TEDxTraverse City- Carl Erickson-Between Freelance and Coporate America May 26, 2011

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Carl Erickson is the co-founder and president of Atomic Object, a 30 person software design and development consultancy. Atomic builds web, mobile and embedded software products for clients ranging from huge multinationals to startups, in diverse markets spanning automotive, healthcare, financial services, education, distribution and entertainment.

Before creating Atomic out of the ashes of a failed dot-com startup, Carl was a professor of computer science at Grand Valley State University. A major figure in the West Michigan technology community, he also founded SoftwareGR in 2003. SoftwareGR is a non-profit trade association dedicated to software development excellence and regularly draws nationally known speakers to Grand Rapids for monthly meetings and its annual conference.

Through a recently launched blog,Great Not Big, Carl has begun sharing his experience, thoughts, ideas and practical help for creative consultancies. He believes smallish firms of collaborative teams creating products for other companies are a critical component of our national economy. Competing on the global playing field of the 21st century requires happy and effective work structures; creative consultancies can be both.

Carl holds a PhD in computer engineering from Michigan State University