Adobe MAX NA 2008 - The calm before the storm!
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Published
Sunday, November 16, 2008
at
9:27 AM
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I have been working on MAX for over 7 months now and to see it all come together in the last few days has really been an amazing experience. We have made some substantial changes this year to the event to make this the best MAX yet.
Here are some of the things we did differently this year:
Camps & Camp Managers - In terms of choosing sessions and speakers, MAX has long had a private process that is not open and far from ideal. This year we selected 35 people to represent the interest groups of the skills, products, and technologies that make up MAX. These "camps", as we called them, are focused on selecting the best sessions for the "camp" interest. "Camp managers" were required to select sessions from the proposed session list and internal speakers had to apply through the same process as others. These changes are the foundation of MAX moving to a fully open process for session and speaker selection at MAX 2009. The result this year is the best set of sessions and speakers we have ever assembled. It is my hope that session quality exceeds your expectations.
Unconferences - We added 4 unconferences to MAX from leading 3rd party conference events, where the attendees can present barcamp style. During all 3 days of sessions there is an entire hall devoted to the community speaking about Flex, AIR, Design, Agency consulting, and ColdFusion. It is really great to see the larger ecosystem surrounding Adobe have 4 places to present at MAX. It is quite a change from the MAXUP I organized in the hall at MAX 2006 in Las Vegas and it should be a great addition.
Session Recording - We need to reach more designers and developers with MAX. This year we are recording all 290 sessions and we will be posting these online for broad syndication on AdobeTV weeks after the event. The recordings capture the presenter screen and house audio and they make for ideal training material. We will be posting these for free without geo-restriction on AdobeTV.
No duplicate sessions - Given we are recording the event and session rooms hold, on average, 300 people, we are only repeating a few sessions. This provides attendees with more content to choose from and a better onsite experience. If you miss a session, attendees can view it in the Adobe MAX Online Group at our new Groups site on Adobe.com and AdobeTV.
Adobe Groups - We are launching a new social network centered on the Adobe User Group community. There are 400+ user groups on groups.adobe.com and we have a group dedicated to MAX NA, MAX EU, and MAX JP. I will be covering this more in the MAX Day 2 keynote.
Keynotes - We have 2 amazing days of keynote in store. The speakers and demos are the best I have every seen in a MAX keynote. Let's just say that the Flash Platform is alive and doing very very well.
See you at MAX!
Ted :)
What is the plan for posting the keynotes online? It would be nice to have a live stream like Microft did for PDC.
For the folks who could not attend the event, posting the max session videos on AdobeTV is the best thing you could do!
I cannot thank you enough...
I've been watching all the flex 360 videos and they are gold! I even archived the videos in case I need to refer to some of them later...
Great idea regarding posting the content. The group site looks great and will be really useful. Thanks.
Ted,
I've really enjoyed the conference, but I've been frustrated that I can't get into sessions I haven't registered for. I know that sounds bizarre, but after seeing the keynote, I decided I wanted to substitute a Thermo session for one of my other sessions. However, after patiently waiting for all the registrants to get seated, I was told we were not allowed in, in spite of the ample amount of standing room in the back. I have no problem standing, especially for a class I didn't register, for, but being prohibited from entering the class is absurd and very disappointing.
-Jon
hi Ted
It's really great to hear that you'll be recording all the sessions. This will be perfect for those of us outside of the US that are unable to attended (should complain that we have too much work to find any free time I suppose)
I hope you can get the sessions up as soon as possible.
If they're done the same way you have with 360Flex then I'll be very happy.
Thanks again Ted, maybe one of these times I'll be able to find the time to attend and hook up.
cheers mate
glenn
tinylion development uk