I started thinking about this series of posts (yep, this is #1 in a series) after a few conversations I had with people at this year’s FileMaker DevCon. I’d strike up a conversation with someone at lunch or at the bar, we’d exchange stories and experiences…and inevitably the talk would shift to why people come to DevCon in the first place.
Reason number 1: for the community. Hands down. The clear pleasures and advantages of meeting other people who are engaged in the same practice as you – with whom you can share ideas, learn from and teach – always trump session topics, what’s on the lunch menu, what kind of swag you can haul back, or how many banners you can affix to the bottom of your convention badge. One of the things that’s sometimes lost when you do a hand count of how many people in the room have iPads is how many people in the room are there because of the other people. Continue reading ‘Why User Groups matter…and how to start one (Post #1)’
On Tuesday evening, August 24, at the IT Solutions office, I shared this video with the Philly FileMaker User Group during our Annual DevCon Recap meeting…having a little fun at DevCon! Thanks for all of those who made cameo appearances and agreed to go on camera (including two FBA Excellence Award Winners!!!)
The fifteenth annual FileMaker Developer Convention was held August 15-18 in San Diego CA. We’ve just gotten back and can’t wait to share. Come join us for a discussion of FileMaker GO, new techniques and technologies, and a general roundtable talk.
Lee Lukehart, SavvyData, has been at the forefront of data visualization for many years. When FileMaker 11 was released with the new FileMaker Charts tool, Lee wrote a white paper and presented a webinar on the feature for FileMaker TechNet members. Lee’s company, SavvyData, also recently put together a couple classes in the San Francisco area on the topics of Charting and Business Intelligence. Lee and I had a chance to chat at the 2010 FileMaker Developer Conference.
Download Lee’s demo from the keynote at savvydata.com.
Mark Richman, Skeleton Key, presented a packed session about FileMaker and WAN performance on Monday of the FileMaker Developer Conference. It was so popular he was rescheduled to repeat the session on Tuesday afternoon. Mark joined me for an interview to discuss his session and the latest happenings at Skeleton Key.
Chad and I are at the airport, heading back. We’ll have lots to talk about next Tuesday – that’s when our next meeting is, by the way. Got too wrapped up to send out an announcement; I’ll get that out later today hopefully.
August 24th, 6 PM, DevCon Recap, at the usual location:
We’ll be recording this one this time, not streaming it, mainly because we’ll be using Jason’s fancypants camera and mike. If you liked the quality of the latest rash of 5 Minutes with Philly FileMaker videos, you’ll like the next meeting recording.
For DevCon folks this year – safe travels and see you next year!
Matt Navarre, MSN Media, joined me for a chat at the FileMaker Developer Conference 2010 in San Diego about vertical market solutions, FileMaker’s Quick Find feature, and of course his FileMaker Talk podcast. Matt is moderating several panel discussions at Devcon this year, hopefully a growing trend for future conferences.
On Tuesday, August 17, at the FileMaker Developer Conference I had a chance to chat with FBA Excellence Award winner Molly Connolly, Thorsen Consulting, about several panel discussions that she is moderating at this year’s DevCon. It’s always a pleasure to get a chance to chat with Molly. Hopefully we can get her out to IT Solutions sometime in the months to come for a user group meeting.
Well, it’s already Wednesday and all my plans for a detailed, literate, forensic analysis of the various sessions are…well, they’re a complete wash.
I will say I’ve picked up a little more information about FileMaker Go and have a better sense of how it can fit in the FileMaker ecosystem in interesting ways. The wheels are turning. Also enjoyed very much Michael Lee’s SQL presentations – very elegant (He’s from ProofGroup, so elegance goes without saying), and his presentation style was welcoming, lighthearted and perceptive. Using repeating fields for cross tab reports – exploding out values using Get(CalculationRepetitionNumber) – is something I’ve had some experience with, but I’ve often had performance problems pointing those calcs against a set of related values and so on. I have some stuff to try out at home.
This isn’t going to be a terribly informative post. Mainly I wanted to toss up a few photos from last night’s dinner on the USS Midway. So here they are. Thanks to Andrew Ulane for the cockpit photo.
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