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Kris Nagamootoo urges CompTIA members to get involved in the association, and talks about the benefits on offer.
How did you get involved with CompTIA?
I first got involved with CompTIA when I was working as a consultant with Purple Cow Ideas. I was tasked with helping CompTIA with their UK Channel Community event in November 2011 and I also assist with some of the processes for their membership programme. Prior to this, I wasn’t aware of CompTIA, so it was great to hear about a non-profit organisation, whose sole aims were to help advance the IT industry, which is also why I jumped at the opportunity to join them.
Aside from Purple Cow Ideas, what else were you doing prior to joining?
I previously worked at Microsoft for four years and I left Microsoft in 2009 to go travelling in South America, visiting nearly every country on the continent and also meeting my now fiance?e, Christi, along the way. Christi is Italian, so we decided to live in her home town in the Italian Alps for a while, where I worked as an English teacher. There we had our first son and baby number two is now due very soon. I decided to come back to the UK last year for job opportunities, which is when I started at Purple Cow.
What does your role involve?
My role involves mainly bringing new members into CompTIA, through helping them understand how it can benefit their business. Another part of my role is to help retain our current members by ensuring they are making use of what CompTIA has to offer them. I also represent CompTIA at the various industry events I go to, in order to help raise awareness of CompTIA and what we do. Finally, my aim is to work with our vendor and distributor members to help educate their channel using the wealth of resources we have at our disposal.
How can members make the most of what CompTIA has to offer?
One of the best ways members can make the most of CompTIA is basically to get involved. CompTIA is member driven and we encourage all our members to have an active voice in what we do and also in the industry. It would also benefit members to participate in our quarterly events, as the ones that do attend get a lot out of it in terms of knowledge and networking with their industry peers.
What is coming up for you in the near future?
Our EMEA Member and Partner conference coming up in October will be a big focus for everyone at CompTIA UK and we aim to coincide this with driving new member recruits, which is always a focus for us, as our aim is to be at over 500 members by next year. I am also working with some big vendors and distributors to educate their channel, so watch this space.
What do you like best about working in this industry?
The people I get to meet is the thing I enjoy the most about the industry. To hear from all different types of people on their businesses always gives me a buzz, especially if I can help them reach their business goals. You also get to meet some colourful characters in the industry and hear some fantastic stories!
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