For some time, I have been thinking about collaboration. The idea of two or more people coming together in thinking and creating something to the benefit of everyone in the community. This is me asking you, if you want to connect and share to create synergy.

Synergy is defined as the interaction of elements that when combined produce a total effect that is greater than the sum of the individual elements and contributions.

In the past year I have been involved in three different Hackathons and through this have learned the truth in the saying “one of us is not greater than all of us”. Two or more people coming together in the spirit of sharing and learning can create significant value for all involved, and if what is learned is made available for the community then everyone gets the chance to learn from that content.

If you are interested in collaborating with me, I am keen to hear from you. I am flexible when it comes to sorting time to connect. I think we could easily do this via a video conference, so wherever you are in the world lets connect and create something new. If any of the following ideas excite you connect with me on LinkedIn and send me a private message.

When I started thinking about ideas for collaboration, I quickly found there were many that we could consider. This is by no means not a complete list. If you think of other ideas, feel free to add them in the comments below.

Now let’s get started with the 5 Collaboration opportunities I came up with.

1. Training

I am passionate about training people. I see education as the way people can move from where they are now to a skill level that opens opportunity. I have been involved in training for many years, and I have been a Microsoft Certified Trainer for over ten years.

I have taught many classroom-based training courses in IT, and in the last two years I have got more involved in eLearning training. Here is an example of something I did recently.

If you have ideas for a course that we could do together, please let me know. Some of the skills needed in creating eLearning courses are:

• Course Design
• Subject Matter Expertise in the Course Subject
• Editors
• Course Testers
• Language Translation

I have a full range of video recording and editing equipment to record and carry out post production as well as subtitle creation. So, if this is something you would like to collaborate on, let me know.

2. Software

Software opens up so many new opportunities. In my career I have been involved in various software creation projects that have gone on to be sold commercially in the companies I have worked in.

There are many moving parts to creating great software, and I have studied them in detail. I am looking for people that have ideas but want to collaborate on getting the software built, tested, and made available for others to use.

Some of the skills needed in creating software are:

• Ideation
• Wireframes
• Creation of a Minimum Viable Product
• Architecture
• Development
• Designing
• Branding
• Sales
• Marketing
• Business Start-up

Similar capabilities are need for creating open-source products. If you are keen to collaborate, let’s talk.

3. Public Speaking

Public Speaking is something I enjoy doing and I am always looking for people who are keen to co-present or want me to co-present with them. From User Groups to Conferences, there are many opportunities in our community to present, demo, and speak to show people new ideas and ways of working with the Power Platform and Dynamics 365.

Public Speaking requires a range of skills.

• Topic ideation
• Messaging
• Outcomes
• Story Telling
• Presentation Design
• Demo Creation
• Humor
• Audience Engagement
• Knowledge Transfer
• Empowering others

As I write this list, I get excited. Don’t rule yourself out if you are in the early stages of developing these skills. If you are open to collaborating, I am sure that we can learn from each other to collectively increase our skills in this area. What do you think?

4. Video

In the past months I have continued to work on my video skills. It is such a creative area, and with the popularity of video online it’s a great way to communicate. I am set up with all the equipment to create and produce video for YouTube.

If you have ideas for a video series, we could get together, work out what is needed, storyboard the ideas, shoot the footage, and produce a series of 5-7 min videos that we could share on our YouTube channels. Some ideas for series that come to mind for me are:

• How-to videos
• Case Studies
• User Cases
• Events
• Interviews
• What I learned this week/month/year
• Career/Role series

What are your ideas? If this is something that gets you juiced, let’s talk.

5. Blog

Another area that you may be interested in is blogging. Maybe you want to start your own blog, but at this point can’t commit to it. If you’re going to work your way up to that goal and want to take some small steps now, I am keen to collaborate with you on writing posts.

If you have a specific topic you want to explore and have not been able to find content on that topic, let’s discuss how this could be researched and turned into a blog post.

Maybe you want to write a guest post for the nz365guy.com website and have me share that out with the community. I am happy to collaborate with people that have ideas that will create value for the wider community.

So, there you have it, my first five ideas of we can collaborate. In a later post I cover the next five I have on my list:

1. t-shirts
2. stickers
3. podcast
4. book
5. events