DEVCON Review 08 and Preview 09

[Rich R]

I don't think I'm breaking any super secret confidential agreement to pass along they announced at the final session DevCon 09 will be in San Francisco!

Finally - no 110 degree humid thunderstorms, scorpions big cockroaches etc etc etc!

If we start planning now - we can get some great get togethers and stuff going for next year. I volunteer to help out on this end since we're so close to home. I'd like to see alot of the independent developer companies band together to host something fun.

Anyway - Besides next year - what did y'all think of this year?

[David Jondreau]

It was my first and I thought it okay, not great.

Highlights included:

-Albert Harum-Alvarez's Design sessions

-Doug Gardner's Tips and Tricks session.

-Singing "All of Me" with a half dozen other developers, with piano and saxophone accompaniment.

-Watching the didgeridoo jam with the rest of the band

-the hotel itself was beautiful

-the Filemaker staff was very helpful and when presenting very entertaining and informative.

-Sneak previews of features in future releases

Downsides:

-There was very little support for independent developers, not even a "birds of a feather" table.

-The internet issue was ridiculous.

-The Web-based sessions were too advanced. There was no "intro to" web services, PHP, or even plug ins for that matter.

-The "traditional" Filemaker sessions were good, but a little too basic for me. I did learn a half dozen new tricks though nothing earth-shattering.

[Colin Keefe]

I think probably the fact that there were several intro level PHP/web type sessions at the previous devcon had something to do with the dearth of intro web stuff this go round. Not saying it's right, just saying...

It was my first time presenting and I'm just happy I didn't screw up. So far as I know.

Looking forward to SF too!

[Fitch]

My favorite by far was John Sindelar's "Year in review" session. He really is a great presenter and one sharp guy.

There were two eye-opening sessions on using the web viewer (or as Todd Geist calls it: a "layout-level calculation engine") as an interface element: Craig Saunders using the Fusion Reactor plugin, and Todd Geist using MBS.

Todd's Transactions sessions are also very worthwhile, especially if you've never looked closely at this technique.

I agree, Albert's session was enjoyable and thought-provoking. (I went to the first one, but not the workshop.)

The under-the-hood session with the FMI engineers is another valuable session. Talking with them one-on-one is even better!

The FBA meeting was interesting this year.

As for independent developers DJ, I know Molly Connolly did a session on that, but it was from the client's perspective. I see your point.

The internet issue DJ's talking about is: no wireless! That's just not acceptable at a tech conference.

The web sessions do tend to get techy, and there were quite a few this year, but IMO too much basic stuff is sort of a waste in this sort of setting. I agree it's nice to come out of a session with an "I can build that now!" feeling. I don't get that from the web sessions either, but at least we have the conference CD for reference.

The biggest thing is connecting with friends, developers, FileMaker staff, FileMaker users and potential clients.

The setting is beautiful and the food is generally excellent.

I didn't jam as much this year due to other stuff going on, but I was up there backing up the didgeridoo dude (about 10 minutes of C# as I recall).

The Rock Band party was a lot of fun. If you've never played before (like me), here's a tip: you have to push the buttons AND hit the "strummer." I forgot about that last part until halfway through. Epic fail.

But then I took 3rd place in the plastic straws/paper clips roller coaster contest (with collaborator Caroline from Pre1 Software deserving most of the credit). For the record: ours was the only coaster to make all 3 marble runs.

And this really cheered me up!

[Colin Keefe]

Who won that scooter anyway? SolutionMakers were raffling it off or something.

I got jazzed up by the Flex presentation. That stuff was just very cool.

[Fitch]

That's ME in the video! I won it! Thanks again, SolutionMakers!

[Rich R]

And congrats to one of our own - Brian Currell for winning the rock band contest with his band.

[Brian C]

I could not have done it without my awesome band!

I asked Andy about all the photos that were taken at the devcon as well as the rockband competition and he said I should ask Stephen... Hey Stephen is there somewhere online where we can see the pictures?

[iMarcW]

It was my first time, too, and I got a lot out of it. I found my skill set generally seemed to fall somewhere between Fundamentals and Advanced, so I learned to check the PowerPoint files on the CD ahead of time to see if a session looked like it would be too basic, or too complex.

The impromptu PHP show-and-tell sessions on Sunday and Monday night added a lot of value to the conference for me. I was able to see some excellent solutions along with a brief explanation of the underlying code, without getting bogged down in the details.

My favorite sessions were Matt Navarre's search session, Dawn Heady's session on conditional formatting (a topic I *thought* I knew enough about, but her demo proved me wrong), and John Sindelar's Year in Review. (By the way, based on several of the demos, I think they could have changed the theme of the conference to "Repeating Fields are Back!" That was a surprise, to say the least.)

Web Viewers were a big deal this year, and I'm as excited about them as anyone, but it would have been nice if the session descriptions had been a little more clear about when there was nothing being shown in a session that was possible without paying for a plug-in or extra software.

As for the internet access, wireless would have been nice, but they also could have had fewer actual computers in the "lab" and more Ethernet cables to hook up to laptops. The iMacs on the end spent most of their time unused because people were unplugging the cables from them to use with their own computers. The cables on the PC's were not as accessible, and once in a while you'd see people waiting for an open cable rather than using the PC's.

All in all, it was definitely worth the trip. This isn't going to be an annual event for me, so it's too bad I won't be in San Francisco, but being in a tech capital like SF, they'll probably set another attendance record.

[mz123]

Hello there :

I took some photos at DevCon though I need to go through my 500+ photos to make sure I didn't miss any good ones, considering I only posted 100 :

http://flickr.com/photos/picturezink/sets/72157606298704331/

I'll let you know if I post any more!

[Joe Luis]

nice shootin! I entitled the pic of me as "Aging Rocker"

Aging Rocker

Edited July 23, 2008 by Guest

[mr_vodka]

Hey Martha,

Those pictures came out nice! BTW i loved the little glowing cubes they had this year...

[mr_vodka]

I liked this year's DevCon session better than last years. I found them to be more in tune with the course description and leve than last year. Last year I thought too many sessions were too basic. I DID noticed that there were hardly any Intermediate sessions though and perhaps that is where the issue was for some attendees.

[beverly]

Don't forget that you may have updates to sessions on the advisor site. The URL is in your binder (and was at the end of every slide, so check the CD). It may take a few months for them all to trickle through.

Since we couldn't attend every session, I find myself going back to what I missed and these updates will help.

See you all in San Fran!

[jfletch]

Beverly, I didn't see you there. Of course it would have helped if I knew what you looked like. Maybe next time. We'll have to do a Kentucky table!

I ALSO put some pictures on Flickr. Mine were not as awesome as Martha's, as they were all iPhone pictures. But look closely. I'm the one on the back board at the end. The Marriott shuttle bus had a little mishap on the way back to the hotel Wednesday night. Shoulda skipped THAT burger run!

[mr_vodka]

Oh wow! You were on that bus? We saw the accident coming back from the "[color:red]Best Pizza in the US". Are you recovering okay?

[Ocean West]

I seen that accident (or the aftermath of it ) as it blocked access to the hotel. - Hope you make a speedy recovery - psychologically and physically!

[jfletch]

Yeah, thanks! I'm fine now. Nothing broken. (Thank God!) My biggest issue is how do you process four days of intense mental activity while on prescription pain-killers? Thankfully, I'm off the drugs, but I'm going back to my notes, saying, "I don't remember that!" ::-

[mz123]

Nice pictures!

I am glad to hear you are doing okay! At least there are notes and powerpoints to refresh your memory I'd take a few forgotten tips and tricks over any broken bones!