FULL SHOW NOTES
https://podcast.nz365guy.com/516
- Get ready to meet Betim Beja, the first-ever Microsoft MVP from Albania, with an unyielding passion for technology and its potential to transform lives. Betim's mission isn't an easy one - he is determined to cultivate Albania's tech industry, despite the challenges of a small market, and he's doing so with astounding success. From helping local tech professionals produce top-tier software to organizing tech events, Betim's impact is palpable. Listen in as he shares his love for open-source contributions, his transition from consulting to creating products on Dynamics, and the unique charm of his homeland.
- Our conversation doesn't stop there. We explore the influential world of the Power Platform community and the significance of figures like Jonas Rapp and Jordi Montana. Betim unveils his experiences in organizing Albania's first-ever Power Platform Summit and how, despite language barriers, he reaches a global audience with his tech blogs in English and Albanian. We also delve into the potential and challenges of translating Microsoft Dynamics products into Albanian. It's an enlightening discussion about language accessibility in tech, the critical role of community and collaboration, and Betim's extraordinary journey in enriching the Albanian tech landscape.
OTHER RESOURCES:
Microsoft MVP YouTube Series - How to Become a Microsoft MVP
90-Day Mentoring Challenge - https://ako.nz365guy.com/
AlbanianXrm's Blog: https://xrm.al/blog
ComponentFramework-Mock: https://github.com/shko-online/ComponentFramework-Mock
Shko Online: https://shko.online
Albanian Power Platform Summit (Guido's Website): https://www.communityevents.it/albanian-power-platform-summit-2023
GitHub: https://github.com/BetimBeja
Albanian Power Platform Summit Website: https://powerplatformsummit.al
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@albanianxrm
This year we're adding a new show to our line up - The AI Advantage. We'll discuss the skills you need to thrive in an AI-enabled world.
Accelerate your Microsoft career with the 90 Day Mentoring Challenge
We’ve helped 1,300+ people across 70+ countries establish successful careers in the Microsoft Power Platform and Dynamics 365 ecosystem.
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If you want to get in touch with me, you can message me here on Linkedin.
Thanks for listening 🚀 - Mark Smith
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Mark Smith (00:06):
Welcome to the MVP Show.
My intention is that you listento the stories of these MVP
guests and are inspired tobecome an MVP and bring value to
the world through your skills.
If you have not checked it outalready, I do a YouTube series
called how to Become an MVP.
The link is in the show notes.
With that, let's get on withthe show.
(00:31):
Today's guest is from Albania.
Now that means you need to gograb Google Maps and go and
search up Albania.
It's in southeastern Europe.
He's a principal solutionarchitect.
He was first awarded his MVP in2022.
He's passionate about usingtechnology to help others.
(00:51):
He is currently focused onhelping local professionals in
Albania produce high qualitysoftware and organizing events.
He's the first ever MicrosoftMVP in Albania.
He achieved that, as I say, in2022.
He's been renewed for hissecond year, which is an
outstanding accomplishment.
You can find links to his bioand social media etc.
(01:15):
In the show notes for hisepisode.
He just told me he's going tothe Dynamic Minds Conference in
May 2024, where I will be aswell.
Betim, welcome to the show.
Betim Beja (01:29):
Yeah, nice to be here, Mark.
Hopefully we can make it to theDynamic Minds.
Obviously, currently I'mfocused mainly on organizing one
summit in Albania, the first.
I'm doing lots of firsts latelybecause Albania is a small
(01:51):
country and there is not muchinvestment from other companies
because the market is small also.
So mainly most of the peopleare focused on outsourcing or
consulting with other companiesworldwide.
Basically, the focus is toproduce high quality software
(02:14):
from Albania, but to also helpeverybody in the world to do the
same.
When I first started basicallywith open source and with
contributions, it was when I gotto see how fake XRM easy was
(02:37):
built.
That was basically the thingthat kickstarted my career in
the Dynamics, because I got tounderstand a little bit of the
internals of Dynamics just byseeing the way Jordy had mocked
basically everything with hislibrary and, yeah, that's pretty
(03:02):
much it.
That was the spark, let's say,to help the community and
basically you'll get a lotbetter yourself by helping
others.
Mark Smith (03:16):
Tell us before I grill you and I know it's early
for you, 5am in the morningthere and this is your obviously
first call of the day, wakingyou up but tell me about food,
family and fun and what is thebest thing to do if I was to
visit Albania.
So family.
Betim Beja (03:34):
Basically, I have a family of 4, I have a daughter
which is 8 years and a son of 5,my daughter has a Japanese name
because I love the culture ofJapan, never been there, but
it's one of the places I wouldlike to visit in the near future
.
And, yeah, my son has anAlbanian name, but he's called
(04:00):
Rubin, which is Ruby the.
Mineral and yeah, albania is asmall country but it has a very
diverse geography.
You can find beaches which arecompared, usually, to Greece and
(04:24):
to Sardinia in Italy, forexample.
Or we are in the Mediterranean,but we have the Adriatic Sea
and the Union Sea, so you getsandy beaches, rocky beaches,
basically all different kinds ofbeaches.
(04:44):
In this small place likeAlbania, as you mentioned, most
people need to use Google Mapsto understand where Albania is.
Most Americans maybe, when yousay Albania, search for Albany
(05:05):
and yeah, usually I have to dothe search and show them on my
phone.
No, I'm talking about thisEuropean country here.
We are not in the EuropeanUnion yet and that's like a
blocker sometimes.
But yes, we are trying to grow.
(05:25):
We are a next communist countryand that has been something
difficult also to overcomebecause, as mentioned, we are a
small country and the market isreally really small.
So what I'm trying to do?
(05:48):
I'm trying to grow a community,basically, and try to inspire
other people to invest a littlebit in showing that we also
produce quality and not that youcan find cheap labour,
basically, which is the mainreason why most companies might
(06:10):
look overseas from Italy, forexample, to Albania to find yeah
, to find one.
Mark Smith (06:19):
The closest I've been to your country is
Montenegro, so I've been on yourborder.
I haven't been to Greece, whichis on your southern border,
correct?
Your northern border isMontenegro, your southern border
is Greece, so I kind of been.
I assume that it's similar tothe experience of Montenegro,
your coastline, you know thewater, the Adriatic Sea Just a
(06:42):
beautiful paradise, I assume, onthe coast there.
Tell me a bit about populationsizing.
Are you a large population?
Are you you know what's youradoption of Microsoft from a?
Are you mainly do working withbusinesses locally, as in, so
they're buying your services, orare you more supplying what you
(07:04):
do to companies outside of yourcountry?
Betim Beja (07:10):
Basically there, since Microsoft has two parts of
dynamics, so CRM and ERP.
On the ERP side, I'm not reallyfocused on that, but there is a
lot of market in Albanialocally.
But on the CRM side, the markethasn't matured enough to
(07:34):
properly invest in the CRM andthey are missing a lot.
So we are basically forced tolook to other countries for
consulting, because and my main,basically my main engagement is
consulting for an Irishconsultancy Irish partner.
(07:58):
I have my own limited company inAlbania but it is growing
really slowly because I haven'thad much time to invest and
because of all thesedifficulties that there is no
local market.
So we have to look outside.
But if you consider working foranother country, basically most
(08:24):
people prefer actually goingthere than working remotely,
right?
So that's one challenge andthat's one of the main reasons
why I'm trying to grow a localcommunity and to invest in the
locals.
Basically, and hopefully eventhe local market will mature
(08:47):
quick enough for basically forus to invest in local companies
also, so to start buildingproducts.
My short term plan I would sayso in the next two years is to
(09:07):
focus mainly on creatingproducts on top of dynamics and
not focus on consulting.
So currently I am like 80%consulting and 20% focus on
creating products, most of whichare open source, because that's
the only way to marketsomething from a small country
(09:29):
like Albania.
And then, in two years or so,I'm hoping to have grown a team
that has enough experience toactually build our own products
and to switch basically to 80%products and 20% consulting.
Mark Smith (09:49):
When you say open source, is that sitting on XRM
Toolbox?
Betim Beja (09:54):
So I have had different areas.
Basically where I'm focusedMainly it has been XRM toolbox
tools.
I have two.
I am mainly focused on fixingother tools or improving other
tools, not only on my own tools.
Also, in the last year and ahalf or two years I have been
(10:22):
also focused on PCF componentsand I built an open source
library called ComponentFramework Mock which helps you
basically write tests orstorybook stories and you can
basically develop your PCFcomponent, gather feedback from
(10:44):
all the stakeholders in yourproject without actually
deploying that component in adynamics environment.
You can publish your storybookwith all the different
combinations and all the edgecases probably of your component
and people have the parametersthere.
They can play, even though theyare not technical.
(11:05):
For example, they can play withthe parameters and give you
feedback or suggest improvementsor collaborate.
Basically.
Mark Smith (11:17):
That's amazing.
It's a PCF, of course, amassive growing area, people to
develop and really create veryunique interface experiences
Interesting.
On the XRM toolbox, friends, Idon't know if you have noticed
Do you think XRM?
Have they renamed that recently?
The XRM toolbox, I think it'scalled.
(11:39):
I saw the other day Tungy whois the originator of it, from
France I'm pretty sure.
I saw him on LinkedIn call itXTB and I'm wondering if they're
making XTB XRM toolbox, whetherthey're starting to rebrand
slightly, being at the conceptof XRM, which came from years
ago Microsoft actuallyoriginally coined that term XRM,
(12:03):
anything relationshipmanagement and I'm just
wondering if now, because thingshave moved on, there's a lot of
people in the community thatnever heard of XRM because
they're new to the ecosystem,since that concept was in market
.
So I don't know.
Is it now called XTB?
Is that the new name for it?
Betim Beja (12:22):
I don't think it's up to me to confirm if that's a
new name or not.
Basically, I'm just buildingsome proofs on top of it.
I think Jonas Rapp might havesomething to say about that,
because he always has somethingto say about the naming right.
(12:45):
He just people how to say itproperly and it's one of my
heroes, basically Jonas Rapp.
That's why I mentioned it.
Mark Smith (12:54):
He's a rock star.
Betim Beja (12:55):
Yeah, he's really inspiring it and he was one of
the people basically that I'vebeen following.
A lot that inspired me intogiving back to the community,
along with Jordi Montana fromFAKE XRM easy.
Mark Smith (13:13):
And Jordi, amazing guy as well.
Betim Beja (13:15):
Yeah, since I mentioned Jordi, basically I
went to Automation Summit in theUK this year and the main
purpose that I went there was tomeet Jordi Montana.
Both we had no sessionsbasically to present there, but
we just attended so that wecould meet each other, because
(13:38):
we have been talking since 2019,but never met in person.
So we decided to go there andhe's so helpful that basically
we are organizing the firstAlbanian Power Platform Summit
(13:58):
28th of October this year inTirana, and the co-organizers
are Jordi Montana and CristianFernandez, from Spain.
Also, I'm trying to make a bigbang basically for this first
summit because we have alsoinvited Guido Prete from Italy
(14:21):
and Olivero Drigas from Ireland,so there will be four MPFs.
Mark Smith (14:26):
I just spoke to Christian yesterday and you
mentioned that Guido is an.
I mean, he couldn't ask for anice guy in the community.
Guido has absolutely beenaround a long time.
A rock star knows his stuff.
Full respect for him, without adoubt.
So I think you've got theingredients.
If you could share the link tothat event to me, I'll make sure
(14:50):
I get it into the show notes sopeople can find it.
You'll know that, of course,that Guido has gone and put up a
website specifically forsharing events and where
speakers can get involved andeverything.
So good work.
I'm really pleased.
Betim Beja (15:09):
It's the first place where we have put it right in
the community.
Mark Smith (15:13):
Eventsit with this website Is what's the main
language spoken in business inAlbania?
Betim Beja (15:23):
So we basically have our Albanian language but since
the dynamics is not with, itdoesn't have an Albanian
translation and since most ofthe consultants are working for
Italian companies, germancompanies or the UK market or
(15:46):
Ireland, so most are basicallycommunicating in English or in
Italian.
German companies mainlycommunicate in English or, in
rare cases, in German.
Mark Smith (16:04):
Now, when you write your blog posts, your content,
etc.
Are you writing it in Englishor are you writing in your
native language?
Betim Beja (16:12):
I am always writing it in English because I want to
reach globally.
Basically, I've done the firstpresentation, I've done it in
PowerSaturday, italy, and I'vedone that in Italian language.
(16:33):
Basically, I've lived eightyears in Italy.
When I was at the university Itook it a little bit slowly.
I've done five plus threeinstead of three plus two, let's
say, Bachelor and Master'sdegree.
I graduated with maximum votesfrom software engineering and in
(16:59):
the meantime, the reason why Itook it a little bit slowly was
that I was also doing Jiu Jitsuand I was participating in all
the championships and I wenteven with the Italian team.
I went even in Germany andSlovenia to do some
(17:20):
championships.
I wasn't the champion usually,so there were lots of people
more experienced than me, but Iwas a strong fighter.
Anyway, I'm great.
I won my first fight with onlythree weeks of training.
Mark Smith (17:42):
That's a pretty clear message you've just sent
out that anyone wants to messwith you.
They're going to take on aJinjitsu master and let's see
who stands from that.
I've always thought Jinjitsu,out of all the martial arts, is
one of the martial arts skillsto have.
I've been to one Jinjitsu class, that's it.
It wrecked me and I didn't goback.
(18:04):
Full respect to you.
I just want to talk about asecond there.
Your language, english, is asecond language and how our
community seems to focus aroundEnglish.
It's my native language.
I take my hat off to folks thatit's not their native language.
There's always this adoption ofEnglish, but I encourage you to
(18:25):
produce everything you producealso in your native language.
You'll attract people that arein your community.
I've got friends in Japan,italy, spain, brazil, all over.
I've often been asked do I haveto learn?
(18:46):
Do I have to be really good atEnglish?
I'm not doing something becauseI'm not really good at English.
The world is over-saturatedwith English speakers in the
tech space.
As a leader in Albania with yourMVP title, etc.
You have the opportunity tobring a lot of Albanians on the
(19:07):
journey with you.
Use your native language aswell, because it'll build
confidence.
They'll say, hey, he's like me,he's of the same culture, same
country.
If he can do it, I can do it.
Let English be a secondarything.
I'm not saying move totallyaway from English, because
(19:27):
you're obviously going for aglobal audience, but don't
forget your native country, yourpeople and how you can enable
and power them.
You're so many steps ahead ofthem on your MVP journey, on
your community engagementjourney.
I just think you could havemassive impact on your own
country.
Betim Beja (19:47):
Yeah actually so.
Blog posts, I've always writtenthem in English just for the
reach the target audience mainlywas there are not that many
developers.
My target audience is mainlydevelopers.
I try to simplify their lifebasically.
(20:09):
But I've also organizedapp-in-a-day workshops for free
in Albania twice.
The first time we organized itwith Edith Kapsari, which is in
Germany, never met her in person.
She's an Albanian.
She's working at a Germancompany, head of the local
(20:34):
division there.
She also is a communitysuperstar, even though she
doesn't have an MVP award yet, Iwould say.
But we did that training inAlbanian language, even though
the technical stuff or theplatform basically doesn't have
(20:56):
an Albanian translation.
And it would be a little bitstrange because most of the
terms don't even exist inAlbanian language or sound too
weird.
If you talk about a flow,basically it would be like a
river flowing.
Mark Smith (21:15):
Here's the thing back in the early days of my MVP
, mvps were often asked to helpwith translation.
This is back before PowerPlatform was in the Dynamics
days, so there is potential, ifyou had the means to do it, to
create those translation filesthat can actually help Microsoft
(21:36):
get that.
As you can imagine, becauseit's a multilingual platform,
they have got very good, tightcontrols around how you bring
another language on so you couldrequest those files,
potentially, go through it, dothe translation, get it
validated by somebody else,because the last thing you want
(21:57):
is an American translating toyour language English.
Is this sorry, you're Albanian.
Is this Albanian?
Is that what you would callyour language?
Yes, albanian, yeah, so youdon't want them doing the
translation.
Right, you do the translationand you go back.
I think there's an opportunitythere as well.
Betim Beja (22:16):
We have ERP, which is actively being used in
Albania, and basically one ofthe companies that I used to
work for.
They actually have translatedNaVision, or Business Central,
now in Albanian language andthey have published it in the
(22:38):
marketplace.
So everybody that is usingBusiness Central can use the
Albanian language Because theyhave already invested in the CRM
.
World is a little bit morecomplicated, I would say,
because there is no officialsupport for Albanian language
yet there, and it is yet, but itis also a lot broader, I would
(23:04):
say, in the technologiesinvolved.
So it would take a lot moreeffort, I would say, to actually
translate the CRM or PowerPlatform.
Mark Smith (23:16):
For real, for real.
Betim, it's been a pleasure tohave you on the show.
Time is flowing, we're at time.
Thank you so much for coming onand, as I say, I look forward
to meeting you in person atDynamic Minds in May next year.
Betim Beja (23:30):
Yeah, I will try to participate, even if I don't get
a session there.
I will try to participate as anattendee, just to make this
happen.
I will meet you in person.
Mark Smith (24:12):
Thank you, thank you .
Welcome to the MVP Show.
My intention is that you listento the stories of these MVP
guests and are inspired tobecome an MVP and bring value to
the world through your skills.
If you have not checked it outalready, I do a YouTube series
called how to Become an MVP.
The link is in the show notes.
With that, let's get on withthe show.
(00:31):
Today's guest is from Albania.
Now that means you need to gograb Google Maps and go and
search up Albania.
It's in southeastern Europe.
He's a principal solutionarchitect.
He was first awarded his MVP in2022.
He's passionate about usingtechnology to help others.
(00:51):
He is currently focused onhelping local professionals in
Albania produce high qualitysoftware and organizing events.
He's the first ever MicrosoftMVP in Albania.
He achieved that, as I say, in2022.
He's been renewed for hissecond year, which is an
outstanding accomplishment.
You can find links to his bioand social media etc.
(01:15):
In the show notes for hisepisode.
He just told me he's going tothe Dynamic Minds Conference in
May 2024, where I will be aswell.
Betim, welcome to the show.
Betim Beja (01:29):
Yeah, nice to be here, Mark.
Hopefully we can make it to theDynamic Minds.
Obviously, currently I'mfocused mainly on organizing one
summit in Albania, the first.
I'm doing lots of firsts latelybecause Albania is a small
(01:51):
country and there is not muchinvestment from other companies
because the market is small also.
So mainly most of the peopleare focused on outsourcing or
consulting with other companiesworldwide.
Basically, the focus is toproduce high quality software
(02:14):
from Albania, but to also helpeverybody in the world to do the
same.
When I first started basicallywith open source and with
contributions, it was when I gotto see how fake XRM easy was
(02:37):
built.
That was basically the thingthat kickstarted my career in
the Dynamics, because I got tounderstand a little bit of the
internals of Dynamics just byseeing the way Jordy had mocked
basically everything with hislibrary and, yeah, that's pretty
(03:02):
much it.
That was the spark, let's say,to help the community and
basically you'll get a lotbetter yourself by helping
others.
Mark Smith (03:16):
Tell us before I grill you and I know it's early
for you, 5am in the morningthere and this is your obviously
first call of the day, wakingyou up but tell me about food,
family and fun and what is thebest thing to do if I was to
visit Albania.
So family.
Betim Beja (03:34):
Basically, I have a family of 4, I have a daughter
which is 8 years and a son of 5,my daughter has a Japanese name
because I love the culture ofJapan, never been there, but
it's one of the places I wouldlike to visit in the near future
.
And, yeah, my son has anAlbanian name, but he's called
(04:00):
Rubin, which is Ruby the.
Mineral and yeah, albania is asmall country but it has a very
diverse geography.
You can find beaches which arecompared, usually, to Greece and
(04:24):
to Sardinia in Italy, forexample.
Or we are in the Mediterranean,but we have the Adriatic Sea
and the Union Sea, so you getsandy beaches, rocky beaches,
basically all different kinds ofbeaches.
(04:44):
In this small place likeAlbania, as you mentioned, most
people need to use Google Mapsto understand where Albania is.
Most Americans maybe, when yousay Albania, search for Albany
(05:05):
and yeah, usually I have to dothe search and show them on my
phone.
No, I'm talking about thisEuropean country here.
We are not in the EuropeanUnion yet and that's like a
blocker sometimes.
But yes, we are trying to grow.
(05:25):
We are a next communist countryand that has been something
difficult also to overcomebecause, as mentioned, we are a
small country and the market isreally really small.
So what I'm trying to do?
(05:48):
I'm trying to grow a community,basically, and try to inspire
other people to invest a littlebit in showing that we also
produce quality and not that youcan find cheap labour,
basically, which is the mainreason why most companies might
(06:10):
look overseas from Italy, forexample, to Albania to find yeah
, to find one.
Mark Smith (06:19):
The closest I've been to your country is
Montenegro, so I've been on yourborder.
I haven't been to Greece, whichis on your southern border,
correct?
Your northern border isMontenegro, your southern border
is Greece, so I kind of been.
I assume that it's similar tothe experience of Montenegro,
your coastline, you know thewater, the Adriatic Sea Just a
(06:42):
beautiful paradise, I assume, onthe coast there.
Tell me a bit about populationsizing.
Are you a large population?
Are you you know what's youradoption of Microsoft from a?
Are you mainly do working withbusinesses locally, as in, so
they're buying your services, orare you more supplying what you
(07:04):
do to companies outside of yourcountry?
Betim Beja (07:10):
Basically there, since Microsoft has two parts of
dynamics, so CRM and ERP.
On the ERP side, I'm not reallyfocused on that, but there is a
lot of market in Albanialocally.
But on the CRM side, the markethasn't matured enough to
(07:34):
properly invest in the CRM andthey are missing a lot.
So we are basically forced tolook to other countries for
consulting, because and my main,basically my main engagement is
consulting for an Irishconsultancy Irish partner.
(07:58):
I have my own limited company inAlbania but it is growing
really slowly because I haven'thad much time to invest and
because of all thesedifficulties that there is no
local market.
So we have to look outside.
But if you consider working foranother country, basically most
(08:24):
people prefer actually goingthere than working remotely,
right?
So that's one challenge andthat's one of the main reasons
why I'm trying to grow a localcommunity and to invest in the
locals.
Basically, and hopefully eventhe local market will mature
(08:47):
quick enough for basically forus to invest in local companies
also, so to start buildingproducts.
My short term plan I would sayso in the next two years is to
(09:07):
focus mainly on creatingproducts on top of dynamics and
not focus on consulting.
So currently I am like 80%consulting and 20% focus on
creating products, most of whichare open source, because that's
the only way to marketsomething from a small country
(09:29):
like Albania.
And then, in two years or so,I'm hoping to have grown a team
that has enough experience toactually build our own products
and to switch basically to 80%products and 20% consulting.
Mark Smith (09:49):
When you say open source, is that sitting on XRM
Toolbox?
Betim Beja (09:54):
So I have had different areas.
Basically where I'm focusedMainly it has been XRM toolbox
tools.
I have two.
I am mainly focused on fixingother tools or improving other
tools, not only on my own tools.
Also, in the last year and ahalf or two years I have been
(10:22):
also focused on PCF componentsand I built an open source
library called ComponentFramework Mock which helps you
basically write tests orstorybook stories and you can
basically develop your PCFcomponent, gather feedback from
(10:44):
all the stakeholders in yourproject without actually
deploying that component in adynamics environment.
You can publish your storybookwith all the different
combinations and all the edgecases probably of your component
and people have the parametersthere.
They can play, even though theyare not technical.
(11:05):
For example, they can play withthe parameters and give you
feedback or suggest improvementsor collaborate.
Basically.
Mark Smith (11:17):
That's amazing.
It's a PCF, of course, amassive growing area, people to
develop and really create veryunique interface experiences
Interesting.
On the XRM toolbox, friends, Idon't know if you have noticed
Do you think XRM?
Have they renamed that recently?
The XRM toolbox, I think it'scalled.
(11:39):
I saw the other day Tungy whois the originator of it, from
France I'm pretty sure.
I saw him on LinkedIn call itXTB and I'm wondering if they're
making XTB XRM toolbox, whetherthey're starting to rebrand
slightly, being at the conceptof XRM, which came from years
ago Microsoft actuallyoriginally coined that term XRM,
(12:03):
anything relationshipmanagement and I'm just
wondering if now, because thingshave moved on, there's a lot of
people in the community thatnever heard of XRM because
they're new to the ecosystem,since that concept was in market
.
So I don't know.
Is it now called XTB?
Is that the new name for it?
Betim Beja (12:22):
I don't think it's up to me to confirm if that's a
new name or not.
Basically, I'm just buildingsome proofs on top of it.
I think Jonas Rapp might havesomething to say about that,
because he always has somethingto say about the naming right.
(12:45):
He just people how to say itproperly and it's one of my
heroes, basically Jonas Rapp.
That's why I mentioned it.
Mark Smith (12:54):
He's a rock star.
Betim Beja (12:55):
Yeah, he's really inspiring it and he was one of
the people basically that I'vebeen following.
A lot that inspired me intogiving back to the community,
along with Jordi Montana fromFAKE XRM easy.
Mark Smith (13:13):
And Jordi, amazing guy as well.
Betim Beja (13:15):
Yeah, since I mentioned Jordi, basically I
went to Automation Summit in theUK this year and the main
purpose that I went there was tomeet Jordi Montana.
Both we had no sessionsbasically to present there, but
we just attended so that wecould meet each other, because
(13:38):
we have been talking since 2019,but never met in person.
So we decided to go there andhe's so helpful that basically
we are organizing the firstAlbanian Power Platform Summit
(13:58):
28th of October this year inTirana, and the co-organizers
are Jordi Montana and CristianFernandez, from Spain.
Also, I'm trying to make a bigbang basically for this first
summit because we have alsoinvited Guido Prete from Italy
(14:21):
and Olivero Drigas from Ireland,so there will be four MPFs.
Mark Smith (14:26):
I just spoke to Christian yesterday and you
mentioned that Guido is an.
I mean, he couldn't ask for anice guy in the community.
Guido has absolutely beenaround a long time.
A rock star knows his stuff.
Full respect for him, without adoubt.
So I think you've got theingredients.
If you could share the link tothat event to me, I'll make sure
(14:50):
I get it into the show notes sopeople can find it.
You'll know that, of course,that Guido has gone and put up a
website specifically forsharing events and where
speakers can get involved andeverything.
So good work.
I'm really pleased.
Betim Beja (15:09):
It's the first place where we have put it right in
the community.
Mark Smith (15:13):
Eventsit with this website Is what's the main
language spoken in business inAlbania?
Betim Beja (15:23):
So we basically have our Albanian language but since
the dynamics is not with, itdoesn't have an Albanian
translation and since most ofthe consultants are working for
Italian companies, germancompanies or the UK market or
(15:46):
Ireland, so most are basicallycommunicating in English or in
Italian.
German companies mainlycommunicate in English or, in
rare cases, in German.
Mark Smith (16:04):
Now, when you write your blog posts, your content,
etc.
Are you writing it in Englishor are you writing in your
native language?
Betim Beja (16:12):
I am always writing it in English because I want to
reach globally.
Basically, I've done the firstpresentation, I've done it in
PowerSaturday, italy, and I'vedone that in Italian language.
(16:33):
Basically, I've lived eightyears in Italy.
When I was at the university Itook it a little bit slowly.
I've done five plus threeinstead of three plus two, let's
say, Bachelor and Master'sdegree.
I graduated with maximum votesfrom software engineering and in
(16:59):
the meantime, the reason why Itook it a little bit slowly was
that I was also doing Jiu Jitsuand I was participating in all
the championships and I wenteven with the Italian team.
I went even in Germany andSlovenia to do some
(17:20):
championships.
I wasn't the champion usually,so there were lots of people
more experienced than me, but Iwas a strong fighter.
Anyway, I'm great.
I won my first fight with onlythree weeks of training.
Mark Smith (17:42):
That's a pretty clear message you've just sent
out that anyone wants to messwith you.
They're going to take on aJinjitsu master and let's see
who stands from that.
I've always thought Jinjitsu,out of all the martial arts, is
one of the martial arts skillsto have.
I've been to one Jinjitsu class, that's it.
It wrecked me and I didn't goback.
(18:04):
Full respect to you.
I just want to talk about asecond there.
Your language, english, is asecond language and how our
community seems to focus aroundEnglish.
It's my native language.
I take my hat off to folks thatit's not their native language.
There's always this adoption ofEnglish, but I encourage you to
(18:25):
produce everything you producealso in your native language.
You'll attract people that arein your community.
I've got friends in Japan,italy, spain, brazil, all over.
I've often been asked do I haveto learn?
(18:46):
Do I have to be really good atEnglish?
I'm not doing something becauseI'm not really good at English.
The world is over-saturatedwith English speakers in the
tech space.
As a leader in Albania with yourMVP title, etc.
You have the opportunity tobring a lot of Albanians on the
(19:07):
journey with you.
Use your native language aswell, because it'll build
confidence.
They'll say, hey, he's like me,he's of the same culture, same
country.
If he can do it, I can do it.
Let English be a secondarything.
I'm not saying move totallyaway from English, because
(19:27):
you're obviously going for aglobal audience, but don't
forget your native country, yourpeople and how you can enable
and power them.
You're so many steps ahead ofthem on your MVP journey, on
your community engagementjourney.
I just think you could havemassive impact on your own
country.
Betim Beja (19:47):
Yeah actually so.
Blog posts, I've always writtenthem in English just for the
reach the target audience mainlywas there are not that many
developers.
My target audience is mainlydevelopers.
I try to simplify their lifebasically.
(20:09):
But I've also organizedapp-in-a-day workshops for free
in Albania twice.
The first time we organized itwith Edith Kapsari, which is in
Germany, never met her in person.
She's an Albanian.
She's working at a Germancompany, head of the local
(20:34):
division there.
She also is a communitysuperstar, even though she
doesn't have an MVP award yet, Iwould say.
But we did that training inAlbanian language, even though
the technical stuff or theplatform basically doesn't have
(20:56):
an Albanian translation.
And it would be a little bitstrange because most of the
terms don't even exist inAlbanian language or sound too
weird.
If you talk about a flow,basically it would be like a
river flowing.
Mark Smith (21:15):
Here's the thing back in the early days of my MVP
, mvps were often asked to helpwith translation.
This is back before PowerPlatform was in the Dynamics
days, so there is potential, ifyou had the means to do it, to
create those translation filesthat can actually help Microsoft
(21:36):
get that.
As you can imagine, becauseit's a multilingual platform,
they have got very good, tightcontrols around how you bring
another language on so you couldrequest those files,
potentially, go through it, dothe translation, get it
validated by somebody else,because the last thing you want
(21:57):
is an American translating toyour language English.
Is this sorry, you're Albanian.
Is this Albanian?
Is that what you would callyour language?
Yes, albanian, yeah, so youdon't want them doing the
translation.
Right, you do the translationand you go back.
I think there's an opportunitythere as well.
Betim Beja (22:16):
We have ERP, which is actively being used in
Albania, and basically one ofthe companies that I used to
work for.
They actually have translatedNaVision, or Business Central,
now in Albanian language andthey have published it in the
(22:38):
marketplace.
So everybody that is usingBusiness Central can use the
Albanian language Because theyhave already invested in the CRM
.
World is a little bit morecomplicated, I would say,
because there is no officialsupport for Albanian language
yet there, and it is yet, but itis also a lot broader, I would
(23:04):
say, in the technologiesinvolved.
So it would take a lot moreeffort, I would say, to actually
translate the CRM or PowerPlatform.
Mark Smith (23:16):
For real, for real.
Betim, it's been a pleasure tohave you on the show.
Time is flowing, we're at time.
Thank you so much for coming onand, as I say, I look forward
to meeting you in person atDynamic Minds in May next year.
Betim Beja (23:30):
Yeah, I will try to participate, even if I don't get
a session there.
I will try to participate as anattendee, just to make this
happen.
I will meet you in person.
Mark Smith (24:12):
Thank you, thank you .
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