The last day of FileMaker DevCon, in my now fifth time, brings up mixed feelings. On the one hand you’re incredibly tired, and your brain is about to burst from all that you’ve learned, so you’re excited to be done. The other hand’s feelings, however are sad.
You have enjoyed your time learning, being with friends and colleagues, and soaking up FileMaker. That it is with me. FileMaker DevCon 2016 is among my top two most valuable FileMaker experiences — the first being my first time at DevCon in 2012. But alas, it is ending. And I can’t wait to be home.
On this last day the sessions were no less important or worth the time. In one session, FileMaker hosted a panel asking how to attract new developers to the platform. As a former teacher and a person who came into FileMaker less than a decade ago, I had to sit in. I’m extremely passionate about people joining FileMaker. I’d love to help people learn, so I’m interested in any session on this topic.
I also went to a session on advanced reporting techniques and dashboard design. This is the kind of session that was above me a few years ago, but it was well put together, and I picked up some great techniques. One such technique was about using repeating fields to create cross-tab reports. In all the dogmatic approaches to FileMaker, I lost the idea that repeating fields can be a useful object. The key, a friend says, is to think of a repeating field as part of the UI rather than part of the data-storage schema. See, even over tweets, I can learn a few things.
The last session of the day was another panel on WebDirect success stories. Four developers were on stage and answered questions from the audience and demonstrated their successful WebDirect apps. I felt this panel was successful; it highlighted what can be done with FileMaker for the web and showed that it, in fact, is very possible.
FileMaker Developer Challenge
The closing session was a highlight of the week. Here, Mark Baum from FileMaker introduced to us the three nonprofits involved in the Developer Challenge who described their organizations and expressed excitement at being part of the competition. Over 70 FileMaker developers from around the world were grouped into teams of three or four to produce an app for one of the three. During this session Mark Baum and Bob Bowers announced a winner for each nonprofit. The whole philanthropy concept was a great way to finish the week.
The last day of DevCon allowed me to put a wrap on the theme for the year and to say hi to acquaintances one more time. The whole experience was well worth the time. I give a big shout out to all the people at FileMaker who put this on. It’s a big task. This one ran smoothly and, I believe, was valuable for its attendees. I learned much in this conference and am inspired to push myself into parts of FileMaker I’ve not yet explored.
I hope to see you at FileMaker DevCon 2017 in Phoenix, AZ!
