MAX 2008 Speaker Benefits
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Published
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
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In my role of MAX Content Lead, I manage speakers and session content for MAX North America, Europe, and Japan. As an event we need to provide benefits to our speakers who contribute to MAX and make the event great. Today a respected speaker blogged about our seemingly inconsistent policy, so I wanted to clear the air and explain. Lets start with the benefits for speakers at MAX 2008:
1. MAX Conference Pass and Meals
2. Hotel during MAX
3. Session recording, and video syndication. (500x larger audience)
4. Gift for Speakers
Last year I obtained an additional $20K to spend on MAX 2007 and I chose to spend money to get speakers who were traveling a great distance to MAX. We got Geoff (AU), Aral (UK), and several other “Inspire Speakers” to MAX but I was very discrete about the travel arrangements. It is actually my fault that things were inconsistent last year but I wanted MAX to be a better event and I thought that helping speakers traveling great distances was the right thing to do. This year we decided to make the speaker benefits consistent, so we ended the inconsistent and exclusive policy of assisting with some speakers travel.
In talking with speakers, the primary benefit of speaking at MAX is exposure and this year we are underway with plans to greatly expand the reach of MAX online. I have been working with a small team to record all sessions (400+ hours) at MAX worldwide and we will be releasing the content for free online over time (immediately for attendees) in a new video portal currently in development. MAX as a venue globally this year will reach 10,000 attendees live in person but there are potentially 10,000,000 designers and developers who would benefit greatly with access to the content. As a benefit for those speaking at MAX and to expand the reach of Adobe tools and technologies, we will be recording MAX NA, Europe, and Japan and other events like 360Flex and AJAX Experience.
Overall I feel very strongly that we have improved speaker benefits year over year but I can understand other perspectives on the matter. I really want to make MAX a better event for all attendees and expand the reach of our events for everyone's benefit. MAX is an investment for Adobe and choosing where and how to best invest year over year is really hard. If we chose to do one thing it is often at the expense of another budget-wise. This year we are focused on making the benefits consistent for every speaker and expanding the event viewership. Ideally these changes will benefit the designer/developer community and the entire ecosystem of customers leveraging Adobe tools and technologies.
If you have any feedback regarding speaker benefits or our policy towards speakers, I am always listening at ted@adobe.com.
See you at MAX 2008!
Regards,
Ted Patrick
MAX Content Lead
Adobe Systems
Hey Ted, an interesting point there. You said, "the primary benefit of speaking at MAX is exposure". I think that really points out the difference between MAX and some other conferences.
I think most individual speakers like myself, Aral, Seb, etc. could care less about exposure. I mean, sure, it's nice to say you spoke at MAX, but it's not worth spending thousands of dollars to say that. For us, the payment is getting to go to a conference without having to shell out the expenses involved.
I think the speakers who are interested in exposure are those that have something to promote or sell. So you get a lot more corporate speakers telling you about their product or service. Even if they are talking about something more general, they are there as a representative of their company and there will probably be promotional value in them being up there.
I'm not saying that's a bad thing at all. Just very different than speakers who are speaking just because they want to share something cool.
I've sent my proposal for MAX Europe on RIA Project Management based in a research I made and I didn't receive any comments or anything... just saw in the Adobe MAX Website that I wasn't a speaker /rant ;)
Pablo, I would not be certain that you are not speaking. I submitted my proposal and it seemed to go into a black hole. Yesterday I followed up and was told that I am on and that I will receive details next week!
I also agree with Keith. Most of us are lucky enough to be so bogged down with work that we often try to avoid exposure. I'm (hopefully) speaking at MAX simply because I enjoy being there and giving something back. But make no mistake: even with getting free pass and hotel it's still an expense. But one worth taking.
People who present for exposure are - like Keith said - probably there to push another agenda.
Anyway, I think it's a good idea to have one consistent policy for speakers. We may not all be inspirational, but we all add value.
I commented on Seb's post with my thoughts on the subject.
http://www.sebleedelisle.com/?p=229#comment-108946
When my schedule cleared for December (originally couldn't make it) was happy to do MAX Milan regardless of the speaker travel compensation. Was told from various different Adobe sources (up until earlier today) that all slots were filled while I now see you offering Seb an opportunity to speak in Milan if he reconsiders.
Seb would be a great person to have speak at MAX Milan for sure but I would appreciate some more transparency in the process.
Many of us spend a fair bit of our time and money presenting at conferences and essentially evangelizing Adobe products for free and sometimes honestly you have to wonder why we bother.
Yeah I totally agree with Keith. Nicely put :-) More discussion over at http://www.sebleedelisle.com/?p=229
To be fair Peter, they did actually ask me several weeks ago. And I told them then what I thought about their expenses policy and how it compared unfavourably with other equivalent conferences. So I expect they kept my space open for me this time. It's just a shame they didn't officially respond to me until I went public!
True Seb, that is probably what happened there -- I'll be trying to make it to Milan as an attendee nonetheless.
See you at Flash on the Beach.
Oh c'mon Keith and the rest of you speaker slash commenters. You all have blogs. You all have ads on your blogs. Some of you are authors. You are pushing the agenda of yourselves. It's disingenuous to say you sign up to be a speaker simply for a free ticket to the conference. Some conferences pay for speakers because without speakers there is no conference ... and that is all they CAN offer. Part of the business plan. I guess Max has a different business plan. About this whole issue I can say that I don't give a rats patooty (unless of course I am a speaker). And I can say un-categorically that I want to see all of you speak at conferences I go to.
now this is a new topic! Let me see if I can add something new.
I think Pablo's point about the propsoal process is fair. Honestly, the process is odd and seemingly for show only--in fact, I'll bet somewhere around 0% of the speakers actually proposed a session through the formal process. As I recall, it's always been "topic; name; then, don't call us, we'll call you". Do you have any insider info on that?
I think you all send out "Dear John "letters right? So, that's better than some conferences.
Okay, so without repeating myself TOO much, let me just point out that I haven't heard a good rational for why speakers employed by Adobe get their travel expenses paid while those outside don't.
One more repeat: you're helping MAX Ted... your job just isn't done yet.
Randy, sorry but I tell it like it is. Ads I may have, but do you really think that's what I have in mind when speaking? Surely not.
"I've sent my proposal for MAX Europe on RIA Project Management based in a research I made and I didn't receive any comments or anything... just saw in the Adobe MAX Website that I wasn't a speaker /rant ;)"
I'm in the exact same situation. I suggested doing a session on FluorineFx and never heard anything (not even after asking once more). So I'm not asking for travel compensation - but a simple 'no, we're not interested in the .NET community using Flex to build front-ends' would have been enough.
Something I discovered is that you might have to be an ACE (Adobe Certified Expert) before you're even considered. In the mean time I became certified so if you're still interested in the .NET community feel free to let me know.
@pablo_ash and @stoem - The transparancy of the selection process is a very good point. It would just be nice to get an email back saying "Thanks for your proposal, but maybe next year" - instead of hearing from other people that they've been invited to speak. Same happened to me in the MAX Awards 2006 and 2007 and several times in the MAX CFP - just NO response at all, which I'm inclined to nearly call "rude".
I acknowledge the work and effort Ted is putting into making MAX a better conference, but as @phillip has mentioned - the work is by far not done yet.
To contribute something to the original discussion... There are different conferences around with organizers having plenty of different agendas and that's fair enough.
I'm a regular speaker at MXDU/webDU for instance. For the first three instances of the event I've travelled to AU from Europe - to combine it with a holiday, agree - the "only" payment a free ticket, gifts for the speakers, but the most important thing which has me made come back every single year: the way how Geoff and Julie run the event and the love the provide to make it a great experience for their speakers. At some point webDU has started to support their speakers with some free hotel nights or the opportunity to cover parts of the travel cost by running a pre-conference workshop, which is great. But to make my point - if that was not the case and if I would even have to pay for my ticket - I'd still go and speak there.
DevCon and MAX never managed to get to such a level of "love" for their speakers - which is understandable because it's a corporate event after all. So, all respect to Ted's work for having made MAX to what it is now, great effort.
But particularly given that Adobe is a corporate and that it's basically the annual big show of the mother ship, I can totally see where people are coming from and why people expect some sort of payment. Even if Adobe makes a loss with MAX due to paying speakers expenses, it's a marketing expense after all.
Also, keep in mind that as an attendee one could vote with his/her feet by not attending and/or by providing conference feedback and by telling them that the non-paid-own-agenda-corporate-speaker sessions sucked (if they really do, which is some sort of an assumption).
Consistency does not equate to improvement. Granting travel expenses to all speakers would be an improvement as well as consistent. Skimping on the travel expenses is like having the speakers attend a dinner party where the dessert served is Crème brûlée but the main course is a hot dog.
There needs to be a greater level of empathy from Adobe on what speakers sacrifice in order to promote Adobe's products at a conference. Most speakers have day jobs, and some companies may require vacation or personal days to be taken while attending MAX. Those of us who contract will be unable to spend those days working on a client project or drumming up business.
I'd expect adding in travel expenses, with your enumerated list of benefits, would be on par (if not still cheaper) than a TV spot or magazine advertisement.
Adobe runs TV ads? On Lifetime?
I think some are over dramatizing the opportunity cost of speaking. If you don't want the exposure, don't speak. Speaking get's exposure, it get's book deals, it gets consulting assignments, etc. if you don't want those benefits, and don't feel compelled to "give back", then don't. I think speaking simply because you want a free ride to the conference is kinda weak.
I can't fault adobe for not paying travel. travel is expensive and hard to manage.
One thing would be interesting. mmmmm maybe if your session survey results are 3.5 and above, or 4 and up or something, you get reimbursed? Might prevent speakers from phoning it in, and ensure a bit more effort going into the preso.
Just a thought that popped in, LOL.
I disagree with @keith that those looking for exposure are looking to schill for their company. I suppose at MAX that might be more the case, but in my experience it's definitely not. It IS developers schilling their frameworks, their skills, their projects, etc. And in many cases, it's just developers wanting to give back, because they think they have something of value to share.
John Wilker: Whether Adobe is currently executing an Ad campaign on TV, or magazines is not my point; Adobe has run ads on these mediums which are expensive. (Regarding TV just search "Adobe Commercial" on YouTube to see results.)
I agree with you that "travel is expensive and hard to manage" but my point has been that it's less expensive than launching an advertising campaign. And both a conference and an ad campaign serve Adobe.
I'm sorry if I alluded to anyone not wanting exposure, but that also wasn't my point. I would be surprised if any MAX speaker wouldn't want additional exposure, but that exposure doesn't ameliorate the incurred time & expense of the speaker.
I understand a conference is very hard to execute; I am glad that MAX is happening and videos of the speakers will be provided to those who cannot make it. Your and my opinions aside, I observe that if some of the (candidates to be) speakers are raising the issue; it would be in Adobe's best interest to recognize the valuation speakers place on this particular expense, and sacrifice other aspects of the conference to make it happen.
P.S. I would hope that if any speakers "phone it in" that they would not be asked back in future years. Basing pay on performance for a volunteer service opens a whole different can of worms.
John, the comparison to Flex360 is interesting but not entirely valid.
You say speaker travel expenses are both expensive and "hard to manage". Well, I wonder how Adobe shipped all those employee speakers to MAX in Chicago? I'm sure they took care of and paid for that themselves--you think?
As for the point about "if you don't want to speak, don't speak". I agree. No one is saying "well, they told me I had to speak and then they wouldn't pay for my travel.. boo hoo". In my case, I'm simply trying to offer Adobe some honest advice that they wouldn't look like such cheapskates if they paid for everything. I'm not sure if the reason they don't is that they don't think that's appropriate; they don't think they can afford it; or (what I THINK is the reason) that they have a greedy accountant in the house.
I mean, seriously, what is the reason? Hopefully it's not "we're just a poor company doing this as a community service and simply can't afford to pay $300-$2000 per speaker (unless they work for us)... we'd like to but we just can't (because I don't buy that).
I think it is obvious to all that we cannot change MAX overnight. The reality is that overtime MAX will get better and there are plans in place to make that happen in partnership with the community.
Believe it or not but there are really awesome people who work at Adobe. We all want to do the right thing for our customers and are just as passionate about making great products as you are about creating great experiences.
I really appreciate the open questioning of how we do things. We certainly do not get it right all the time but over time we listen and change for the better. Thanks for being passionate, it matters.
Regards,
Ted Patrick
Adobe MAX
Hi Ted
You talk of making speaker benefits consistent. How about also making speaker costs consistent? Why should it cost one speaker more than another to present at your conference simply because of where they live? By paying travel expenses you ensure that it costs all speakers the same to attend your conference.