It’s been so long – a few years actually – since I published a blog post in the events category! I’m very happy to be back and to report about Adobe MAX, a conference I was SO lucky to attend. I’m not even lying, I had the time of my life! Ok, ok, it’s just a conference, but it was GREAT.
I was invited to the event as a few months ago, I became an Adobe Express Ambassador! I am looking forward to sharing more about Adobe Express on my blog and social media, as it truly makes creativity accessible to everyone – including me!
What is Adobe MAX?
Adobe MAX is a creativity conference organized by Adobe each year to share the recent advances in their products. It usually lasts 3 days and is organized in Los Angeles, California. The virtual event is accessible for free online, and some of the keynotes and talks are also available on Adobe’s website. There are 9 tracks, so there is a ton of content and sessions to attend! Tracks subjects include UI and UX, photography, social media & marketing, and more.
What is Adobe Express?
Adobe Express is an online editor for all your quick design needs! Try it, it could make you switch from Canva! You can quickly create many graphics like social media stories and posts from templates in seconds. Some features are free, and some others are paid. If you already use Creative Cloud, you can access all the features with your subscription!
Monday – October 17th, 2022
The Adobe MAX conference officially starts on Tuesday, but as I came with Adobe Express, I was attending an Adobe Express Ambassadors summit from 12 pm. We had presentations about the software & some sneak peeks of features to come, as well as short presentations from fellow ambassadors about how to cultivate creativity and how to be a good ambassador.
After that, was my favorite part of the summit: a focus group with Adobe employees to talk about different subjects. The 70-ish ambassadors were divided into multiple tables and each table had different subjects. At my table, we talked about Creative Cloud and Streaming. Adobe employees were asking us questions and feedback to start the discussion and we were all sharing our opinions on the topic. I loved it because at work, I was actually reading up on how to conduct good focus groups, therefore, it was interesting to be on the other side of the table!
Tuesday – October 18th, 2022
Tuesday was the first day of Adobe MAX. It started with a great, beautiful, amazing opening keynote. Imagine those big companies’ keynote we watch all the time, but you’re there. You’re in the first 10-ish rows. Wow. I had the time of my life – I’m so grateful for the experience!
In case you’re thinking of attending Adobe Max, please be aware that you need to book the sessions you’re planning to attend months in advance. I would say I booked my sessions 1.5-2 months in advance, and there were a lot of sessions that were full for Tuesday! That being said, I only attended one session on Tuesday: Using Metrics to Build a Successful Social Media Strategy, by Andy Lambert.
It was an interesting talk, where I learned about the metric “Share of voice”. The speaker was suggesting brands should use that metric instead of engagement or impressions. It is a measure of how much of the market a brand owns compared to its competitors.
The rest of my day consisted of visiting the booths. There was a lot! I even got to print 2 custom t-shirts. On one, we were printing using ink, and on the other one, we could print a picture or a design made in photoshop. I decided to be cheesy and print a picture of my boyfriend and me in Beverly Hills. 🙂
Wednesday – October 19th, 2022
Wednesday was my day full of talks. I started by running to make it for an 8 am lab: Building Your Brand on Social Media with After Effects. The lab was of high quality. It was easy to follow, teacher assistants were always right behind you when you needed help, and a 40-pages workbook was provided to follow. I was able to learn about small features of After Effects, like WARP stabilization. I had to leave early to secure a spot for the Inspiration Keynote!
Inspiration Keynote
The Inspiration Keynote consisted of 5 people taking on the stage for 20 minutes:
- Steve Aoki, Grammy-nominated Artist, DJ, Producer
- Siân Heder, Academy Award–Winning Writer and Director
- Jeff Koons, Artist
- Cristina Mittermeier, Photographer, Conservationist, and Biologist
- Kadir Nelson, Author, Artist, and Speaker
This keynote was great. It was inspiring, I was even brought to tears at a moment.
Siân shared about the making of CODA, and how the film was initially set to be produced by a big name. They wanted her to cast non-deaf actors for some roles. She really wanted to be true to the movie, so she would not change her mind on casting deaf actors only – and as she feared, it led to the movie being dropped. A director had an exit package from the company and left with the rights to produce the movie, leading to success as we know it today! It was very inspiring to learn more about it and how to keep going when you truly believe in your project even if it might mean the end of it, for a while at least.
Cristina Mittermeier shared about her time as a photographer at National Geographic, and how she saw the degradation of the ocean. She has now co-founded SeaLegacy, an organization that aims to use art and science to communicate the importance of protecting the ocean for the benefit of biodiversity, humanity, and the climate within our lifetimes. She shared a slide saying how Americans do not donate nearly enough to environmental causes, especially oceans, and how it needs to change.
Kadir Nelson and Jeff Koons both shared their personal journey and what led them to create their art. It was very inspiring, and I highly recommend you to watch the full Inspiration Keynote. It is 5 talks of 20 minutes, it is so worth it!
More talks from Adobe MAX
After the keynote, I attended more talks!
- Leveraging Social Media to Build a Six-Figure Business, with Sharon Tseung
- Jumping into UI and UX with Adobe XD and Creative Cloud, with Daniel Scott (where I was able to build a prototype using XD for the first time in my life! Woohoo!)
Adobe Sneaks
I thought it couldn’t get better after the Inspiration Keynote… I was wrong! Adobe Sneaks was WOW! I don’t have enough English vocabulary – can you see how much fun Adobe MAX was?
All of the 6000 attendees arrive at the Microsoft Theater, and we are served beer and full-sized candy bars like we’re going to the movies, but it’s all free! Then, we get to learn about all the surprising and impressive features Adobe Labs are working on – many of which must be based on machine learning and AI (Adobe Sensei), to be able to deliver very impressive features.
Adobe Sneaks is accessible online. If you want to be impressed while drinking your morning coffee, this is the video to watch!
Conclusion
If you were still doubting it – I had an incredible time attending Adobe MAX. I sincerely hope I will be invited again next year, because I felt so lucky to be able to attend! If you’re ever thinking of going, please go!