DF Con 2025

While not the most exciting name, “DF Con” is our own, internal-only, Digital Fusion Conference and we had our 5th one back in June — once again, it was a huge success so I'll share some insights in to how we do this and what we get out of it all.

Born out of the pandemic to avert cabin fever (i.e. being stuck in NZ!), we created our own event. It’s proven to be a winner in terms of knowledge sharing, team building, and just plain geek-out fun.

Theme

The moniker “DF Con” is rather generic so we spice it up with a unique theme each year: our destination this year endured a rather large tectonic event not so long ago, and of course a tonic is good for reinvigoration, so combining those two ideas gave us:

TECH TONIC

And with that we created a “logo”, printed some posters and some merch (thanks to our wonderful, long time client QTCo!)…

…and of course, developed a Tech Tonic cocktail — “Hex on the Beach”

(er, as in hexidecimal numbering system used in coding... not casting spells!)

Kaikōura

This year we headed to Kaikōura, a small coastal village 2.5 hours north of Christchurch New Zealand. 

The Sudima Hotel

One thing we've learned from doing these events is that the venue makes a big difference because it shapes the dynamics of the conference, from the mixing and mingling, to the smooth running, quality of food and of course, the service. 

And that's why we returned to the superb Sudima Hotel for a second time. It's luxurious, great value, all under one roof, and with staff and organisation second to none. It's ideal for us and we'd highly recommend it for either a personal trip away or a company conference.

Mixed Agenda

So, what did we do exactly? And was it beneficial?

Well, we’ve honed the formula over the years, and each year it seems to get better… needless to say, DFCon 2025 was the best yet!

So here's what we did exaclty:

There were 7 presentations and 3 panel discussions over the two days:

Autonomy and Alignment — factors as we grow the team, by Craig and Kris

Designing and Tuning Large Databases — tuning for performance, storage and manageability, by Daniel (aka Weetbicks)

FileMaker Upgrade Tool — A deep dive into the "Claris Upgrade Tool" for patching FileMaker databases, by James

A Day In The Life of Running The Office — a highly entertaining look at the administrative side of DF, all represented in The Sims 2, by Karesha and Cindy

Everyone's In Sales — at least that's according to Stu who ran us all through a sales 101 course in 15 mins flat!

Mental Models In UI Design — presented by one of our in house interface designers, Paul Baker

Claris Studio — What's happening with this new product from Claris and how does it complement FileMaker, by Sam

The sessions were interleaved with group panels where 3-4 people were selected to discuss certain topics of interest:

FileMaker ETS — What’s coming in the next version of FileMaker and specifically, how will these new capabilities be useful in the solutions we build.

SysAdmin — everything to do with hosting, networks, software setups and information security.

AI and FileMaker —  discussing when and how we should be using the new generative AI tools.

But Wait… That’s Not All!

We also had 2 Hands-on Workshops

#1 Working with OData — a pivotal integration technology for the platform going forward, run by Paul Hutton.

#2 Working with AI — we added and tuned an "App Assistant" agent to an existing CRM database solution, run by Oscar Frith-Macdonald

Both were immense fun due to the gamified way the guys put the workshops together, making for extraordinarily engaging learning exercises.

And then there was the Bonus Session:

“Ask Me Anything” a sort of fireside chat with the boss…

AND… there was a quiz and a scavenger hunt interleaved, some nice meals and a few beverages to help quench the inevitable thirst (for knowledge of course)!

Afterwards, we surveyed attendees (which was everyone in the company) and the feedback was overwhelmingly positive with accolades and thanks to the organising team (Stu, Cath, Karesha), the presenters, the activity organisers, and the destination!

It's a big call to close up shop for a couple of days, and we thank our patient clients for bearing with us if your support was affected, but the overall impact on team building, collaboration and professional development is huge: we will keep doing this as it helps us be better developers and a better team.