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Joris Aarts & Johan Hedman: EngageU conference in Malmö Sweden/Nov 2024
Matt talks with Joris Aarts from ClickWorks and Johan Hedman from Square Moon. We discuss the upcoming Engage U Conference in November 17-19 in Malmö, Sweden The conference will feature Brad Freitag, Andrew LeCates, Doug Wallis, David Loeb, and Wesley Powell from Claris. We talked about a few speakers including Rob Spearman, Alexis Allen, Ian Jempson, Chris Moyer, Heidi Porter, Charles Delfs, Jan
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Transcribed by machine (whisper, large model), 4,900 words. Names and product terms are sometimes misheard; the audio is the record.
Claris Talk AI. Another episode of Claris Talk AI. We have two very special guests today, Johan Hedman and Joris Aritz, who run the EngageU conference in Europe. So we'll talk about that. So welcome to the show. I think I've had one of you on before. Anyway, this is good. No, we've actually done this a few times in different podcasts I've had over the years, as I can remember. Well, it's good to see you both. Yeah. So the conference is coming up November 17th to 19th in Malmö, Sweden. Tell me a little bit about it. What are your goals? Where is it going to be? So at the conference, we're really happy to have a conference where we can see so many people that already signed up right now. We are almost at 150 already, and we are kind of aiming to get to 150 before we get started on the 17th. Wow.
Like what you said, in Malmö, Sweden, we're already at 150. So we're really happy to have a conference where we can see so many people that already signed up right now. Malmö here, it's going to be going back to the real old roots of a DevCon, where we have the hotel, we have the conference, we have the dinners, we have everything on the same place. So everyone will be together throughout the entire conference. So we look forward to sharing a lot of knowledge and socializing throughout the conference. That's great. I think it's the best DevCons I can think of are when we did it at the Marriott in Phoenix, because it was in one spot, you couldn't really leave. Well, Malmö, you're in the middle of the city. And so there was great socialization, except that it was 106 degrees at two o'clock in the morning. So that was a thing. We are missing the lazy river, but that's maybe We don't have a lazy river at the hotel. I'm sorry about that. Yeah. We had a lazy river in Texas as well. I think it was San Antonio.
Yeah, I remember that. That was fun for sure. Playing hooky for a session and going float around the pool for a little while. So I love that it's at one hotel. I think you guys have done a phenomenal job with the conference the few years I've been able to attend it since I've lived here. You really have captured that the DevCon spirit of having it in one place. You do a phenomenal job with all of the social stuff. You have both of you guys have significant staff. So it's extremely well run. So I don't know, I'm talking about all the things I love about it and how excited I am. So tell me about like, I think you've said something about expanding the reach because you've been focusing on what mostly Western Europe, Northern Europe. And this that's changing.
So we noticed that like the UK, Germany was a bit underrepresented. And this year, we focused on that. So we have been working closely together with FileMaker magazine in Germany. So since last week, there's an article published about EngageU. We are featured on their website as well. So they're actively helping us getting more people from Germany. So we have been working closely together with Germany to the conference and it's working out. Same thing with UK. We're actively working with UK partners to spread the word about EngageU. And I'm very pleased to announce that we will have a delegation of Windsoft this year and people from Eastern Europe from Turkey. So Charbitas will be presented. It's a partner in Turkey and we will have one speaker, Osman, how to eat your yogurt.
Interesting. That'll be fun to attend. So Windsoft for those people in the US, you might not know is they're kind of the representatives of Claris for a lot of the things, partner relations, and purchases of licenses and things like that in Europe. And actually throughout really a lot of the region, I think Asia, do you know what they represent over here? So what I know is that they are also responsible for translating Claris to ADAP. So people in the Middle East can also use Claris projects. Yeah. I think it's actually a significant part of Asia. And I think maybe all of Africa, they also represent. India, I'm not sure. Anyway, huge reach. So they're a huge part of the Claris family. So I want to talk about the Claris people who are going to be there. Obviously, the Engage in Texas, at the Apple HQ, they can have everybody because it's close by. But you've got some big names this year, yeah? Yeah, we certainly are really, really happy to have Brad Freighter coming over. First time in many years, he's traveling outside of US. So he's going to be attending and be a part of the opening session.
And we just, like a week ago, was being called out by Claris that they will also send Andrew LeCates. So they will be hosting the opening session and hopefully will be telling some stories of where we are going to have the Claris platform in the future. That's exciting. Brad's a very big name. And also he's like six foot four or two meters for those of you who live in civilized parts of the world. Andy, I go back so long. I love him so much. Yeah, he's great. One of the big things about the people that we are getting to be a part of Engage from Claris is that we want them to be on site. We want them to be there. We want them to socialize. And we've been having really, really good success with that because people actually feel that they get first-time connection with these people if they get a chance to talk to them face to face. And this is working really good for the last two years we've been working like this. And we really hope to have that going on in the future as well. Yeah, that's a huge thing.
I've actually been at some DevCon conferences where the president at the time, Dominique or not, I think it was maybe mostly Dominique, were there for like the first day and then they were gone. Although I actually did get to talk to Dominique a bunch of times too. So there's a few more people from Claris. Who else is going to be there? Yeah. Don't forget, we will have Wesley Powell, product manager for Claris Studio. So it will be great getting some updates, news. He will lead the technical session and he will be part of the panel discussion. We're going to come back to Wesley in a minute. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. And actually, your friend, it's the second time that we are blessed by the visit of Brad Freitag. So he was there on the first edition in Malmo as well. So I remember that with the delegations we get from Claris.
Yep. And then I think also, who else do we have? We will have Douglas Willis will be there, technical lead. And then we will also have the partner manager for EMEA, David Liu. Yep. So David, Douglas and some other of the Claris people, probably book up the room that we specialize only for Claris people to book so that they can meet up with anyone who like to have a one-on-one with them and speak about what they need or what I help to do or working to do for their business. So it will be a good response for anyone. Yeah, for sure. I've been working with David a lot this last couple of weeks, because I'm actually now officially a Claris partner again, as Navarre Training. So I've kind of been, you know, sort of solo and working as a rep of Direct Impact and kind of being part of their partner program. But now I'm on my own again, which is great. I'm all focused on training. So let's see. So one of the things that I'm really excited about is, and I haven't been excited about in a long time, is Claris Studio. So Joris, I think we have, you presented an amazing session on it and now we're going to have a few sessions this year on it. Talk a little bit about those. We've got Rob, we've got Ian, who else? Oh, that's actually AI for, for, um,
for Ian. We'll talk about it in a minute, but talk about what Rob's going to be, want to be doing. Um, I'm not, I'm not sure Rob, if you're referencing Robert Halsey, he won't be at EngageU. Oh, Robert Halsey. Rob Speakman here. How did I forget? Rob Speakman from We Know Data. He will give a good, very good introduction of what you can start using Studio for, to get your data from different data sources and how you can get your coworkers to get rid of Excel and start using Studio instead. Yeah. So it'll be the first step into the Studio world that I think a lot of people need as an eye opener. I'll give a little bit of a preview. Uh, Studio has really been kind of lacking in features, but I think we're going to see a major announcement that that completely goes away with an upcoming release. Um, and so, which is why I referenced a minute ago that I'm actually really excited about it again. Um, a lot of the things I really hoping that it would become, it is becoming, so that makes me really happy. And that's going to be the focus of the panel that I'm going to be moderating as well. So we'll actually be talking about Studio and its change. So I'm very excited about that. So let's talk AI. What's the, what are the AI focuses of the conference going to be?
Don't both speak at once. Okay. Yeah. So we, we have a really good speaker about AI, uh, Ian Jemson, he's always so good of presenting, uh, AI in a way so that everyone will be able to understand. Uh, so we are very fortunate to have a, his, uh, his other speaker. Uh, of course we wouldn't really know what he's going to be speaking about besides it's going to be AI because everything changed every quarter, more or less. That's true. But then we also have other people who's going to be speaking. Uh, we have, uh, from Bitbook, we have, uh, Franco who's going to be speaking about AI and, and there will be other sessions as well. Uh, they're going to be touching AI in different matters. So there will be, of course, be a lot of talks about AI in the corridors in between the different sessions. Yeah. Jonathan use AI for vectorizing PDF contents and to PDF content. Uh, and Chris Moyer will also be Chris and Heidi will be there reflecting on current and future AI directions.
Yeah. I've been, so we actually had maybe both of them on the podcast before Ian and Chris and I got to really nerd out about it in a previous episode of this podcast. Um, and I'll actually be doing a class on AI. So my I'm going to be focusing just on the practical part of it, right? How to actually integrate it into your solution, specifically semantic search and the new, uh, script steps that came with FileMaker 2024 and calculations. Um, so there'll be like a file, uh, with that. And it's also going to be available as a zoom class. So even if you're not at the conference, you'll be able to join that one via zoom. Uh, and that's going to be on the 17th of November, not to push my own stuff too much, but you know, I'm really glad I love teaching as you guys will know. And so I'm really happy to be also teaching on the AI stuff as well now. So we're very happy to have you there, Matt. And, and we, we changed the, the way the first day is actually Spain, because the, the, the two years before we've had a partner day where we met the owner with partners, and we had Clarice speak to only partners, but both we and, and Clarice would rather speak to everyone about where they want to go and what they like to share. So instead of having a partner day, we changed that into having a pre-conference training day. So besides Matt here doing a
really good way of kind of representing about AI and how you do integrations, we will also have Alexis Allen speak about how you can use UX and UI in your solutions. So you will have an option here to pick either of the two conference, pre-conference and training here to, to learn a little bit more about how you can use different techniques in, in a platform. Yes. You can choose to follow the course on site, but you can also register for online participation. Great. Alexis is making the huge world tour right now at conferences. She's at the Australia conference that's happening now. She's going to go to the Japan conference. She's going to go to all of the European conferences. She's really getting those air miles in and she's always amazing.
She, her design chops are phenomenal. We had her on the podcast along with Matt O'Dell really recently. So I'm really curious, 250 people is a really significant goal for this year. And I know I know that you're aiming actually even bigger than that. What are your goals for next year and the, and you know, 10 years after that or however, however far you're planning. Well, we are basically having fun doing this year on and our goal is to unite the European community because I personally have been traveling before the pandemic to all these local conferences, the French, the Dutch, et cetera. I, I like it much better this way. And so that was a foundation of EngageU. So we are very glad that this is working out. And yeah, in terms of growth, it will be good if we became, you know, more and more successful.
the european standard which is now adopted by by clarice more or less with a significant delegation they are sending so we are ready to host 300 people even needed this year but that will probably wow are you aiming even bigger four or five hundred for coming years i learned something i learned an interesting fact recently actually talking to david at claris there there's more the number of partners in europe is higher than the number of partners in the us i would never have guessed that to be true but that's what he said there are definitely some countries with a lot of partners uk and germany are really big uh so they probably are pitting off a lot of those people that that you are talking about partners here but yeah definitely so there's a lot of history of a lot of user using clary's platform or filemaker for a very long time but there's the language of course so we have a lot of people that are using clary's platform or filemaker for a very long time and they're not using clary's platform or filemaker for a very long time so we have a lot of people that are using clary's platform or filemaker for a very long time and they're not using clary's platform or filemaker for a very long time so we have a lot of people that are using clary's platform or filemaker for a long time so we have a lot of people that are using clary's platform or filemaker for a very long time so we have a lot of people that are using clary's platform or filemaker for a very long time and we
have a lot of people that are using clary's platform or filemaker for a very long time and we have a lot of people that are using clary's platform or filemaker for a very long time and we there's a conference in spain i think there's a conference in spain i think there's a conference in spain i think that's actually in spanish do i that's actually in spanish do i that's actually in spanish do i recall that correctly i think there's one recall that correctly i think there's one recall that correctly i think there's one coming in france as well coming in france as well coming in france as well yeah it was one in in french and the yeah it was one in in french and the yeah it was one in in french and the spanish one also took place earlier but spanish one also took place earlier but spanish one also took place earlier but they are localized so they are only in they are localized so they are only in they are localized so they are only in their local language i don't say that's their local language i don't say that's their local language i don't say that's anything bad with that anything bad with that anything bad with that we really need to still meet up and talk we really need to still meet up and talk we really need to still meet up and talk to people to people to people but we we have clary's in our back here but we we have clary's in our back here but we we have clary's in our back here uh saying that they want us to continue uh saying that they want us to continue uh saying that they want us to continue work on this and make it to do the work on this and make it to do the work on this and make it to do the european conference and and then that's european conference and and then that's european conference and and then that's what we're hoping for to have everyone what we're hoping for to have everyone what we're hoping for to have everyone to meet up because i think that's the to meet up because i think that's the to meet up because i think that's the best part about this community having a best part about this community having a best part about this community having a chance to share chance to share chance to share and socialize and see where everyone and socialize and see where everyone and socialize and see where everyone else is because we have the same else is because we have the same else is because we have the same way we do the same kind of things way we do the same kind of things way we do the same kind of things so being able to share your your inner so being able to share your your inner so being able to share your your inner sorts about different things or problems sorts about different things or problems sorts about different things or problems i mean there's there's no matter better i mean there's there's no matter better place than to meet up in a conference place than to meet up in a conference place than to meet up in a conference oh i so agree i agree yeah oh i so agree i agree yeah oh i so agree i agree yeah um let's see what are the conferences um let's see what are the conferences um let's see what are the conferences they have in europe so the dot fmp they have in europe so the dot fmp they have in europe so the dot fmp conference really sadly was the last one conference really sadly was the last one conference really sadly was the last one was this last uh several months ago um was this last uh several months ago um was this last uh several months ago um but i think you said something about a but i think you said something about a but i think you said something about a new conference starting up new conference starting up new conference starting up in vienna yes correct yeah so there is
in vienna yes correct yeah so there is in vienna yes correct yeah so there is a german conference taking place as well a german conference taking place as well a german conference taking place as well it's only german speaking as well in it's only german speaking as well in it's only german speaking as well in this year uh but yes so uh 72 solutions this year uh but yes so uh 72 solutions this year uh but yes so uh 72 solutions are going to host a conference at the are going to host a conference at the are going to host a conference at the same dates almost like they're usually same dates almost like they're usually same dates almost like they're usually dot fmp dot fmp dot fmp take place but in vienna instead so they've take place but in vienna instead so they've take place but in vienna instead so they've just started to kind of pick up just started to kind of pick up just started to kind of pick up the thread of where egbert from dot fmp the thread of where egbert from dot fmp the thread of where egbert from dot fmp kind of closed down which is really sad kind of closed down which is really sad kind of closed down which is really sad because we love that conference it was because we love that conference it was because we love that conference it was uh but i know everything has to come to uh but i know everything has to come to uh but i know everything has to come to an end sometimes and now we just have to an end sometimes and now we just have to an end sometimes and now we just have to make sure egbert comes to our conference make sure egbert comes to our conference make sure egbert comes to our conference instead to share his knowledge yeah yeah instead to share his knowledge yeah yeah instead to share his knowledge yeah yeah so vienna in june 2025 is an so vienna in june 2025 is an so vienna in june 2025 is an unconference conference unconference conference unconference conference unconference conference okay vienna is uh unconference conference okay vienna is uh unconference conference okay vienna is uh one of my favorite cities in the world one of my favorite cities in the world one of my favorite cities in the world because it's uh it's the classical music because it's uh it's the classical music because it's uh it's the classical music capital of the world really capital of the world really capital of the world really um so many concerts there and a big um so many concerts there and a big um so many concerts there and a big classical music nerd so yeah i totally sure what else is on the agenda. Those are all the things I really wanted to talk about, but I'm sure there's a ton of stuff we can keep going into. What else is on your mind? What else is exciting right now? Yeah, so everyone who's listening and looking here, please go ahead and go to
engageu.eu to read more about the hotel, the conference, all the speakers, and then hopefully also sign up so we can meet up in November. That would be great. What about your companies? I'm curious, because you guys, maybe people don't know, you guys both have different companies. You're not part of the same. I'm still waiting for the day that you merge. But what are your focuses on and the projects that you guys are doing? Okay, Clickworks, we are 15 people, and we are focusing on larger tailor-made products. So we don't have verticals. We love listening to customers. We love growing with them and being a long-term partner. But we are focusing at medium-sized and corporate customers. So we have some challenging projects, and that's what we love to do.
You listen to your customers? That's weird. I've never heard of that approach. Obviously a great idea and something to focus on. Good to know that yours and Clickworks are located in Belgium, in Antwerp. And my company, Squareman, we are located up in Sweden, and we have three offices in Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Malmö. We are right now 23. So we are probably about the bigger ones that are platinum partners in Europe, I would say. And we have two likes, so to speak, that we stand on. So we do have vertical market products, and we have three or four, I don't know exact, that we have focused on specific business, where we think they will be really good at.
And we have focused on specific business, where we think they will be really good at. And we have focused on specific business, where we think they will be really good at. And we have focused on specific business, where we think they will be really good at. And we have focused on specific business, where we think they will be really good at. really good at um and then we do the same thing on the other leg like what viewers are doing we are trying to find customers for a long-term collaboration where we are trying to understand their needs and build a tailor-made solution that will work for them for a long time going forward and then like what you are doing like we are trying to teach them a little bit about what you can teach them with with ai so that we also get a chance to do a little project with them with ai but i can see that more and more of our clients right now are kind of getting into the idea of maybe starting a little project to get an awareness of what you can do so it's a very exciting time right now i can definitely see there people's heads are starting to move around a little bit in that area and i'm really curious to get into more projects like that you know i have to say there's the the feel with some parts of the community or that uh that file maker is kind of waning but there's your conference is growing your company is growing and you're companies are growing this is a very good time to be a file maker developer after for almost four decades um yeah that's the biggest problem for any partner in europe i'd say anyone that i speak to uh need to have more developers and then we have a very strong relationship with click works but
i'm really happy that we have so we are helping out each other out when when needed uh but then of course there are a lot of consultants throughout europe that are helping each other out in some different ways so i feel like we have a ecosystem that are very good of helping each other out reaching out and speaking to each other and then what isn't a better way to meet up and get to know new people than in a conference so that's also another reason why to attend engage you yeah i can i can say that the companies that invest in find make it keep investing so we have still a lot a lot of work in our backlog we're trying to find attract new developers more mostly we we are educating them or um teaching them ourselves because it's very hard to find file making developers of course but uh yeah growth growth is is is an issue we have more demands and i hear the same from from your uh we had the records here with clickworks this year and we haven't we're not planning to stop so uh companies really believe in fine making as a product and and we get even newer people and we get even newer people and we get even newer people uh attracted also we have no problem hiring younger people so people in their 20s 30s they
they still fall in love with finding yes yeah when you see the power of what you can do and and how quickly you can um deliver it's just it's it's such a sweet spot well we don't need to keep going on about it because we all know kind of where it fits but it is exciting that people who are young are are finding the same things that we found about it when we were young because like two years ago i still feel young but i look in the mirror and i see evidence to the contrary it's so great to talk to you guys thank you so much for being on the podcast thank you