Question of the Week

Where in the world are you adventuring this summer? Whether you're exploring a new city, hiking a mountain trail, or enjoying a staycation in your own backyard - we’d love to hear about it! Bonus points if you share a map or photo to show us where you're headed. New to the Question of the Week? Every week, we’ll post a simple but thought-provoking question that could be about your FME journey, the power of spatial data, FME innovation, or the future of FME. Each weekly question you answer earns you an entry in our monthly draw for exclusive Safe swag ($50 value) and points toward badges! Answer our June Questions of the Week by June 30, 2025 at 5:00 pm PDT to be entered in this month’s draw. Answer your first question and you’ll get the Socializer (Ice Breaker) badge. Answer five questions and you’ll get the Socializer (Talker) badge.

If you were stranded on an island and could bring an ‘FME backpack’ with you, what would be in it? Drop your answer in the comments below. Thanks ​@virtualcitymatt and ​@hkingsbury for inspiring this question! New to the Question of the Week? Every week, we’ll post a simple but thought-provoking question that could be about your FME journey, the power of spatial data, FME innovation, or the future of FME. Each weekly question you answer earns you an entry in our monthly draw for exclusive Safe swag ($50 value) and points toward badges! Answer our June Questions of the Week by June 30, 2025 at 5:00 pm PDT to be entered in this month’s draw. Answer your first question and you’ll get the Socializer (Ice Breaker) badge. Answer five questions and you’ll get the Socializer (Talker) badge.

We're still buzzing from the energy of Peak of Data and AI last week in Seattle! The insights, innovations, and inspiring speakers gave us a lot to think about. Now we're turning it over to you: If you could see any speaker - real or fictional - give a keynote at a conference, who would it be, and why? Drop your pick in the comments below! New to the Question of the Week? Every week, we’ll post a simple but thought-provoking question that could be about your FME journey, the power of spatial data, FME innovation, or the future of FME. Each weekly question you answer earns you an entry in our monthly draw for exclusive Safe swag ($50 value) and points toward badges! Answer our May Questions of the Week by May 31, 2025 at 5:00 pm PDT to be entered in this month’s draw. Answer your first question and you’ll get the Socializer (Ice Breaker) badge. Answer five questions and you’ll get the Socializer (Talker) badge.

Inspired by a recent Reddit post, this week’s Question of the Week: What is your most prized automation in FME? Drop your pick in the comments below! New to the Question of the Week? Every week, we’ll post a simple but thought-provoking question that could be about your FME journey, the power of spatial data, FME innovation, or the future of FME. Each weekly question you answer earns you an entry in our monthly draw for exclusive Safe swag ($50 value) and points toward badges! Answer our May Questions of the Week by May 31, 2025 at 5:00 pm PDT to be entered in this month’s draw. Answer your first question and you’ll get the Socializer (Ice Breaker) badge. Answer five questions and you’ll get the Socializer (Talker) badge.

Inspired by a fun comment from ​@redgeographics on a past Question of the Week about his toponyms playlist: What’s your favourite song that has a location in the title? New to the Question of the Week? Every week, we’ll post a simple but thought-provoking question that could be about your FME journey, the power of spatial data, FME innovation, or the future of FME. Each weekly question you answer earns you an entry in our monthly draw for exclusive Safe swag ($50 value) and points toward badges! Answer our March Questions of the Week by April 30, 2025 at 5:00 pm PDT to be entered in this month’s draw. Answer your first question and you’ll get the Socializer (Ice Breaker) badge. Answer five questions and you’ll get the Socializer (Talker) badge.

If you were an FME action figure, what would you look like? Inspired by ‘spatial data wrangler’ ​@mmccart LinkedIn post , this week’s Question of the Week is to create your own AI-generated action figure and share a photo below! Here’s one prompt ChatGPT suggested to create your action figure. Customize as you like! "Please create an image of a highly detailed action figure of a professional data integration specialist, posed heroically in front of computer screens with complex workspace diagrams. The figure wears a utility belt filled with FME icons like transformers, readers, and writers. Includes miniature certification badges, a laptop accessory, and a background of a futuristic tech lab. Realistic lighting, action figure packaging style, cinematic detail."

Earlier this year, we asked the FME Community to get creative and submit name ideas for a surprise appearance of the FME Lizard. In case you missed it, an incredible LEGO sculpture of the FME Lizard - created by artist Sean Kenney - made its debut at the Peak in Seattle! 🦎 You delivered some amazing suggestions. We rounded the names up and asked both the FME Community and Peak attendees to vote on their favourite. We’re excited to announce that the winning name is… Daryl! 🎉 (Shoutout to “FME Lizard” for coming in a very close second.) Extra shoutout to ​@todd_davis for suggesting the winning name - expect a lizard-themed prize coming your way soon! So… what do we think? Are we officially calling the FME Lizard Daryl now? Or maybe that’s just its middle name?

I’ve been finding lately that having an AI write code for me and just run it is becoming almost trivial, and as an FME user it’s starting to make me feel pretty obsolete. Of course there are still a tonne of caveats and you still need to be careful, but with the recent rollout of Visual Studio’s “Agent” mode to everyone the reality is fast approaching that it may be easier to create a free python based application to do a specific task than to write a workspace. Understanding these AI tools well is hands down just going to make you much more productive. But this can only be true is you can actually use them in your work which in the FME world it’s so far not so easy. For me one of the main benefits of using FME is that I don’t need to spend time writing code, but now that I can have the AI do much of the work I’m really wondering about the future of FME - Especially to juniors - If someone has to spend time learning FME vs asking an AI to create a python app to do the same why would th

In the spirit of April Fools Day… Here’s our Question of the Week: If FME had a secret ‘Easter egg’ feature that no one knew about, what would it be? Would it be a hidden game? Secret functionality? A 'feature' like Connection Shapes? Or...? Let’s hear your most creative (or wishful) ideas! PS. If you’re looking for a laugh today, check out this video from ​@mark2atsafe. New to the Question of the Week? Every week, we’ll post a simple but thought-provoking question that could be about your FME journey, the power of spatial data, FME innovation, or the future of FME. Each weekly question you answer earns you an entry in our monthly draw for exclusive Safe swag ($50 value) and points toward badges! Answer our March Questions of the Week by April 30, 2025 at 5:00 pm PDT to be entered in this month’s draw. Answer your first question and you’ll get the Socializer (Ice Breaker) badge. Answer five questions and you’ll get the Socializer (Talker) badge.

In the spirit of our recently announced FME Breakfast of Champions 2025 meetup series, we want to know: What is your breakfast of champions or favourite breakfast food? 🏆🍳 In case you missed it, the FME Breakfast of Champions 2025 is an in-person event series hosted by Safe, bringing together industry professionals to discuss the latest FME features, industry trends, and real-world solutions - all over a delicious breakfast! Check out the event dates and join us. We can’t wait to hear about your breakfast favourites and hopefully see you at one of our events!

Earlier this year, we asked the FME Community to put their creativity to the test in a Question of the Week and name the FME Lizard! We’ve rounded up the name suggestions from the community, and now it’s time to cast your vote (and yes, FME Lizard is one of the options!). The winning name will be revealed in the coming weeks, and the user behind it will receive a special prize from Safe - plus the honour of naming the lizard. VOTE HERE. New to the Question of the Week? Every week, we’ll post a simple but thought-provoking question that could be about your FME journey, the power of spatial data, FME innovation, or the future of FME. Each weekly question you answer earns you an entry in our monthly draw for exclusive Safe swag ($50 value) and points toward badges! Answer our April Questions of the Week by April 30, 2025 at 5:00 pm PDT to be entered in this month’s draw. Answer your first question and you’ll get the Socializer (Ice Breaker) badge. Answer five questions and you’ll get the

The FME Lizard makes a return! 🦎 With the launch of our new AI-powered chatbot, we want to know - what do you think the FME Lizard’s name is? Drop your best name ideas in the comments! New to the Question of the Week? Every week, we’ll post a simple but thought-provoking question that could be about your FME journey, the power of spatial data, FME innovation, or the future of FME. Each weekly question you answer earns you an entry in our monthly draw for exclusive Safe swag ($50 value) and points toward badges! Answer our March Questions of the Week by March 31, 2025 at 5:00 pm PDT to be entered in this month’s draw. Answer your first question and you’ll get the Socializer (Ice Breaker) badge. Answer five questions and you’ll get the Socializer (Talker) badge. Curious about the new FME AI Chatbot? We’re excited to introduce a new support feature to your toolbox for getting help with FM - our AI-powered chatbot! The FME Lizard is now active and ready to answer your questions in the FME

Congratulations to ​@davidmooney - the winner of our FME Community Peak of Data & AI Contest! David has scored two tickets to the Peak in Seattle, Washington this May 6 to 8. A huge thank you to everyone who participated in the contest and shared your favourite memories from past events and reasons for wanting to attend this year. We loved reading your responses and sharing them with the rest of the Safe team! Your stories and excitement are what make the FME Community so unique. We look forward to seeing you in Seattle! Conference passes are still available here .

In February, we launched a new monthly addition to the Question of the Week: Ask Me Anything (AMA) with the FME Evangelist ​@mark2atsafe. Have questions about what’s new in FME 2025.0 ? This month’s AMA is your chance to get insights straight from the team. We’re especially excited to answer your questions about: Compound Parameters - conditional parameters were updated in 2025.0, with new condition types and the ability to build complex, multiple conditions. Heartbeat Functionality - features that are emitted by streaming transformers to indicate periods of inactivity. Of course, if you have other questions about FME 2025.0, feel free to ask - though we’d love to keep the spotlight on these two key features! Submit your questions by the end of the week in the comments below. Mark and our team will post a video response the week of March 17, 2025.

Win 2 Tickets to The Peak of Data & AI 2025! Do you have a favourite memory from a past Safe Software conference? Whether it was an inspiring session, a great conversation, or a fun moment with the community - we want to hear about it! Haven’t attended before? No problem! Tell us why you’d love to experience The Peak 2025 in Seattle, WA (May 6-8) for the first time. Share your story in the comments for a chance to win 2 tickets - a prize valued at $2,780! Bonus: Add a photo with your comment for an extra entry! 📅 Enter by Sunday, March 9, 2025 at 11:59 p.m. Pacific Time 🏆 Winner will be contacted by Wednesday, March 12, 2025. Read the full contest guidelines here .

Hello FME friends. Here is a video recording of Dan and I answering your recent questions about dynamic workflows. I hope you find it useful and/or interesting. I apologize for the poor video quality of my side of the conversation. It’s my first time recording a meeting like this. I hope to sort it out for future recordings.

Hi FME Community, We’re changing things up for this week’s Question of the Week! We’re introducing an AMA (Ask Me Anything) format with FME Evangelist ​@mark2atsafe. First up: Dynamic Workflows. Have questions about dynamic workflows in FME? Drop them below, and Mark will answer them next week with the help of support team member ​@danminneyatsaf . We’re excited to try this out and plan to cover more topics in future AMAs - so stay tuned! Update on February 4, 2025: Check out the video response from ​@mark2atsafe and ​@danminneyatsaf here . New to the Question of the Week? Every week, we’ll post a simple but thought-provoking question that could be about your FME journey, the power of spatial data, FME innovation, or the future of FME. Each weekly question you answer earns you an entry in our monthly draw for exclusive Safe swag ($50 value) and points toward badges! Answer our January Questions of the Week by January 31 at 5:00 pm PDT to be entered in this month’s draw. Answer your fir

How did you engage with the FME Community in 2024? Now you can find out with your 2024 FME Community End-of-Year Recap! Built by ​@mark2atsafe, the recap page is powered by FME and integrates it with the same type of custom community pages as the 12 Days of FME Contest. Check out your personalized stats here, including: Questions Asked & Answered Votes on Your Questions Your Most Upvoted Question Categories You Contributed To Events You Attended General Stats for the FME Community You must be logged in to see your stats - otherwise, you’ll get a fun look at the FME Lizard’s activity instead. See how you compare! For this week’s Question of the Week: Share some highlights from your 2024 recap in the comments below. Thank you for being part of the FME Community in 2024! We hope you found it valuable and inspiring, and we can't wait to see what you do in 2025.

Hi FME Community! Happy New Year. We hope you enjoyed a warm and happy holiday season! In the spirit of the new year, this week’s Question of the Week is: What’s your New Year’s resolution when it comes to using FME? Are there new skills you want to learn? Features you’d love to explore? Improvements you’d like to see in the product? Tell us in the comments below. New to the Question of the Week? Every week, we’ll post a simple but thought-provoking question that could be about your FME journey, the power of spatial data, FME innovation, or the future of FME. Each weekly question you answer earns you an entry in our monthly draw for exclusive Safe swag ($50 value) and points toward badges! Answer our January Questions of the Week by January 31 at 5:00 pm PDT to be entered in this month’s draw. Answer your first question and you’ll get the Socializer (Ice Breaker) badge. Answer five questions and you’ll get the Socializer (Talker) badge.

Hi FME Community, As you may know, our 12 Days of FME Contest is well underway! You can still register and launch your balloon. The contest has a special prize for data visualization and that’s what we’re theming this Question of the Week around. Download some of the data from the contest and (preferably using FME) analyze it and visualize it. The best visualization wins a $100 USD gift card (plus you’ll also be eligible for our monthly Question of the Week draw)! You don’t even need to launch a balloon to participate. This part of the contest is open to anyone. Visualization entries posted on this thread and the contest thread will be entered into the contest! Find some ideas here. We look forward to seeing what you come up with! The contest ends on Tuesday, December 17, 2024 at 8:30 am PST. Data visualization entries will be accepted until Wednesday, December 18, 2024 at 8:30 am PST.

Hi FME Community, This will be our last Question of the Week for 2024! What’s been a highlight of your year? Personal or professional, FME-related or not, we’d love to hear. Thanks for participating in the Question of the Week and our 12 Days of FME Contest! The 12 Days of FME wrapped up today, but there’s still time to submit your data visualizations. We’ll announce all the prize winners by Friday, December 20. We’ll be back in January with a new Question of the Week. Until then, Happy Holidays!

Hi FME Community, Our 12 Days of FME Contest is officially live! Register and launch your balloon here . This week’s Question of the Week: share your 12 Days of FME team name in the comments below. About the Contest From December 3 to December 17, 2024, the FME Community is hosting our annual winter contest: a balloon race powered by FME Flow. Launch your virtual balloon and steer it around the world, scoring points for different activities. FME is used to manage the contest - from simulating the balloon travel (using an API called Tawhiri) to providing reports to contestants during the game. You can do as little as register a balloon and watch it float off into the distance. But, if you want to be a little more active, you can check out weather forecasts and predictions and change the altitude of your balloon to give you the best speed and direction. What You Can Win We have some incredible prizes up for grabs! A Mova globe ($220 USD value) will be awarded to two grand prize winners w

Hi FME Community! On November 27, we’ll be opening registration for the 12 Days of FME ! From December 3 to December 17, 2024, the FME Community will be hosting its annual winter contest - a balloon race powered by FME Flow. Grab your virtual hot air balloon and compete in real-time with other users worldwide as you pilot your balloon on a thrilling journey around the world! In anticipation of the contest, this week’s Question of the Week is: If you could fly your hot air balloon to any country in the world, where would you go and why? Share your answer in the comments. New to the Question of the Week? Every week, we’ll post a simple but thought-provoking question that could be about your FME journey, the power of spatial data, FME innovation, or the future of FME. Each weekly question you answer earns you an entry in our monthly draw for exclusive Safe swag ($50 value) and points toward badges! Answer our November Questions of the Week by Saturday, November 30 at 5:00 pm PDT to be ent

Hi FME Community, In case you missed it, last week FME 2024.2 was released. We’re curious… have you tried any of the new features? Vote on the poll and tell us in the comments what you’ve tried. PS. @mark2atsafe has made some handy video demos to walk you through using the new features. The demos are linked in this post. New to the Question of the Week? Every week, we’ll post a simple but thought-provoking question that could be about your FME journey, the power of spatial data, FME innovation, or the future of FME. Each weekly question you answer earns you an entry in our monthly draw for exclusive Safe swag ($50 value) and points toward badges! Answer our November Questions of the Week by Saturday, November 30 at 5:00 pm PDT to be entered in this month’s draw. Answer your first question and you’ll get the Socializer (Ice Breaker) badge. Answer five questions and you’ll get the Socializer (Talker) badge.

Hi FME Community, In celebration of National GIS Day on November 20 this week’s Question of the Week is: How did you first get into GIS? Share your answer in the comments below. New to the Question of the Week? Every week, we’ll post a simple but thought-provoking question that could be about your FME journey, the power of spatial data, FME innovation, or the future of FME. Each weekly question you answer earns you an entry in our monthly draw for exclusive Safe swag ($50 value) and points toward badges! Answer our November Questions of the Week by Saturday, November 30 at 5:00 pm PDT to be entered in this month’s draw. Answer your first question and you’ll get the Socializer (Ice Breaker) badge. Answer five questions and you’ll get the Socializer (Talker) badge.