It’s important for people to gather around common interests. In the Claris FileMaker community we had an annual developer conference called DevCon for many years…but the in-person events (renamed Claris Engage) went online for the last 3 years. Filling the recent gap for in-person events is the Claris FileMaker unconference called PauseOnError.
So in the fall of 2022 many developers from around the world gathered in the mountains of Clayton, Georgia to reconnect, retreat, review, rest, relax, recharge, renew, and reset. The Ramah Darom Kaplan Mitchell Retreat Center provided the environment to make it happen.
The morning view from my room.
A morning session where many put on the rain gear (fortunately unnecessary this year) and held up our non-digital tablets.
The tentative schedule.
My goals for the time away from the day-to-day.
The view from up here.
Welcome arrival.
The main building where we ate meals and held several sessions.
The calm mountain lake.
There were many technical and non-technical sessions that included discussions and input from everyone there.
Most of the sessions were very interactive with ideas shared by everyone there facilitated by a volunteer. The locations were varied…outside, in a library, at the tree house, basketball court, etc. It wasn’t necessary to have a screen and projector…just the willingness to talk. So lots of good ideas come into the mix. Some of the sessions I attended were:
- Dependencies – A discussion led by Chris Irving of all the things that can create dependencies good and bad in our Claris FileMaker solutions. Overall we need to make intelligent design and engineering decisions to reduce the issues that could be caused by dependencies.
- API Integrations – Discussing some of the ways we build FileMaker integrations and some things to make them more successful led by John Newhoff and Joe Ranne.
- Legacy Systems – Discussing how we know when to refactor code and how to rebuild or learn software built by someone else led by Mark Baum and Sara Severson.
Our LuminFire crew at Pause on Error.
Campfire, s’mores and singing.
A quiet hike to the waterfall on property.
The biggest take away for me was getting a pulse on the community and reconnecting with great friends… many I have known for 20 years through these annual tech conferences. I hope to attend again next year.
I’ve put together an updated Claris FileMaker app with a database of past Claris conferences for reference. Download that for free here.
Tim Cimbura – CEO and Software Engineer
Tim is an expert in creating custom business solutions that make businesses more effective, productive, and profitable. He specializes in rapid application development with the Claris platform including FileMaker and WordPress. He also knows Apple macOS technology inside and out.