Adobe MAX 2010 best conference I've ever attended

Let me talk about different aspects of the conference, so that you can get a feel for how great this was. From the hospitality side, there were helpful guides everywhere you went. People with signs and clipboards and smiles, so that you could easily find your way to the proper place for the next great thing. I had many conversations with these docents over the week, and they were as pleasant at 7:00 am as they were at 10:00 pm. Yes, it's LA and everyone's in show biz, but great job with the staffing.

We were well fed, and not with piles of junk food and beef jerky like I've seen at previous MAX conferences. Fruit, beverages, and sweets in moderation for snacks, pizza and beer when appropriate, and great party food for the mixers. The Grab and Go breakfast of coffee and donuts was the only thing I found lacking, and opted for Starbuck's breakfast. No strikes against MAX, though, since I wasn't expecting breakfast anyway.

As for venue, the LA Convention Center is a huge facility with a tremendous number of classrooms, meeting rooms and exhibit spaces. Every room had ample seating, clear views of the presenters, and good audio support. I had the privilege of working with Patti Sokol as a TA for some of her classes, and the classes went very smoothly with help from the event technical staff.

As an Adobe Community Professional, I was treated like a king. We had access to the front of the general sessions, so I got to sit in the third row and be close enough to the speakers to hear them without amplification. 

Now. About the content of the show...

Wow.

Just that.

Wow.

The general sessions revealed technology for mobile, video and web that will keep Adobe ahead of the pack for years to come, despite the buzz over HTML5 and CSS3. When the dust settles, businesses will continue to require proven, protected delivery methods that can help them make money, not just stream videos for free. We saw content displayed on tablets from Apple, RIM, Samsung, and others. In fact, it was almost like a pharmaceutical convention with all the tablets!Kevin Lynch, with the help of Martha Stewart (whom I met and with whom I had a very nice conversation in the lobby of the JW Marriott after the general session) demonstrated new publishing technologies for those tablets as well. Seeing the InDesign logo on stage during the General Session was a big boost for my confidence in Adobe's plans for traditional design and print.

Of course, the fact that they gave everyone a Droid 2 and a Logitech Google TV unit helped to keep enthusiasm levels high.

You can review many of the sessions athttp://tv.adobe.com/channel/max/max-2010/ Adobe TV's MAX 2010 Channel. You can learn more than you'll ever want to know about the Flash platform, Flash Builder, Flash Catalyst, and Flash on mobile and television. You'll also learn about what's coming in the next year or two, and get a sense of what Adobe's partners like RIM, Google, Motorola, and others are doing with these technologies to raise their devices to a whole new level of astonishing.

I went to many sessions and labs over the week, and was most impressed by two distinctly different technologies: AIR for TV and a preview of a possible new web design tool.

I was fortunate enough to get into one of the Make Your First AIR for TV application sessions, and spent an hour creating a quick Flash movie, exporting to AIR, and getting it to play on a Television set top box. We got to keep the developer set top box as an incentive to go and create some apps, so I just may have to do that. I also went to a Samsung talk about the future of AIR on their televisions and Blu-Ray players. I firmly believe that having Flash and AIR on these set top boxes and Blu-Ray devices will make Televisions the next iPhones when it comes to apps. Adobe also unveiled its InMarket service, which helps developers get their apps into a broad array of app stores. I plan to take advantage of this myself, and while I don't expect to get rich with a TV app, it might just pay the cable bill.

I saw a preview of a new web design tool for graphic designers. I am not sure how much I can say about it, so I won't say much. I will say that it is definitely a game changer for helping traditional designers transition to designing for the Web. I overheard more than one "oh... my... God!" and "Can I have this NOW??" and "Where has this been all my life?" comments during the session. Keep your eyes open for something wonderful from Adobe for Designers.

After the show, I felt more than inspired to be in this business. I felt uplifted and reinvigorated. The bickering over Flash and HTML5 has been draining all around. To see how exciting technology can be and how wonderful the results of innovation can be when great tools are put to work by smart people makes the trip to LA and MAX 2010 the best conference I have ever attended. Period.