DevCon 2012 is over and it was quite a show! I gave two presentations, I received a Mad Dog award and both GoZync and GoDraw were featured prominently in the Keynote and the closing session.
John Sindelar from SeedCode and I were really proud that GoZync was part of the very first two demos given by FileMaker’s Andy Lecates during the Keynote. We have worked really hard on GoZync and it was really gratifying to see it up there on the big screen in front of all our colleagues. And the timing for us was perfect, as we had just announced the release of GoZync 3.0.
My first session on Re-Usable code went really well, despite the fact that I had done just about everything you are not supposed to do. The night before I had gone to bed about 1 am after practicing my slides and demos for most of the night. I was ready. My session was at 9 am so I figured I would have plenty of time for sleep. Not so.
At 1:05 am, I began to feel that I my story was incomplete. It started as just a tiny, little, small voice in the back of my head. But it gradually got louder until at 2:00 am I got up and ordered a pot of coffee. I knew what I needed to do.
I rewrote the last demo from scratch. Then I reworked the slides to fit the new demo. Normally this is a very bad idea. You never rework your preso 6 hours before lift off. Its just plain lunacy. However, I am simply un-able to deliver a presentaion that I can’t get behind in my own head. I have to feel the story from beginning to end, and all parts in between. If any of it feels weak, that doubt shows through.
I re-worke the slides until I had a narrative that I could hole heartedly commit to. I practiced the new presentation and demos until 8 am. Then I grabbed some breakfast and some more coffee, and by 8:30 I was setting up for the show. At 9 am, I lifted off. Judging from the feedback it went very well.
My second session was plauged by technical issues. I was un-able to get a decent wireless connection. This made it really hard to demonstrate the sycning tehcniqes, and app design that I wanted to. I managed to get through it, but I don’t feel I was really able to get the session back on track. I hope some people got something out of it. I am planning on re-recording the session and making it available on my site at some point soon. Hopefully that will help some folks who really wanted the info that I was un-able to show.
The biggest surprise for me was when I received and FBA award for being a Mad Dog marketer. I had no idea that was coming. I never think of myself as being a marketing person at all. But it was really nice to receive the award!
Finally in the closing session, Bill Heizer showed an application he built that made use of GoDraw, our drawing add on for FileMaker Go. It was a really nice little demo.
The rest of the week is a blur of lots of great content and conversations. The ingenuity of the community and the engineers at FMI never ceases to amaze me. I am already looking forward to Devcon 2013. Hello, San Diego 🙂
Thanks for what you are doing, Todd !
Thank you!
Thanks for sharing this. It is wonderful when we listen and ‘do what we need to do’. That is how the creation comes into being. 🙂
Todd! You continue to inspire, year after year. I’m sure many of us out here – who share your passion for FM & development feel the same! Thank you for writing so candidly about yourself, your thought process and sharing your excellent work. Your sessions this year were fantastic as always. I look forward to what comes next. Cheers!
Despite the technical problems you had, your second session was great.
Thank you