The annual FileMaker Developer Conference is no more, replaced by the brand new Claris Engage. Needless to say, the 25-year anniversary of the conference was still a huge success.

No one could’ve imagined that Claris Engage would divert from Nashville to your living rooms this year, due to a worldwide Pandemic! The online turnout was impressive, with worldwide Claris FileMaker and Connect enthusiasts and developers tuned into the highly-anticipated sessions from the comfort of their homes.

In case you missed the keynote session opening reel, it featured multiple clients, systems, and staff members of Angel City Data! It was brilliant to see our customers’ success stories used to kick off this highly anticipated two-day event.

Brad Freitag (Claris CEO) addressed 2020 and the hurdles this year presented, both to the company and developers. Regardless of the difficulties, he praised efforts from the Claris team for a successful launch of the latest version of FileMaker 19 and the initial launch of Claris Connect, the newest addition in their line of products.

Ryan McCann (Claris Sales VP) was excited to announce that the Claris Community welcomed an incredible number of new members, growing the Advocacy program significantly. The Community Partner Portal has so much to offer, including hundreds of events a year and developer networking. It’s an unmatched resource for the community.

Britta Meyer Rock (new Claris Marketing VP) promoted the free online FileMaker Developer Subscription, which will no doubt expand our community. She also invited attendees to the Claris Academy, which supports both beginners and experts. These two resources can now be accessed and utilized by anyone eager and willing to learn the platforms.

Claris Academy live on-demand sessions: https://community.claris.com/en/s/claris-academy

By the way, Angel City’s own Jake Johnson will be hosting his own Claris Academy session in the very near future. Be on the lookout!

In addition, Britta shared an inspiring success story from Q Foundation, a non-profit headquartered in San Francisco who utilizes Claris’ programs to aid their community during hardships.

Peter Nelson (new Claris Engineering VP) gave us a peek at the technical investments Claris has made between conventions, and Srini Gurrapu (Claris Product and Design VP) reminded us that as the World around us changes, Claris has too! Once a company that only focused on databases, Claris has now shifted to automation and cloud-based services via Cloud Smart focus. He even gave a sneak peek at the next generation product that will be introduced in the very near future.

Andrew LeCates (Platform Evangelism Director) discussed the ongoing strength of the Claris community during COVID-19 and the demand for digital support to combat the pandemic. Claris’ community has responded quickly to the needs of our neighbors and have been leaders for innovation and assistance.

Claris staff and members of the community shined brightly during the various business and technical panels. Our very own lead designer, Jake Johnson, joined a panel of design experts and spoke about UI design and its importance within the FM community!

His panel reached the largest audience of the event and gained a lot of immediate excitement within the FM community. Extra kudos for his “Jake from State Farm” uniform.


Claris Engage 2020 proved that the FileMaker platform, and its community, can be relied upon to adapt and thrive in these changing times. More updates are following soon as Claris continues enhancing this platform for both developers and customers.