Thursday, June 18, 2009
Rethinking MAX BOFs
"
BOF" stands for "Birds of a Feather", and MAX
BOF sessions are informal meetings on a variety of subjects. Unlike core MAX sessions,
BOFs are usually not driven by Adobe and the MAX team. Rather, the community defines topics of interest, and MAX provides facilities and publicity to drive attendance. Most
BOFs are focused around core products and technologies, but many are on other topics. Again,
BOFs are driven by the community.
We've hosted
BOFs for a long time, ever since
Allaire DevCon days. But over the years
BOFs have evolved ...
- Year ago we added "Meet the Team" sessions, free-form open discussions like BOFs, but giving MAX attendees a chance to face product teams and ask, comment, criticize, suggest, and more. The "Meet the Team" sessions have become so popular and well attended that BOF attendance has suffered as a result.
- Then, as the number of products represented at MAX grew, so did the number of "Meet the Team" sessions. This resulted in fewer available rooms for BOFs, and thus fewer BOFs, despite growing attendance and greater attendee diversity.
- And on top of all that, the BOF schedules have had to change. We used to have BOFs on two nights and at two time slots each night. But in recent years we had to scale back to one night to accommodate the expanded MAX schedule. And last year the one night of BOFs started later, again because of MAX scheduling, which caused the second time slot to run way past 10:00pm, and that hurt BOF participation even more.
Still,
BOFs are an important part of the MAX experience, and so we've been brainstorming
BOF alternatives to better serve our attendees. And as such, this year we're going to try something quite different.
Lunch time is a full hour in the middle of the day, well, in the middle of all three days, actually. There are no sessions scheduled during lunch time, and just about every MAX attendee is in the lunch room. So what if we moved
BOFs to lunch time? We'd have the big open seating area we usually have, but would also have part of the room sectioned off, round lunch tables in each, and signage designating what group is eating lunch together where. Attendees could get their lunch, head to a specific area, and then meet and chat while eating. The atmosphere would be easy and relaxed, attendees would get fed, and we could accommodate lots more
BOFs over the three days of MAX. We'd leave the "Meet the Team" sessions as they are, in the evening, but move all
BOFs to lunch time.
We've not hammered out all of the details yet, this is a work in progress. Still, we're interested in your thoughts on the dilemma and the proposed solution.
Labels: Adobe MAX, Birds of a Feather, BOF
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
MAX 2009 Announced
SAN JOSE, Calif.-
Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) today announced
MAX 2009 registration is open. Registrants can now
sign up for MAX 2009 sessions and labs. Adobe MAX is where the world’s most influential designers, developers and business decision makers gather to shape the future of engaging experiences and gain a competitive edge through intensive design/develop skills sessions and unique networking opportunities. This year, MAX will run from Oct. 4-7 at the Los Angeles Convention Center in Los Angeles.
“We are in a time of significant disruption and businesses are grappling with how technology will play in their strategies to survive and thrive”
Under the “Connect. Discover. Inspire.” theme, MAX 2009 will explore three emerging technology trends that are changing the landscape of communications: social computing, cloud computing and the expansion of rich content and video across mobile phones and other devices. MAX 2009 will feature keynotes from Adobe chief executive officer Shantanu Narayen, Adobe chief technology officer Kevin Lynch and other industry luminaries, as well as technology sneak-peeks, technical sessions, hands-on labs and exhibits.
Quote:
Kevin Lynch, Adobe chief technology officer“We are in a time of significant disruption and businesses are grappling with how technology will play in their strategies to survive and thrive,” said Kevin Lynch, Adobe chief technology officer. “MAX will bring together some of the brightest minds in design, development and business to discuss how our industry is transforming, and learn new techniques and best practices that will fuel the next generation of rich applications.”
MAX 2009 offers
three tracks of more than 200 sessions and 100 hands-on labs. The Envision track is where decision-makers managing digital experience design and development projects can learn best practices and tested strategies from other organizations. The Design track will dive into the art and science of designing across media, including Web, interactive, video, mobile and print. In the Develop track, developers will learn best practices for architecting, building and deploying next-generation Web, mobile and enterprise applications.
MAX programs back by popular demand include:
BYOL (Bring Your Own Laptop) Labs provides engaging, educational and hands-on sessions for attendees to learn new skills with Adobe software.
Unconference discussions — participant-driven, casual presentations on important design and develop business topics.
Russell Brown@MAX, which is the essential
Adobe® Photoshop® Master Class — a three-day, hands-on course bringing together top art directors, designers, illustrators and photographers to learn advanced imaging tips and techniques.
New this year:
LiveCycle@MAX bundle offers one and a half days of preconference training on the fundamentals of Adobe LiveCycle® ES. Attendees will also receive a full conference pass to MAX 2009, including LiveCycle developer sessions and labs that offer in-depth training on the next release of
LiveCycle ES.
2009 MAX AwardsThe call for entries is now open for the 2009 MAX Awards, which recognizes the best use of Adobe products and technologies for creating engaging experiences. All entries must be submitted online at:
www.adobemaxsubmission.com/submission. The entry deadline is July 31, 2009.
Finalists and winners will be selected in each of these categories:
Advertising and Branding
Education
Enterprise Productivity
Entertainment
Mobile
Public Sector
Social Networking
Social Responsibility
New this year, category winners will be selected by public online voting. Online voting will open two weeks prior to MAX 2009. The top three finalists in each category will attend MAX to showcase their entries. To see last year's winners and finalists, visit the
2008 MAX Award Winners & Finalist Gallery. The 2009 MAX Award winners will be announced at the MAX Awards ceremony on Oct. 6 in the Nokia Theatre.
RegistrationTo register for MAX 2009, visit the
MAX 2009 registration page. Register before Aug. 31, 2009 to qualify for the early bird discount.
Exhibits and SponsorshipFor additional information on sponsorship and promotional opportunities at MAX 2009,
visit the Sponsor MAX page and complete the sponsorship inquiry form.
Helpful LinksMAX 2009MAX 2009 Registration PageMAX 2009 Sessions and TracksMAX 2009 AwardsMAX ArchivesFollow MAX 2009MAX 2009 BlogMAX 2009 on TwitterMAX 2009 on FacebookAbout Adobe Systems IncorporatedAdobe revolutionizes how the world engages with ideas and information – anytime, anywhere and through any medium. For more information, visit www.adobe.com.
© 2009 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights reserved. Adobe, the Adobe logo, Flash and LiveCycle are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated in the United States and/or other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
Monday, June 15, 2009
Nominate a great project you know of for a 2009 MAX Award! Send the details, project and creator’s name, into the MAX Award team and we will contact the creator to enter the competition.
Click here to nominate another project.
Thursday, June 11, 2009
MAX Update: Speaker Selection, Unconferences, BOFs, Registration
We are well underway with MAX planning now and I wanted to give an update on our progress.
Speaker Selection
We had over 800 proposed sessions and labs and we selected 100 for presentation at Adobe MAX 2009. It was a very tough year for sessions selection given the high quality of the proposals. It is my hope that many of the sessions will be presented at the MAX Unconferences being organized now.
Unconferences
We have 5 unconferences this year and have been working with the event leaders on shaping these sessions. The unconference sessions will be presented in an enclosed area of the exposition hall where each venue will be easily accessible to the expo but private. The unconference leadership includes 360Flex, FiTC, Ray Camden (ColdFusion), SoDA - Society of Design Agencies. Special thanks for all the support in building out these great sessions from the community.
Birds of a Feather & Meet the Teams
We will be organizing the BOF/MTT sessions soon. We will have a call for BOF sessions in the next week in partnership with this years organizer Greg Wilson. Greg is a evangelist at Adobe and is working closely with the product teams to make BOF/MTT evening the best yet. More to follow.
Registration
MAX Registration launched last week and we have over 100 registration booked to date in the first week. The early pricing puts MAX at $1295 but with community user group discounts you can get the price down to $1099 for a limited time.
Cheers,
Ted :)
Friday, May 1, 2009
MAX 2009 Site Visit
On Tuesday 32 members of the
MAX team visited Los Angeles Convention Center (LACC) and
LA Live in preparation for
MAX. The site visit is the first time we get the entire team together and we go through every detail of how to organize the physical event into the space.
LA Live and LACC are at the center of a revitalization project in downtown Los Angeles. Over the past 3 years nearly all the surrounding buildings have been renovated and many new lots apartments have sprung up. The center sits in 4 parts, LACC (big convention center), Staples Arena (Where the LA Lakers play), Nokia Theater (concert hall), and
LA Live (restaurants and entertainment venues). One thing that stood out this year is Nokia theater. It is easily the largest space we have ever done keynotes/awards/sneaks in and it should be a great venue.
We really have a great team working on
MAX this year and combined with a great venue,
MAX 2009 will be the best one yet.
See you at MAX 2009!Cheers,
Ted :)
