watch.
Question: Have you done any EDI integration solution completely in Azure? Do you see the future EDI integration can be completely developed and run on Azure ?
Answer: Did not have the opportunity to do a real life EDI integration solution in Azure. However Azure currently offers a lot of possibilities to do EDI or act as an intermediary between an on premise EDI solution and the partners. And yes, I strongly believe that future (EDI) Integrations will be completely be developed and run on Azure, but it will require quite some effort to be able to fully replace a product like BizTalk.
Question: I see you have been doing quite a contribution to BizTalk community. You also wrote a white paper for the new WCF – SAP library NCo recently. What motivates you to do the community work?
Answer: I like learning about new technologies and play with them to build small demos or POC’s. Because it’s a shame to let them sit there with no purpose I often share this with the community by writing a blog post or giving a talk on that subject. I think it’s a combination of staying on the edge of technology and share those experiences with other people and try to create some sort of interaction.
Question: Are you speaking in the INTEGRATE 2016 event in London on May 11 -13?
Answer: Unfortunately I will not be speaking at INTEGRATE 2016 in London. The reason for this is that I will be unable to attend the event. However the week after INTEGRATE 2016 I will be speaking at another great Integration Event in Portugal: http://tugait.pt/2016/.
Question: What advice would you give to anyone about community contribution, speaking and MVP award?
Answer: Sharing is caring!
Question: What do you do when you are not working?
Answer: When I’m not working or fiddling around with some kind of new technology I like spending time with my wife and son doing all sorts of fun stuff. Next to that I’m a big soccer fan, I play it once a week and I go and visit games regularly.
Thanks Glenn for sharing your thoughts.
And all the best for your next speaking at another great Integration Event in Portugal: http://tugait.pt/2016/
