Claris Engage Conference

A virtual conference for FileMaker developers and users

This year the annual conference, like so many others impacted by the Covid19 crisis, has gone virtual. This conference used to be called FileMaker Devcon for some twenty plus years. Last year, to mark the name change of the parent company, from FileMaker to Claris, the name of the conference changed as well to Claris Engage.

As usual, it is filled with absolutely fantastic teaching; great training on the amazing abilities of FileMaker Pro. The conference also featured stories of how FileMaker has been used to address the Covid-19 crisis. Because FileMaker is a Rapid Application Development software, it is perfectly poised to quickly address the needs of a burgeoning worldwide health crisis. The conference shared stories of various health-care providers who needed a way to track the virus, or help the medical field in tracking and ordering protective equipment. It is amazing how rapidly some of these applications were developed; sometimes in a matter of a week or a few weeks. This is amazing and unheard of in the software development world. But this is a tribute to the power and flexibility of FileMaker.

The power of FileMaker has increased considerably in the last few years. FileMaker 19 released the power of Add-ons, which are stand-alone modules which can be dropped into a FileMaker solution. They can be composed of another FileMaker file, or of Javascript. It is the Javascript module possibilities which can tremendously expand the power of FileMaker. With such modules, Add-ons such as Kanban boards or calendars can be easily added to FileMaker solutions.

Every year, as I attend the developers’ conference, I am encouraged by the power and the potential of FileMaker. It makes me look forward to the opportunities which we can provide to our clients to enhance and automate their business.

Feel free to contact us to discuss what we can do for you.