Month: August 2005

Yay! it is almost time to fly off to sunny Phoenix, AZ for devcon. I just put up 41 photos from last year’s conference over at Flickr. If you want to see what you are missing or can look forward to, have a look. When I looked at them I got even more excited. Except for moderate weather, Desert Ridge has it all.

These were taken either before the conference got started or in the evening in a spare moment. I never actually photographed the conference events themselves. I was way too busy gathering information and talking to people to play photographer.

Last year was my chance to learn as much as I possibly could about FileMaker 7. This year will be a big learning opportunity too, but I’m expecting it to be a little less mind-bending. The most crazy it could get is if FileMaker 8 gets released and people start trying to master that in 3 days.

This time I’m vowing to be moderate. That’s hard because almost every minute is packed with some kind of opportunity. During the breaks there’s more to learn and more people to meet. My salvation may be in getting into the pool every day and not staying up all hours partying with FileMaker attendees playing old time rock and roll. You almost have to go into training ahead time to handle these conferences.

I hope to be selective in attending sessions because there are about 7 or 8 a day for 3 days straight and you just cannot absorb that much information non-stop. Instead, I’ll take some breaks to research things at the vendor booths and hang out with my fellow Filemaker professionals.

Besides meeting people from all over the world, I especially hope to meet a few who have customers in the creative services industry where I work. It used to be that most FileMaker consultants worked in this area, but now that FileMaker is cross-platform, every industry is represented. And FileMaker consultants in less populated areas, tend to have really broad and mixed practices.

Looking at ll those photos from last year reminds me how fancy that resort really is. It’s deluxe!

Technorati Tags: arizona, desertridge, devcon, filemaker7, jwmariott

I just booked my flight to Phoenix today. I’ll be arriving on Sunday afternoon and leaving Wednesday night. The conference is held at the excellent JW Marriott Desert Ridge Resort & Spa. A gorgeous luxury hotel with lots of pools and palm trees.

Yes. Daytime highs will probably average 105 degrees. It will be scorching hot. You can’t plan on exercising outdoors during the heat of the day unless you go swimming. But, there is a nice big exercise room with a lot of machines which I managed to avoid last year.

Swimming is a must. Ideally two or three times a day. The water temperature is just right – not too cold or too warm. There are a variety of pools. Water is everywhere as a compensation for how hot and dry it is.

The resort is across the street from a mall which is handy for shopping, movies and a good bookstore (it’s either Borders or Barnes & Noble). A shuttle operates frequently to take you to and from the mall which isn’t a bad idea during the day unless you’ve got a water bottle and are ready for some heat.

Then there’s the conference itself. They do a first class job. Presenter (and attendee) knowledge of FileMaker 7 will now be deep and full of real world experience.

Three or four sessions run concurrently throughout the day with room for seven 1.25 hour sessions a day! Brain death is always a danger at these things. If you don’t like one session, you can try another or sometimes spending time one-on-one with another attendee or chatting with vendors is even more valuable.

As usual we’ll be filled in on what’s next for FileMaker at the 2 hour keynote on Monday morning and, if like last year, a special FileMaker Solutions Alliance meeting for FSA members only Monday night. If you are coming and want to say hi, just leave me a message and your room number and we can find a time to meet.

Technorati Tags: desertridge, devcon, filemaker, filemaker7