FileMaker Conference Notes

The FileMaker conference is winding down. Tomorrow, I'm in an all day session focusing on creative design.

I have been to a lot of conferences in my lifetime. This was my first time at the FileMaker conference. Let's say I was at home. First, MAC users out numbered PC users 20:1. Second, almost everyone had an iPhone. Third, the people were just groovy man. Well, except for the guy that had gas -- that's a story for another day. Finally, these folks were absolute raving fans of FileMaker.

During the conference, I had to the opportunity to look at some of the applications that are being developed by the FileMaker community. Let me say, that some of these applications were just amazing. The majority of applications developed by the FileMaker community don't necessarily come from programmers and/or analysts. They are developed by people that use the software. You could tell just by how some of these applications flowed. I spoke to a doctor who designed his own patient record system. I Spoke to an accountant who designed his own accounting system. I spoke to an owner of a bowling alley who wrote is own point of sale system.

What impressed me the most -- was how folks from different backgrounds were able to collaborate with one another. Witnessing programmers sitting down with non-programmers to see how they were learning from each other was impressive. One actual conversation I was apart of was watching a programmer explain recursive functions to a doctor. The doctor was listening and learning. Then, I saw that same doctor show the programmer how he integrated document processing through PDF's using PHP's PDF library. BTW - I learned something from this doctor. He did some amazing stuff with PDF documents.

Over the years, I've taken abuse for being a FileMaker fan. I think their database is powerful and easy to use. I love the scripting features that would rival any established business rule engine. In fact, that's one of the reasons I used FileMaker in an application I've designed. I don't think Microsoft or Oracle are concerned or threatened by FileMaker. Why? FileMaker has carved off a niche for themselves that these two powerhouses don't want. FileMaker caters to the small to mid-size organization. In fact, Microsoft, Oracle, and MySQL have partnered with FileMaker in integrating their databases into FileMaker Server. What's great about this integration is that all the integration is done on the server. Clients don't need ODBC connections for it to work.

Finally, you could tell that FileMaker listens to their customers. They understand them and want to collaborate with them. Recently, they cut the price of their technet program to only $99.00 per year. This includes a developer version of FileMaker Pro and FileMaker Pro Advance Server. That's a bargain. I heard some grumblings from some folks stating that it was a mistake because it's only going to diminish the quality of the technet community. I say good for FileMaker. They want to hear from their customers and they're going to.



PS: Here are some notes I took from the conference: