Andrew MacNeill - AKSEL Solutions

Takeaway: Online databases are powerful and now a viable solution for any business. AirTable gives small businesses a friendly, extensible and all around powerful mobile database tool that can be used within minutes. Almost five years ago, I spoke to a group of developers and talked about different technologies and areas where database developers might want to look at. I focused on the developer - wanting to move their application development skills into a new arena. These were developers who grew up on building the small business solutions that databases provided. But businesses are different. Small businesses don't want to look at databases and technology. The world is on the Internet and information is in the cloud. People don't need offices - they carry their work on their phones. Likewise, they don't want to wait for systems to be built - they need a way to solve their problems. This is why spreadsheet and build your own systems are so popular. I was l

Back in 1999 or 2000, I showed up at a North American FoxPro conference after being away for several years. I hadn't been invisible during the previous few years. Instead, I had been focusing on promoting development efforts local to me in Ottawa, Canada. I had done a number of Microsoft DevDays and training in the area. But in terms of the international community, I had effectively "disappeared". I think this happens more and more especially as people stop writing on one site and then start on another. One might be forgiven for thinking that Lisa Slater Nichols had disappeared off the face of the earth years ago when, in fact, she had merely moved into a different development environment and writing of SSRS. One of my favourite memories of Ms. Nichols was when I first met her in 1991. Everyone wanted to talk to her and my colleague had no idea of who she was. Someone said "This is Lisa Slater." He looked at her and said "You're the only Lisa Slater