The fourth EngageU Conference took place from November 9 to 11 in Antwerp, Belgium. The organizers from ClickWorks (BE) and SquareMoon (SE) once again put together a thoroughly successful event, surpassing their own records from previous years.
With nearly 250 developers from a total of 27 countries, the conference has become a fixture not only for FileMaker enthusiasts from Europe, but far beyond. Participants came from almost all European countries, North America, Africa, India, Asia, and New Zealand.
Software manufacturer Claris sent a delegation of executives and engineers who were available throughout the event.
Program & Highlights
To get everyone in the mood, a tour of Antwerp was offered on Sunday. This was followed by two pre-conference workshops in the afternoon and a social event with beer tasting at a local brewery in the evening.
On Monday morning, the conference organizers held a welcome session. Joris Aarts and Johan Hedman gave a brief overview of how the conference came about, as well as the participants, speakers, sponsors, and conference team. The Hilton Antwerp Old Town, with its huge ballroom, provided an impressive backdrop, complemented by modern stage technology and studio equipment for recording the presentations.
The conference program, with a total of 40 sessions in 4 tracks, kicked off right after the welcome with a keynote from Claris. Giuliano Iacobelli and Robert Holsey showed off some recent customer showcases, presented the roadmap with new features for the upcoming version, and gave an overview of the direction of the Claris platform.
In the session “AI in FileMaker,” Claris presented the new AI features using practical examples such as RAG or locally hosted LLMs. They also presented “Claris MCP,” a new feature that is still in development and will be released soon. This feature allows scripts from your own FileMaker solutions to be made available to external AI agents such as Claude, ChatGPT, or Cursor. Robert Holsey and Lui de la Parra showed demos and explained the MCP interface in detail.
This was followed by a colorful bouquet of interesting and substantial sessions, with a clear focus on AI topics once again.
The topics in detail
Highlights included
- The integration of AI-generated user interfaces in the FileMaker Web Viewer by Stathis Askaridis.
- Explanations of how fine-tuning, RAG, and LLM servers work by Nicolas Franco Cerame
- The presentation of the AI integration tool “Proof Chat” by Todd Geist with a series of lessons from the development of the tool
- Semantic search using AI embeddings to clean up duplicate records by David Weiner
- A didactically very well-done presentation of various AI topics such as fine-tuning, RAG, and MCP by Wim DeCorte, which provided a great deal of clarity with good examples and metaphors
In addition, there were other AI topics:
- Ethics + AI by Sara Severson
- A Strategic Framework for Choosing High-Impact Use Cases by Ian Jempson
- Introduction to RAG with self-hosted models by Cristina Álvarez Dávila
- Zero-Schema Reporting via AI by Priyabrata Sahoo
- Application of Regression Models by Koen Van Hulle and Mireia Llauradó
- AI-enhanced vibe coding in FM BetterForms by Charles Delfs
- AI-Driven Prototyping by Mark Allen and Rob Speakman
But a wide range of topics beyond AI were also covered, including
- FileMaker XML by David Wikström
- Securing FileMaker Servers Against DDoS Attacks by Claus Lavendt
- 360Works MirrorSync by Jesse Barnum
- Data Archiving in the Cloud by Johan Hedman
- Claris Studio and Claris Connect by Marcelo Piñeyro
- Interactive SVG Maps in Web Viewer by Javier Dura
- Hardware Integration and Automation by HOnza Koudelka
- Application Architecture by Albert Harum-Alvarez
- FileMaker Server TopCallStats by Tomas Hammar
- Multi-window Applications by Jan Zelenka
- New “Found Sets” features by Fabrice Nordmann
- Performance Lab by HOnza Koudelka
- Implementation of e-invoicing in Europe and other continents by Leslie Audigane
- Design patterns by Pearson Huguenin
- UI visual hierarchy by Alexis Allen
- DevOps best practices with “Devin” by David Wollesen
- Integration of FileMaker and n8n by Philipp Puls
- New MBS Functions by Christian Schmitz
- Claris Studio Custom Views by Joris Aarts
- Perform Script on Server by Steve Winter
- iOS Widgets for Real-time Dashboards by Vincenzo Menanno
- OData by John Renfrew
Community & Networking
On Monday evening, there was a festive dinner at the conference hotel. The large event hall was redecorated and furnished with stylishly set tables under the huge chandelier in the middle of the hall. Accompanied by subtle live music on stage and a 3-course menu served at the tables, there was ample opportunity to engage in intensive conversation with the other participants.
The conference was rounded off on Tuesday afternoon with a panel discussion moderated by FileMaker veteran and podcast legend Matt Navarre. Panelists Todd Geist, Sara Severson, and Robert Holsey from Claris answered questions, provided assessments, and were asked to answer the hypothetical question: “What would you do if you had one wish for the FileMaker platform that was guaranteed to be implemented?” All in all, very exciting insights from different perspectives!
At the end of the conference, the closing session included numerous acknowledgments and an overview of the event, enriched with photos and a fun raffle where gifts from the sponsors were raffled off among the participants still present. The main prize was a conference ticket for next year.
Conclusion
Overall, EngageU once again impressed with its balanced concept, diverse and high-quality presentations, a very professional setup, and the organization and accommodation of participants in a conference hotel that was well suited for the purpose. The exhibition area, located directly between the lecture rooms, offered the opportunity to visit the sponsors‘ stands and chat with other participants during the coffee breaks.
Those who found time to explore the city in addition to the substantial program were rewarded with the charming atmosphere and bustling activity in the narrow streets of Antwerp’s old town around the cathedral and town hall square.
A big thank you goes to everyone who made this special event possible!
If you are interested in more details, have a look at the conference website:
https://engageu.eu/