Today I've just found my interview published on ActionScriptHero:
http://www.actionscripthero.org/2010/04/marco-casario/
Here's an abstract:
>> How would you introduce yourself and your job to a non-technical person?
Every time I’ve tried explaining my job to my mother it hasn’t been a success. In the end what she did grasp was that I work with computers. In this answer I’ll try to be as clear as I possibly can in the hopes of a better result.
I was born as a developer, and from the tender age of 12 I began my first steps with Basic trying to create my own video games. Though they weren’t very popular, I continued to work in the fascinating programming world for development’s sake. This was until I met the Amiga 500 BBS and created an elementary terminal program to download new files from my favorite BBS.
In 1996 I began I got bitten by the Internet bug and it was love at first site.
My first approach to HTML development for the web occurred just as Flash Player (version 2) was coming out and becoming increasingly popular. I was fascinated straight away by the potential of creating more rich and effective sites and applications and got straight to work on getting to know more about ActionScript and Flash Player. My knowledge of Adobe’s (formerly Macromedia) technology grew when I became a Macromedia consultant for Italy in 2001, where I toured Italy between events and business meetings to promote the use of Flash, Flash Media Server and Flex.
After over ten years of experience in the field of application development with Flash/Flex/AIR/Flash Media Server, especially in the enterprise context (banking, financial and so on), I created my own company, Comtaste (www.comtaste.com/en), in which I am CTO. Now my role is to supervise Comtaste’s development team, find new clients and projects around the world, and deal with project management and cost estimation models.
I am a professional speaker, participating in major international conferences on Flash Platform, and an author of several books on Flash , Flex and AIR (Flex 4 Cookbook, AIR Cookbook , Professional Flash Catalyst , The Essential Guide to AIR with Flash CS4, Flex Solutions: Essential Techniques for Flex 3 developers).
Today, the actual developing part of the job takes up a marginal portion of my time, but I keep busy with the example applications for books that I write and talks I give during conferences, events and community meetings.
Technology isn’t my only passion. Sport has always been a big part of my life and, although most people don’t know and I tend to hide it, I’m a professional Latin American dancer and an advanced diver.
To unplug and relax from my quite stressful and frenetic job, I like to cook and taste fine wines.
If one day I wanted to change industry I have some shortcuts on standby: I’m a licensed chef in one of the most prestigious International Culinary Schools and a Sommelier with a diploma from the Italian Sommeliers Association, part of the W.S.A, ‘World Sommelier Association’.