thomasmike
Member Since: 24th Jul 2009
Blogger
Hi. I’m Mike Thomas and I’m an IT professional with over 20 years experience in the IT industry, primarily within training, helpdesk support, website development and application development.
For the majority of those years, I have worked as an IT Trainer, designing and delivering both application and technical courses on a wide range of subjects including Microsoft Office, database development and web development.
Based in North West England, my employment portfolio includes a number of national training companies and international organisations. I currently work in a small team at a large multinational company where my responsibilities include delivering IT courses and 1:1 coaching and developing custom MS Office-based and web-based solutions. In the summer of 2008, I was promoted to the position of Technical Lead.
You can read more about my career in IT on my Linkedin page.
I have been a member of the Institute of IT Training (IITT) since its inception in 1996, joining initially as a Full Member but gaining the status of Fellow in 2005.
In 2004, along with Elaine Giles, I became Joint Manager of the North West Regional Group of The Institute (NWIITT). In addition to delivering demonstrations and presentations at the Group's monthly meetings, Elaine and I are also responsible for maintaining the NWIITT website, maintaining a dialogue with the IITT and devising and promoting the schedule of live and virtual seminars.I am also the Co-Manager of The North West Adobe User Group.
In 2006 I became a "Switcher" - moving from Windows to a Mac, although I still have to use Windows at work and also support and train Windows users (well it keeps my hand in).
In 2007, along with Elaine Giles, I entered the world of podcasting as a presenter of MacBites - a podcast relating to all thing Macintosh.
I'm also a regular Twitterer - you can find my Twitter homepage here.
I live in the North West of England with Elaine and Meyer, our Samoyed and also run a couple of hugely popular websites - Munich58.co.uk and beachsoccer-online.com.
Training Consultant IBM
13th Apr 2011
Despite the fact that I already had a 64GB iPad v1, I recently purchased an iPad 2. Slimmer, faster and better looking, 2 cameras and the...
Blog
30th Jan 2011
As someone who has delivered online courses on a weekly basis for the past 2 years, I’ve experienced my fair share of interruptions. In my...
Blog
13th Sep 2010
Almost all of the training courses that I deliver involve PowerPoint. Let me be clear, I don’t mean that I solely deliver PointPoint...
Blog
13th Jul 2010
I was having a discussion with a group today about delivering presentations on a laptop. Of the many tips that we came up with, here's two...
Blog
1st Jul 2010
The team that I work for has recently begun to offer eLearning. Without a dedicated Learning Management System, we needed a way to track...
Blog
6th Jun 2010
I've had my iPad just over a week. I can safely say that I love it, but it's not just a toy. OK, I have spent a couple of lunchtimes...
Blog
6th Jun 2010
Last week something rare happened - I received some negative feedback from delegates. This played on my mind to such an extent that it got...
Blog
1st Jun 2010
Excel allows you to assign a name to an individual cell or a range of cells. That name can be used in a formula and can help to make the...
Blog
22nd May 2010
The Save As PDF command in MS Office 2007 allows you to create a PDF from a Microsoft Office document even if you haven’t got Adobe Acrobat...
Blog
6th May 2010
Do you deliver presentations, demos or training courses via Webex? The team I work for offers a global training service and consequently I...
Blog