Welcome to our first FME Community User Spotlight! Every month, we’ll be spotlighting a user in the community whose active participation and helpful contributions have been invaluable to the community. We’re excited to highlight their experiences and insights!

User Spotlight: David Reksten @david_r 

What company do you currently work for? 

INSER SA in Lausanne, the French-speaking part of Switzerland.

What’s your current job role and title? 

Data integration consultant and lead GIS developer.

Tell us more about what you do and how you use FME? 

I've been using FME since I started working as a consultant in 2007, at first for geometry validation using FME Form, and then later increasingly as an orchestration and data management platform with FME Flow as a key component. 

Today, most of my work involves integrating heterogeneous systems and datasets, through cloud services, APIs and good-old database ETL, all of which FME excels at. 

Our clients are a mix of public and private sector, with very different needs and requirements, which makes for a varied and exciting workday.

Why did you join the FME Community?

I was always the type to raise my hand in class when the teacher asked a question. Also, I like challenges and puzzles.

What tips do you have for users on how to get the most out of the FME Community?

Helping others is a fantastic way to improve your knowledge! I have learned so much about FME and neighboring technologies simply by being intrigued by a question and spending a couple of minutes trying to come up with an answer. Even if I didn't have a solution or suggestion within a reasonable amount of time, it's always been a chance to learn something new. It's really true, you get what you give.

Tell us about some of the exciting use cases you’ve built using FME.

Some highlights include: 

• A raster data warehouse with millions of rasters and more than ten thousand daily FME Flow jobs reading and writing from it
• Automating the integration of architectural CAD drawings from multiple sources with space planning databases to provide new and exciting functionality in BIM and Digital Twins
• Fully automating the combination of multiple, large databases with daily updates but varying quality to provide a single point of access for centralized web services

As you can probably tell, most of my work is on the backend.

What’s one of your favourite tips or tricks for using FME?

Combining FME with SQL and Python, it's such an incredibly powerful combo.

If you were stranded on an island and could only bring three things with you, what would they be?

The reply of a consultant: it depends on where the island is located, its climate, and any other constraints, as well as requirements to maximize the chance of a successful outcome within time and budget ;-)

If you could work from anywhere in the world, where would it be?

A remote cabin in the mountains, definitely. Less islands to be stranded on!